R. Kelly’s Lawyer Claims No One Stopped Assault
Lawyers for R. Kelly claim that video shows correctional officers at the Chicago jail, where the singer is being held, failed to stop an assault until an inmate was "well into beating Kelly" in late August.
Kelly’s attorneys filed a motion Friday (October 16), raising questions about whether personnel encouraged the attack on Kelly to take place, according to the Chicago Tribune. But a Bureau of Prisons report says an employee at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in downtown Chicago ordered the attacker to stop and used pepper spray, the report says.
"An unresolved issue remains as to whether MCC personnel encouraged, and then allowed, a beating of Mr. Kelly to take place," Michael Leonard, a lawyer for R. Kelly wrote in the filing, the report says. "That alone merits an evidentiary hearing."
Jeremiah Shane Farmer, is a convicted member of the Latin Kings, who identified himself as Kelly’s attacker in a court filing in September in Hammond, Indiana. He faces a mandatory life sentence for racketeering conspiracy involving a 1999 double murder, the report says.
Kelly’s lawyers want to question Farmer under oath about the August attack as part of their ongoing efforts to have Kelly released on bond pending trial on sexual abuse-related charges, CNN writes.
In September, an appeals court in Illinois denied an appeal for Kelly to be released on bond. The Second Circuit Court of Appeals' decision said prosecutors presented "clear and convincing evidence" that Kelly presents a potential danger to the community and is a flight risk, according to CNN.
Kelly is accused of several sex crime charges, including child pornography, racketeering, and sex trafficking, across New York, Minnesota and Chicago. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges. The Chicago native has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
