R. Kelly was hospitalized for an overdose after prison staff gave him “an amount of medicine that could have killed him” and was later forcibly removed from a hospital against medical advice, his lawyer alleged in a statement to CBS News and a federal court filing.
The disgraced singer’s lawyer, Beau Brindley, is requesting that a judge move him to home detention from the North Carolina prison where he is serving his sentences.
“Mr. Kelly’s life is in danger and the threat comes from Bureau of Prisons officers whose duty is to protect him,” Brindley wrote in a court motion filed Monday.
He alleges the federal Bureau of Prisons is “seeking to kill” Kelly “to cover up crimes committed in the investigation of his case.”
When asked for a comment Tuesday about the allegations, a spokesperson for the Bureau of Prisons told CBS News, “For privacy, safety and security reasons, we do not discuss the conditions of confinement for any incarcerated individual, including medical and health-related issues.” The bureau also said it does not comment on pending litigation or legal proceedings.
Duke University Hospital, where Kelly was taken, deferred comment to the Bureau of Prisons.
Court documents obtained by CBS News show Kelly’s legal team discuss the emergency release request with Assistant U.S. Attorney Jason Julien in back-and-forth filings this week. “Kelly has never taken responsibility for his years of sexually abusing children, and he probably never will,” Julien said in a response filed Monday. “Undeterred, Kelly now asks this Court to release him from incarceration indefinitely under the guise of a fanciful conspiracy.”
Kelly was moved to solitary confinement earlier in June, according to the motion filed Monday. He had his medication for anxiety and to help him sleep with him and had shown that to prison staff, Brindley said.
But, on Thursday evening, prison personnel “provided him with additional medication and instructions to take it,” Brindley alleges. Kelly took the medication and the next morning he felt faint and dizzy.
“He started to see black spots in his vision. Mr. Kelly tried to get up, but fell to the ground. He crawled to the door of the cell and lost consciousness,” according to Brindley’s motion.
Kelly was taken to a hospital where he was told he was given an overdose quantity of his medications, Brindley said.
Additionally, at the hospital, Kelly showed doctors his swollen leg, which Brindley said he had been seeking medical attention for because he has a history of blood clots. Prison medical staff had allegedly taken him off blood thinners.
A scan at the hospital “revealed blood clots in his right leg, blood clots in his left leg, and blood clots in his lungs,” Brindley said.
Kelly was told he would need to stay at the hospital for seven days and was scheduled for a surgery for the clots, according to the motion. However, officers then came into his hospital room and removed Mr. Kelly.
“He was taken from the hospital against his will and against the directives of the doctors,” Brindley said. “Mr. Kelly’s life is in jeopardy right now because the Bureau of Prisons denied him necessary surgery to clear clots from his lungs. He could die from this condition, and they are letting it happen.”
This is not the first time Kelly’s attorney has sought to move him from federal custody over alleged threats to his life. Earlier in June, Brindley claimed prison officials recruited a white supremacist to kill Kelly.
Kelly was convicted of racketeering and sex trafficking in New York in 2021 and of child pornography in Chicago a year later. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison in the New York case and 20 years in prison in the Chicago case, which he is serving mostly simultaneously.
Jared Ochacher
contributed to this report.
