By Michael Perchick | ABC11
The Charlotte Observer
BUTNER, N.C. — Two days after attorneys for musician R. Kelly filed an Emergency Motion for Temporary Furlough this week, a judge denied the request.
In the court filings, Kelly’s attorneys allege prison officials overdosed him on medications and “nearly killed him.” Kelly’s attorneys requested that he be temporarily released from the federal prison in Butner, North Carolina for home detention. Kelly is serving a 30-year sentence for racketeering and sex crimes, along with a 20-year sentence for a child pornography conviction in Chicago.
On Thursday, Kelly’s attorney sent ABC11 this email confirming the judge denied the request for temporary release.
| EARLIER: R. Kelly’s attorneys claim prison staff caused overdose leading to hospitalization
“Judge Pacold has denied our motion for immediate release due to lack of jurisdiction and has cancelled tomorrow’s hearing. We are not surprised by this ruling as we knew that technical jurisdiction would be a challenge under these circumstances. However, we had no choice but to act immediately given explicit evidence of a threat to Robert Kelly’s life. Yesterday I made an emergency visit to see him.. I can now confirm that this threat is ongoing and it is more serious than ever. Mr. Kelly remains in prison with blood clots in his lungs. The danger could not be more imminent. In light of that, we will, today (Thursday), file a Motion to Vacate his convictions in Chicago based on Newly Discovered Evidence and a Request for Immediate Release on Bond Pending its Litigation.”
The Emergency Motion for Temporary Furlough filing came days after a separate legal filing alleging an inmate was instructed by prison officials to kill Kelly, claims which drew a sharp rebuke from federal prosecutors.
The documents allege that “Bureau of Prisons officials interfered with Duke University Hospital’s scheduling of a surgery to clear blood clots from the lungs of Mr. Kelly by removing him at gunpoint and taking him back to solitary confinement.”
“Robert indicated that when he was in the ambulance and being taken to the hospital, he overheard the Bureau of Prisons people that were with him in that ambulance say if he gets to this outside hospital, it’s going to open a whole new can of worms,” Kelly’s attorney Beau Brindley told ABC11.
Brindley said Kelly is on medication for anxiety and to help him sleep, telling ABC11 he has been on it “for a long time.”
“What happened was the quantity, according to the hospital, was just far too high and to a level that it put his life in danger,” said Brindley.
Brindley said they have been unable to access Kelly’s medical records at this time to support the assertions but are in the process of doing so.
“I couldn’t have written this in a way that was believable if I came up with it. But it’s happening to Robert Kelly in real time,” said Brindley.
Brindley said Kelly has previously had blood clots and clarified that they are not asserting that “the blood clots were created by the overdose,” saying they are two separate issues.
Sources dispute the characterization of his hospital visit to ABC News, asserting he was taken to there for two days for routine medical care and has since been released.
Duke Health would not confirm whether Kelly was ever a patient, referring all media requests to the Department of Corrections.
In response to a request for information from ABC11, a Federal Correctional Complex Butner staffer wrote: “For privacy, safety, and security reasons, we do not discuss the conditions of confinement for any incarcerated individual, including medical and health-related issues. Additionally, the Bureau of Prisons does not comment on pending litigation or matters that are the subject of legal proceedings.”
“Robert Kelly is a prolific child molester. He is unapologetic about it,” prosecutors wrote in a filing Monday.
A filing from Kelly’s attorney last week includes a declaration from an inmate named Mikeal Glenn Stine, who claims he has “terminal cancer” and held the position of “Commissioner of the A.B.” referring to the “Aryan Brotherhood.” Stine alleges in the court document that he was instructed by a prison official to allegedly “execute R. Kelly,” claiming further that he “would be permitted to escape” during a transfer following the killing.
“Stine is the last person in the world that you would expect to try to provide some sort of assistance to Robert Kelly,” said Brindley, who said he and an associate met with Stine for three hours.
In court documents, Stine asserted he is “prepared to undergo a polygraph examination.” Kelly’s attorneys provided no evidence supporting Stine’s claims attached in the publicly available legal documents.
The documents were filed in the U.S. District Court Northern District of Illinois Eastern Division.
In their filing, federal prosecutors wrote that Kelly’s requesting the court “to release him from incarceration indefinitely under the guise of a fanciful conspiracy,” adding that “this Court lacks jurisdiction to entertain Kelly’s complaints about the conditions of his confinement. The government disputes the fantastic allegations in Kelly’s motion.”
Prosecutors described the request as “deeply unserious and theatrical.”
“Kelly’s motion is repugnant to the sentence that this Court imposed for deeply disturbing offenses,” wrote prosecutors in their filing.
The US Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois declined to comment on Kelly’s filings to ABC11.
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