R. Kelly, Hoping To Avoid Lengthy Prison Term Hires Bill Cosby’s Lawyer To Appeal His Conviction
Embattled R&B singer R. Kelly, who was convicted on charges of sex trafficking racketeering last month is trying to fight his way out of prison and he has reportedly getting help from the lawyer who helped to free comedian Bill Cosby.
According to The Chicago Tribune, Kelly’s legal team hired Jennifer Bonjean, whose appeal of Cosby’s sex abuse case resulted in the Pennsylvania Supreme Court vacating his conviction. She reportedly appeared in the U.S. District Court in Brooklyn on Oct. 29 to register and will push for a new trial.
Kelly, 54, is expected to be sentenced on May 4, 2022 after a Brooklyn, N.Y., jury found him guilty in September of eight counts of violating the Mann Act, an anti-sex-trafficking statute, and one count of racketeering. He is facing 10 years to life imprisonment.
But Bonjean told the Tribune that she is “becoming increasingly concerned with how the government is abusing the RICO statute in order to plead around the statute of limitations and essentially put people’s entire lives on trial. It’s becoming a formula for the government. You have a right to defend yourself against specific allegations.”
Cosby, 83 was set free after the Pennsylvania Supreme Court vacated his conviction after finding that a "non-prosecution agreement" had been made with a previous prosecutor on the case, which should have prevented him from ever being charged in the first place.
The comedian has served more than two years of a three-to-10-year sentence at a Philadelphia-area state prison.
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Post-trial motions were due Nov. 1, but Bonjean has asked for a two-month extension. U.S. District Court Judge Judge Ann Donnelly will decide whether or not to approve the extension.
In Chicago, R. Kelly is also facing 13 criminal counts including child pornography, incitement of a minor and obstruction of justice. The trial is scheduled for August 2022.