R. Kelly Wants to Be Released From Prison Because of COVID-19

R. Kelly has cited the coronavirus pandemic as reason he is asking the court to free him.

According to THR, the singer’s team asked a federal judge on Thursday to free him from a federal jail in Chicago as he awaits trial on child pornography and other charges, adding that scant precautions to stem the spread of the virus behind bars put Kelly’s life at risk.

The filing claimed that sanitizer and even soap is hard to come by in the Metropolitan Correctional Center, with most of its 700 inmates held in small, two-man cells that make the kind of social distancing called for to thwart the transmission of COVID-19 impossible.

Kelly, 53, faces several dozen counts of state and federal sexual misconduct charges in Illinois, Minnesota and New York, from sexual assault to heading a racketeering scheme aimed at supplying him with girls. The Grammy Award winning singer has denied ever abusing anyone.

“The health risk to Mr. Kelly, because of his age and existing health issues, especially considering the conditions at the MCC, necessitates his release on bail,” his filing says,

Thursday’s 18-page filing didn’t describe Kelly’s health issues, but it said he was within the category of people described as high-risk by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“The courts have long recognized that there is no greater necessity than keeping a defendant alive, no matter the charge,” the filing says.