I believe I can scare!
R. Kelly associates intimidated & bribed vic witnesses, say feds
Three associates of disgraced R&B star R. Kelly were arrested for threatening and bribing his alleged sexual misconduct victims, federal prosecutors said Wednesday.
Richard Arline, 31, a longtime friend of the “I Believe I Can Fly” singer, allegedly conspired to bribe a witness in R. Kelly’s Brooklyn case, saying he would pay her $500,000 not to cooperate with the feds, prosecutors said. Instead, the victim contacted law enforcement and continued to speak with Arline under their supervision.
Donnell Russell, 45, a manager and friend of Kelly’s, threatened to publicly release explicit photographs of one alleged victim if she did not withdraw her civil lawsuit against the singer.
Russell is accused of sending cropped nude photographs of the woman, known only as Jane Doe, to her lawyer, along with the text, “The next two pictures have been cropped for the sake of not exposing her extremities to the world, yet!!!”
The third associate, 37year-old Michael Williams, a relative of a former Kelly publicist, set fire to a parked SUV in Florida outside the residence where an alleged victim was staying, according to prosecutors. The car was being leased by the victim’s father and was severely damaged, the feds said.
The charges build on prosecutors’ allegations that Kelly and his associates threaten and harass witnesses in his cases.
Last month, Brooklyn federal prosecutors requested an anonymous and sequestered jury, citing the allegations against Russell in their court papers.
“[Kelly] has told multiple individuals, including one as recently as 2018, that they needed to select a side: his side or the other side, and implicitly threatened that selecting the other side could result in physical harm to that person or that person’s family,” the memo reads.
Kelly, 53, is accused of running a racketeering scheme and heading an enterprise that trafficked women and underage girls who would come to his shows.
He allegedly forced the girls to call him “Daddy,” and did not let them leave their rooms or eat without his permission.
He also faces state and federal charges in Illinois on other sexual misconduct charges.
His lawyer Steven Greenberg denied on Twitter that Kelly was at all involved with the alleged witness intimidation.
“We just learned of the charging of several so called ‘associates’ of R. Kelly,” he wrote. “Without question, Robert Kelly had nothing to do with any of these alleged acts by those charged. He hasn’t attempted to intimidate anyone, or encouraged anyone else to do so. No involvement whatsoever.”
Kelly is set to be tried first in Brooklyn, on Sept. 29, but that date could be set back further by the coronavirus pandemic.