R&B singer R. Kelly is back in solitary confinement in a North Carolina prison after being hospitalized over an apparent drug overdose, according to a filing from his lawyer, who has doubled down on claims that officials with the local Board of Prisons are plotting to kill his client in a murder-for-hire scheme.
Kelly, born Robert Sylvester Kelly, was taken to Duke University Hospital in Durham, N.C., after a lethal level of his medication was given to him by prison officials where he is serving time at the Federal Correctional Institute facility in Butner, N.C., according to court documents filed by Kelly’s attorney on Tuesday.
“Mr. Kelly needs this court’s intervention. His life actually depends on it,” wrote Beau Brindley, the inmate and singer’s attorney.
According to the filing, the 58-year-old woke up on June 13 with black spots in his vision. Kelly tried to get up, but fell to the ground. He then “crawled to the door of the cell and lost consciousness,” the filing states. The document alleges that prison staff had given him an “overdose quantity” of medication on June 12. He was taken to Duke University Hospital after medical officials at the prison were unable to assist him.
Kelly remained in the hospital for two days and was set to have surgery for blood clots, according to his attorney, which would mean the inmate would remain in the hospital for two weeks. However, when officers assigned to Kelly at the hospital informed FCI Butner officials of this, “within an hour, officers with guns came into his hospital room and removed him.”
Before the overdose, Kelly had been placed in solitary confinement after his attorneys alerted the court to the alleged plot to kill him in an emergency motion filed last week, which stated that three Bureau of Prison officials were involved in a murder-for-hire plot that would see the Grammy-winning singer killed by another inmate; the motion asked that he be moved to home detention, which has been requested and rejected. Mikeal Glenn Stine, the man who allegedly was offered freedom to kill the singer, told Kelly “that his life was absolutely in danger,” the court filing states.
“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,” Brindley wrote in a statement.
The Bureau of Prisons is not commenting on the matter, citing “pending litigation.” The Hollywood Reporter has reached out to Brindley for additional comment on his filing but did not immediately hear back on Tuesday.
