Following this week’s conviction on racketeering and sex trafficking charges, R.Kelly was sentenced to 30 years in prison and has since been placed on suicide watch at the federal detention center, where he is being held in New York, according to his attorney.
However, according to lawyer Jennifer Bonjean, who spoke to CNN, the disgraced R&B singer is not suicidal. R.Kelly had been worried about being placed on suicide watch, she added.
Kelly’s legal team then filed a lawsuit and a motion for a temporary restraining order. In addition to the United States government, the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) of Brooklyn and its top executives are named as defendants in the case.
Kelly’s lawyers allegedly called the jail facility to inquire about his status after his sentencing, but staff members “laughed and were exceedingly disrespectful,” frequently hanging up on them, the lawsuit claims. CNN has contacted the MDC Warden in an effort to obtain comment from the US Bureau of Prisons.
According to Bonjean’s earlier claims, prosecutors who met with prison officials told her that due to his notoriety, 55-year-old Kelly was put on suicide watch. For Kelly to be released from detention, Bonjean is also requesting a temporary restraining order.
After Kelly was returned to the federal penitentiary after his sentencing on Wednesday, Bonjean claimed she begged him to email her, but she never received a response. The detention institution hasn’t given her any updates on his whereabouts, according to Bonjean, until prosecutors asked for details.
On nine counts, including one for racketeering and eight for breaking the Mann Act, which forbids sex trafficking, Kelly was found guilty in September by a jury. According to prosecutors from New York’s Eastern District, Kelly targeted kids, boys, and young women for his personal sexual enjoyment by leveraging his famous status and “network of persons at his disposal.”
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Witnesses who testified that Kelly had assaulted them physically and sexually were heard during the five-week federal trial in Brooklyn. The court also heard testimony from others involved in arranging the disgraced R&B artist’s 1994 marriage to the late singer Aaliyah at a time she was only 15.
While Kelly’s defense lawyers requested 10 years or less in prison, prosecutors wanted the judge to sentence Kelly to more than 25 years in prison.
