After a judge denied his initial request to be freed on house arrest, R. Kelly filed new court documents in hopes of getting out of prison amid concerns over the spread of coronavirus. According to TMZ, Kelly’s lawyer filed a second emergency motion on Thursday (April 16).
The original motion was denied in part because Kellz was deemed a flight risk, and the jail where he is housed had no confirmed cases of COVID-19. The latest court documents argue against the notion of Kelly being a potential flight risk, mostly due to him being a highly “recognizable” public figure and stay-at-home orders being enforced around the country. He also agreed to wear GPS monitoring.
Kelly’s motion reportedly states that there are at least six inmates and seven staff members at the Metropolitan Correctional Center who have tested positive for COVID-19. Furthermore, the documents claim the number of cases could be much higher since jail officials only tested inmates who exhibited symptoms. The docs go on to assert that “Inmates are reportedly banging on doors, walls, and windows begging for help,” reports The Chicago Tribune.
“The only thing the MCC has done is lock things down, making the situation feel more like solitary confinement and possibly, because of the nature of this virus, locking in healthy inmates with those who may already have the virus but who may not yet be symptomatic,” the motion reads.
A judge has yet to rule on the matter.
In other Kelly news, the 53-year-old singer’s racketeering and sex trafficking trial in New York has been pushed back from July to September due to the global pandemic.