Singer R. Kelly alleges mistreatment after hospitalization and prison
'murder plot'
[June 18, 2025]
CHICAGO (AP) — R. Kelly collapsed in prison and was hospitalized,
attorneys said in court filings this week, adding the details to the
singer's extraordinary allegations of a murder plot by prison officials
that he argues require temporary release on home detention. Government
lawyers have dismissed the claims as a “fanciful conspiracy."
Kelly, 58, is serving time at a Butner, North Carolina federal facility
related to separate convictions for child sex crimes and racketeering.
In a series of filings that started last week, Kelly’s attorneys claim
prison officials sought out leaders of a white supremacist gang to kill
him and prevent the release of damaging information on prison officials.
After that filing, Kelly was moved to solitary confinement, his
attorneys say. They also allege he was purposely given a medication
overdose and required hospitalization and surgery for blood clots, but
he was sent back to solitary.
“These people did overdose him. They did leave him with blood clots in
his lungs and remove him from a hospital that sought to do surgery to
remove them,” Kelly’s attorney Beau B. Brindley wrote in a filing
Tuesday. “And they did it within days of his exposure of a plan to kill
him set forth by Bureau of Prisons officials.”
Attorneys cite a declaration from a leader of the Aryan Brotherhood as
among their evidence.
Government attorneys rejected the allegations as “repugnant” and
questioned whether a Chicago judge has jurisdiction to alter Kelly's
sentence for separate convictions in Illinois and New York. Kelly has a
Friday hearing at Chicago’s federal court.
“Kelly has never taken responsibility for his years of sexually abusing
children, and he probably never will,” government attorneys wrote.
“Undeterred, Kelly now asks this Court to release him from incarceration
indefinitely under the guise of a fanciful conspiracy.”
The Bureau of Prisons declined to comment Tuesday, saying it does not
discuss conditions of confinement or comment on pending legal matters.
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R. Kelly leaves the Daley Center after a hearing in his child
support case May 8, 2019, in Chicago. A federal appeals court on
Friday, April 26, 2024, upheld R&B singer R. Kelly's sex-crime
conviction and 20-year sentence in his Chicago case. (AP Photo/Matt
Marton, File)
 The Grammy Award-winning R&B singer,
born Robert Sylvester Kelly, was found guilty in Chicago in 2022 of
three charges of producing child sexual abuse images and three
charges of enticement of minors for sex. In 2021, he was found
guilty of racketeering and sex trafficking in New York. His attempts
to appeal have been unsuccessful, including to the U.S. Supreme
Court. Kelly has also sought President Donald Trump's help.
He is serving most of his 20-year Chicago sentence and 30-year New
York sentence simultaneously.
Kelly is known for work including the 1996 hit “I Believe I Can Fly”
and the cult classic “Trapped in the Closet,” a multipart tale of
sexual betrayal and intrigue.
Kelly sold millions of albums and remained in demand even after
allegations about his abuse of young girls began circulating
publicly in the 1990s. A 2008 trial in Chicago on child sexual abuse
image charges ended in acquittal.
Widespread outrage over Kelly’s sexual misconduct did not emerge
until the #MeToo reckoning, reaching a crescendo after the release
of the documentary “Surviving R. Kelly.”
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