R.Kelly’s Second Bid To Be Released From Prison Denied

A federal judge has rejected R Kelly’s second attempt at using the COVID-19 pandemic to get released from jail.

US District Judge Ann Donnelly denied the singer’s request to be released from Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC) Chicago, where he is being held in a report by TMZ.

While she acknowledged that the disease had spread to the facility, Donnelly stressed that Kelly’s bond did not present enough evidence that the singer is uniquely at risk to contract the disease.

The lawyer reassured the court that if released to a loft apartment in Chicago, where his girlfriend, Joycelyn Savage, lives, Kelly would not be a flight risk because he would be subjected to round-the-clock GPS monitoring and surveillance.

The judge, however, didn’t buy Kelly’s lawyer argument that he wasn’t a flight risk, as he is facing serious charges, including, tampering with witnesses.

There were 23 inmates who tested positive at the jail as of Monday, the Chicago Tribune reports. The facility houses around 700 inmates.

The R&B singer has been held at the jail awaiting trial since last July. The 53-year-old faces several dozen counts of state and federal sexual misconduct charges in Illinois, Minnesota, and New York, from sexual assault to heading a racketeering scheme aimed at supplying him with girls.

Kelly has pleaded not guilty to all counts.

Judge Donnelly denied Kelly’s first motion for release last Tuesday, ruling that the disgraced R&B singer was deemed a flight risk.

She noted in her decision that at the time, the MCC had no confirmed cases of COVID-19 at the jail, hence, the second appeal.