After being placed on suicide watch, disgraced R&B star R Kelly is suing his Brooklyn prison, a move his attorney claims is a punishment for his celebrity status.
US authorities report that convicted sex offender R Kelly has been placed on suicide watch due to his “emotional distress” as he begins a 30-year prison sentence for sex trafficking.
The disgraced R&B singer has criticized the decision, claiming that federal authorities punished him because of his “high-profile” status.
Kelly, whose real name is Robert Sylvester Kelly, will spend 30 years in prison for sexually abusing young fans while exploiting his fame.
The 55-year-old was found guilty of racketeering and trafficking in September 2021 after a high-profile trial in New York, which followed years of accusations throughout his career.
Jennifer Bonjean, Kelly’s attorney, filed a lawsuit on Friday alleging that prison officials placed Kelly on suicide watch at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn “solely for punitive purposes and because of his high-profile inmate status.”
She asserted that Mr. Kelly did not have suicidal thoughts and that “nothing occurred during sentencing that surprised Mr. Kelly.”
While suicide watch conditions may be appropriate for individuals who are truly at risk of hurting themselves, they are cruel and unconstitutional under the Eighth Amendment for non-suicidal individuals, according to Kelly’s lawsuit.
In response, the US Attorney’s Office in Brooklyn filed court documents late Saturday night disputing Kelly’s claim that he is being punished and stating that the decision was made “for his safety” after a psychological evaluation.
According to court documents, Kelly failed to explain how his inclusion on a suicide watch list would cause him “irreparable mental harm” apart from his general incarceration.
Assistant US attorney Melanie Speight authored [Kelly’s] letter “Existing conditions unquestionably cause emotional distress… He has been convicted of sexual offenses and sentenced to thirty years in prison.”
Kelly is also facing a second federal criminal trial in Chicago on child pornography-related charges.
Last month, when he heard his sentence, which included a $100,000 (£82,500) fine, Kelly did not make a statement and displayed no reaction.
The Grammy-winning, multiplatinum-selling songwriter has denied any wrongdoing and announced his intention to appeal his conviction.
Since financier Jeffrey Epstein committed suicide behind bars in 2019 while awaiting trial on charges he sexually abused girls as young as 14 and young women in New York and Florida in the early 2000s, the US Bureau of Prisons has come under increased scrutiny.
Ghislaine Maxwell, a friend of Epstein’s, was sentenced to 20 years in prison in June for her role in recruiting young women for her ex-boyfriend.
