R. Kelly has been behind bars since last year, awaiting four trials in federal and state courts in three states on multiple sex-crimes charges. Courts have denied his release, saying he's a flight risk and a danger to the community.
On Tuesday, the federal Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York issued a ruling upholding a lower court's multiple decisions blocking Kelly's release from the Chicago MCC on the grounds he's a flight risk and a danger to the community.
Kelly, 53, has been behind bars since last year, awaiting four trials in federal and state courts in three states on multiple sex-crimes charges. His lawyers have been trying to get him out, arguing among other reasons that"We perceive no clear error in the district court’s determination that the government has demonstrated by clear and convincing evidence that Kelly presents risk of a danger to the community and by a preponderance of the evidence that Kelly presents a flight risk, and, moreover, that no condition or combination of conditions could assure against those risks. Likewise, the court did not clearly err in determining that Kelly failed to demonstrate a 'compelling reason' for temporary release," read the decision by the three-judge panel in New York. "Clearly, we are disappointed with the decision," said one of Kelly's lawyers, Thomas Farinella of New York, in an email to USA TODAY."The so-called maxim of the presumption of innocence appears to be a misnomer. We will continue to vigorously fight for Mr. Kelly’s vindication." Kelly is under indictment in the Eastern District of New York in Brooklyn, which is covered by the Second Circuit. He's also under indictment on similar sex-crime charges in the Northern District of Illinois in Chicago, and is seeking to get out of the MCC through that federal court. NowThe singer's team of Chicago-based lawyers will be in court there on Wednesday for a hearing, citing"additional troubling information" that they say has a direct bearing on Kelly's safety in jail, according to a document filed Tuesday by his lawyers. "We will be arguing that the MCC Chicago is not suitable for Mr. Kelly; that they have not done enough to protect him; that it is alleged that they encouraged the attack; and that all of this is yet another reason why Mr. Kelly should be out on bond and living in Chicago so that he can be both safe and allowed to meaningfully prepare for trial," said his Chicago-based lawyer, Mike Leonard, in an email to USA TODAY.Jeremiah Shane Farmer, who acknowledged last week he was the assailant and claimed in a handwritten motion that officials in the MCC encouraged him to attack Kelly as a means to get more attention for his own, unrelated racketeering case., Farmer, 39, was one of dozens of alleged members of the Latin Kings street gang indicted in 2018 on charges of racketeering conspiracy and conspiracy to distribute drugs in a sprawling case that included a double homicide in 1999 in Hammond, Indiana. "Farmer, with no where else to turn for legal help, was forced to assault hip-hop R&B singer Robert Kelly in hopes of getting spotlight attention and world news notice to shed light on government corruption here in the Seventh Circuit," Farmer wrote in block-lettering his four-page document. Kelly's lawyers argue that the attack alone was sufficient justification to immediately release Kelly due to"the inability of the federal to safely house" Kelly, who was not seriously injured in the attack. The Bureau of Prisons has declined to comment on inmate safety as a matter of policy. If Kelly doesn't get an immediate release, Kelly's lawyers want the court to schedule an evidentiary hearing to allow questioning of Farmer and MCC officials under oath about what happened in the jail. "Enough is enough. Now the allegations are that those housing him may be putting him at risk of death or physical harm," Kelly's lawyers argued in their motion. The first three of Kelly's four trials were supposed to start this fall in Chicago but have been delayed by the coronavirus pandemic.
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