FEDERAL JUDGE DENIES R. KELLY’S REQUEST FOR HOME CONFINEMENT AMID CLAIMS OF ASSASSINATION PLOT AND MEDICATION OVERDOSE
A U.S. federal judge has rejected a motion to release disgraced R&B star R. Kelly to home confinement, despite alarming allegations from his legal team that his life is in danger while in custody.
The decision, handed down by U.S. District Judge Martha Pacold on Thursday, June 19, comes after Kelly’s attorneys filed a series of motions claiming the singer had been targeted in an alleged assassination plot, suffered a medication overdose, and was hospitalized under suspicious circumstances. The judge denied the motion, stating she lacked jurisdiction over the matter.
Kelly, whose full name is Robert Sylvester Kelly, is currently serving a 30-year sentence at the Federal Correctional Institution in Butner, North Carolina, following his 2021 conviction in New York for racketeering and sex trafficking.
In explosive court filings, Kelly’s lawyers alleged that prison officials offered an inmate, Mikeal Glenn Stine — who is reportedly terminally ill — freedom in exchange for assassinating Kelly while both were held in a Tucson, Arizona facility earlier this year. They further claim Kelly was later hospitalized due to an overdose of medication administered by prison staff and was moved to solitary confinement against medical advice.
“Mr. Kelly’s life is in danger, and that danger is coming from Bureau of Prisons officials and their actions,” his legal team wrote in a Monday filing. “His life actually depends on this Court’s intervention.”
Prosecutors have pushed back on the claims, calling them “deeply unserious,” “theatrical,” and “repugnant to the sentence that this Court imposed for deeply disturbing offenses.”
The Bureau of Prisons has declined to comment on the specifics of Kelly’s confinement or the allegations, citing privacy and ongoing legal proceedings.
In the midst of the controversy, Kelly’s attorney also revealed he is pursuing a presidential pardon on behalf of the singer, despite his conviction on multiple counts involving underage victims and organized abuse.
The case continues to unfold as Kelly’s legal team battles to have the singer removed from federal custody — a request that, for now, remains firmly denied.
