(Video Credit: ABC News)
R&B singer R. Kelly’s attorneys are suing the Brooklyn jail where he is being held because he was “illegally placed” on suicide watch after being sentenced to 30 years for sex trafficking and abusing young girls.
The fallen R&B star claims he is not suicidal after his sentencing. His attorney Jennifer Bonjean defended him on Twitter, blasting the prison for allegedly punishing her client.
“R. Kelly is not suicidal. He was in fine spirits after his sentencing hearing and ready to fight this appeal,” Bonjean told Fox News.
“Mr. Kelly was placed on suicide watch for purely punitive reasons in violation of his Eighth Amendment rights,” she asserted. “MDC has a policy of placing high profile individuals under the harsh conditions of suicide watch whether they are suicidal or not. MDC Brooklyn is being run like a gulag.”
This evening we sued the MDC Brooklyn for illegally confining R. Kelly to suicide watch. pic.twitter.com/kY4X2h09Qp
— Jennifer Bonjean (@jenniferbonjean) July 1, 2022
Actually it isn’t standard protocol. And I act at the direction of my client who is living in misery right right now not people who are clueless about the inner workings MDC and the Eighth Amendment. https://t.co/6NxAEliSTu
— Jennifer Bonjean (@jenniferbonjean) July 2, 2022
Kelly has evidently been put in a single cell without bed rails, no showers, no shaving, no toilet paper, forced to eat meals with his hands and is being kept from loved ones, according to TMZ. He contends it’s ironic that inmates on suicide watch don’t even receive psychiatric care.
He is suing for damages resulting from emotional distress.
Kelly found out his fate on Wednesday when Judge Ann M. Donnelly handed down his 30-year sentence in Brooklyn Federal Court. He was found guilty of sex trafficking and racketeering following a six-week trial. He will also be required to pay a $100,000 fine.
The legendary performer has been held in jail for nearly three years without bail awaiting a trial.
JUST IN: R. Kelly has been placed on s*icide watch following his 30-year indictment‼️ pic.twitter.com/18rCBRIvV8
— RapTV (@Rap) July 1, 2022
He was accused of committing heinous acts for decades before being publicly outed in a documentary called “Surviving R. Kelly” that led to his arrest.
The judge told Kelly during sentencing that he had created “a trail of broken lives,” and added that “the most seasoned investigators will not forget the horrors your victims endured,” according to the Daily Mail.
“These crimes were calculated and carefully planned and regularly executed for almost 25 years,” she charged. “You taught them that love is enslavement and violence.”
If R. Kelly had just gone to Epstein island he'd be a free man. Funny how that works..
— The Architect. 🇨🇦🇺🇸🌎🐸 (@TheMarcitect) June 30, 2022
Lizzette Martinez, who is one of the victims who testified at the hearing, said she doesn’t believe Kelly’s sentence is enough “but I’m pleased with it.” She told reporters that she was an “up-and-coming singer, a girl full of life” until she met Kelly and became “a sex slave.”
Kelly’s attorneys argued that their client should not serve more than ten years in prison because he had a traumatic childhood “involving severe, prolonged childhood sexual abuse, poverty, and violence.”
They also claimed that he had “literacy deficiencies” and was “repeatedly defrauded and financially abused, often by the people he paid to protect him.”
People shouldn’t have sympathy over R. Kelly’s situation. “30 years is too much”, no 15 years old is too young.
— Dedee 🥀 (@thoughtfulbae) July 1, 2022
The accusations against Kelly began in the 1990s but his fame and wealth reportedly protected him from prosecution as he sold millions of records. He was sued in 1997 by a woman who alleged sexual battery and harassment when she was a minor. The singer was also hit with criminal child pornography charges related to another girl in Chicago. He was acquitted in 2008 and he settled the lawsuit.
The disgraced singer’s luck finally ran out last year when he was convicted after it was revealed that he used his managers and aides to meet young girls and then keep them subservient. Prosecutors asserted that the operation amounted to a criminal enterprise.
A number of Kelly’s accusers claimed that he subjected them to sick, twisted, and sadistic whims when they were underage. They stated that he made them sign nondisclosure agreements. His victims also claim they were subjected to threats and punishments such as violent spankings if they broke “Rob’s rules.” Kelly reportedly recorded a video of one victim smearing feces on her face as punishment for breaking his rules.
R Kelly liked his victims young but that 30 year sentence is full grown
— Rae Sanni (@raesanni) June 29, 2022
Testimony revealed that Kelly gave a number of his accusers herpes as well. He also convinced a teenage boy to join him for sex with a naked girl who was concealed underneath a boxing ring in his garage. His victims were terrified he would use sexual videos against them if they tried to come out against him.
More damning evidence surfaced during his trial showing that he concocted a fraudulent marriage scheme to protect himself after he believed he had impregnated R&B singer Aaliyah in 1994 when she was just 15.
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