Fists ‘fly’ as Kelly jumped in jail
Put in protective solitary after ‘dust-up’
R. Kelly was attacked by a fellow inmate at a Chicago federal lockup — leading jail officials to throw him into solitary confinement to keep him safe, the disgraced singer’s attorney said Thursday.
Kelly, who’s awaiting trial on a series of child sex abuse charges, was in his cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center on Wednesday when a fellow inmate walked in and started attacking him, said Steven Greenberg, the “I Believe I Can Fly” singer’s Chicago-based counsel.
“I talked to a couple of other inmates who said that it was a dust-up and he’s not hurt too bad,” Greenberg told The Post. “According to the jail, he received minor injuries, nothing broken or anything like that.”
Greenberg said the inmate was irate over recent lockdowns caused by pro-R. Kelly protests outside the jail.
“My understanding is, every time there is a pro-R. Kelly protest outside of the jail, they lock down the entire facility,” he explained. “When they do this, inmates don’t get their commissary, they don’t get their shower, stuff like that. And since they’re fairly sporadic anyway, they get upset. So they’re penalizing everyone in the facility because people are protesting in support of Kelly.”
Jail officials were forced to put Kelly in solitary confinement following the attack over concerns he’d be hurt again, Greenberg said.
“That’s the only place they can protect him,” the attorney, who has repeatedly petitioned the courts to release Kelly on bail, seethed.
“But I’m still very concerned because, sure, this time the guards were able to quickly stop something from happening, but what happens if someone goes in his cell with a shank or something like that? Or the guards are busy doing something else? We were fortunate this time, but who’s to say next time?”
Greenberg said at the time of the interview that he had not yet spoken to Kelly, but he tweeted that he’s “hopeful” his client is in good shape.
The famed R&B artist is currently facing two major federal cases in Chicago and Brooklyn over allegations of child rape, sex trafficking and child pornography.
Prosecutors in the Windy City have accused Kelly of sexually abusing five minors, one as young as 12 or 13 at the time of the abuse, back in the 1990s. He’s also been accused of destroying evidence and was originally scheduled to face trial in April. The case was pushed back amid the coronavirus pandemic.
In Brooklyn, prosecutors accused the alleged rapist of running a criminal sex-trafficking enterprise with the help of a cadre of sycophants who assisted him in recruiting young women as he performed in concerts across the country.
His attorneys have argued the case should be dismissed because he is the only one named in the criminal complaint. That trial is slated to begin in late September.