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Report: R. Kelly written up for refusing to take a cellmate at federal jail

The report was filed as part of the government’s response to Kelly’s motion that he be granted bail so he can be released from “draconian conditions”

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Pictured is R. Kelly.

Photo/Chicago Police Department

By Madeline Buckley
Chicago Tribune

CHICAGO — After R. Kelly was jailed in the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Chicago last month on child pornography and obstruction of justice charges, the disgraced musician was written up for refusing to take a cellmate, according to newly disclosed prison records.

An incident report said Kelly had rebuffed an order to take a cellmate in the Loop facility’s special housing unit, a more secure area away from the general population.

Asked to respond to the allegation, Kelly said, “I was told I didn’t have to take a cellie and I have too much going on to worry about incident report.” Investigators wrote that he had a “poor attitude throughout this investigation.”

The report was filed as part of the government’s response to Kelly’s motion that he be granted bail so he can be released from custody. Kelly is currently being held without bail on a 13-count federal indictment in Chicago alleging that Kelly and two of his associates fixed the R&B superstar’s 2008 child pornography trial in Cook County by paying off witnesses and victims to change their stories.

Kelly’s motion, filed Aug. 1, argued that he has been subjected to “draconian conditions” while jailed in the special housing unit. The musician’s lawyers also filed a separate motion on Thursday that asked for Kelly’s “immediate release from solitary confinement.”

In a response, federal prosecutors maintained that Kelly should remain jailed because he is a flight risk and a danger to the public. They wrote that they planned to file a separate response to Kelly’s request to be released from solitary confinement, but noted that he previously refused an order to take a cellmate. Prosecutors have said Kelly has been assigned a cellmate, despite his refusal.

Kelly is also facing a separate federal indictment in New York that accuses the singer of racketeering conspiracy, alleging Kelly identified underage girls attending his concerts and groomed them for later sexual abuse.

He also faces four separate indictments in Cook County that charge the embattled singer with sexually assaulting one woman and sexually abusing three others years ago. Three of the alleged victims were underage at the time, according to prosecutors. He was released on a $1 million bond.

©2019 the Chicago Tribune

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