R. Kelly was hospitalized for a reported overdose over the weekend.
Per his attorney, the former R&B megastar was removed from solitary confinement at a North Carolina prison and taken to Duke University Hospital. A filing on Tuesday alleged that Kelly had been administered a dose of his medications that was well over the suggested limit. Kelly’s attorneys have previously claimed that officials with the Board of Prisons are intentionally trying to kill the convicted sex trafficker.
“Bureau of Prisons officials administered an amount of medication that significantly exceeded a safe dose and caused Mr. Kelly to overdose, putting his life in jeopardy,” attorney Beau Brindley wrote.
Brindley claims that his doctors recommended surgery for blood clots during Kelly’s hospital stay, but were overruled by prison officials.
“Within an hour, officers with guns came into his hospital room and removed him,” Brindley told the court.
Kelly has been in solitary confinement since Brindley filed an emergency motion last week, claiming that his client was the target of a murder-for-hire plot.
“Federal officers have solicited the murder of R. Kelly because he intends to expose the corruption underlying his federal prosecutions. We have filed our motion to make sure that they fail,” Brindley shared in a statement last week. “The only thing that can protect Mr. Kelly behind the prison walls now is the fact that now the world is watching. And we will call on the courts and President Trump to help put an end to the corruption that now threatens Mr. Kelly’s life.”
Kelly unsuccessfully appealed his 30-year sentence on racketeering and sex trafficking charges earlier this year. An appeals court upheld his 2021 convictions and supported the case made by prosecutors against the serial abuser.
“Enabled by a constellation of managers, assistants, and other staff for over 25 years, Kelly exploited his fame to lure girls and young women into his grasp,” the court wrote in its decision. “Evidence at trial showed that he would isolate them from friends and family, control nearly every aspect of their lives, and abuse them verbally, physically, and sexually.”
