R. Kelly is asking to be released from jail again over fears he'll contract coronavirus
R. Kelly has asked to be released from jail for the second time, after a request for bail earlier this month was denied.
Kelly has been in prison without bond since last July after being arrested on a 13-count federal indictment. He’s pleaded not guilty to multiple charges in Illinois, Minnesota and New York, including racketeering and several sexual assault and abuse charges.
Earlier this month lawyers filed a motion requesting that the singer was bailed due to concerns that he would contract coronavirus. They argue that it’s an “absolute probability” he “will be infected with this deadly disease”.
This was rejected by U.S. District Judge Anne Donnelly, who pointed out that there were no confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Chicago’s Metropolitan Correctional Centre, where he’s held.
“While I am sympathetic to the defendant’s understandable anxiety about COVID-19, he has not established compelling reasons warranting his release,” Judge Donnelly wrote.
Now, however, Kelly’s lawyers are once again appealing for his release due to concerns about the coronavirus via a renewed emergence of the disease in the jail.
They argue that there are now six confirmed cases of the disease in the correctional centre, and that it’s an “absolute probability” he “will be infected with this deadly disease” if he isn’t released.
In response to arguments that Kelly would attempt to flee should he be released, his lawyers said that he would be “the most obvious and recognisable person on the streets of Chicago, or anywhere else in the country” if he tried.
Prosecutors responded to the singer by arguing that he has already made more than $200,000 in royalties just this year and definitely has the means to escape the country.
