R Kelly’s legal team has revealed that the singer experienced an overdose while incarcerated.
A legal document asserts that the fallen R&B artist overdosed on medication dispensed by prison authorities on Thursday, June 12.
According to the document, the ‘Ignition (Remix)’ artist regularly takes medication for anxiety and sleep, but on the specified day, his lawyers allege that prison personnel administered an ‘excessive dose’.
As reported by USA Today, the document also indicates that he was forcibly removed from Duke University Hospital in Durham, North Carolina, despite medical advice against it.
The Bureau of Prisons informed the publication that it is unable to comment on the matter due to ‘ongoing litigation’.
“Federal officers have solicited the murder of R. Kelly because he intends to expose the corruption underlying his federal prosecutions. We have filed our motion to make sure that they fail,” his attorney, Beau B. Brindley, stated to the outlet on Wednesday.
“The only thing that can protect Mr. Kelly behind the prison walls now is the fact that now the world is watching. And we will call on the courts and President Trump to help put an end to the corruption that now threatens Mr. Kelly’s life.”
Back in 2019, Kelly faced arrest for federal racketeering and sex trafficking charges.
Currently, the 57-year-old singer and producer is serving a 30-year prison term for criminal acts committed over several decades. In 2023, he received an additional one-year sentence for pedophilia-related charges involving child pornography and the enticement of a minor.
His daughter has publicly addressed alleged abuse she endured from her father during her childhood, as discussed in the documentary R. Kelly’s Karma: A Daughter’s Journey.
In this two-part documentary, Kelly’s daughter Buku Abi, whose birth name is Joann Kelly, claims that her father sexually abused her when she was about eight or nine years old.
“He was my everything. For a long time, I didn’t even want to believe that it happened. I didn’t know that even if he was a bad person that he would do something to me,” she states in the documentary. “I was too scared to tell anybody. I was too scared to tell my mom.”
“I just remember waking up to him touching me,” Buku recounted of the alleged abuse. “And I didn’t know what to do, so I just kind of laid there, and I pretended to be asleep.”
She eventually confided in her mother, Andrea, about the incident in 2009 when she was 10 years old.
Responding to Buku’s allegations, Kelly’s attorney Jennifer Bonjean told PEOPLE: “Mr. Kelly vehemently denies these allegations. His ex-wife made the same allegation years ago, and it was investigated by the Illinois Department of Children & Family Services and was unfounded…. And the ‘filmmakers,’ whoever they are, did not reach out to Mr. Kelly or his team to even allow him to deny these hurtful claims.”
If you have been affected by any issues mentioned in this article, you can reach out to The National Sexual Assault Hotline at 800.656.HOPE (4673), available 24/7. Alternatively, you can chat online at online.rainn.org