Judge Denies R. Kelly’s Request For Early Release

R. Kelly is one of the many incarcerated stars who filed motions to be released from jail early due to the coronavirus outbreak.

The Bureau of Prisons has suspended legal and social visits as part of its efforts to prevent coronavirus outbreaks at its facilities, and the star says that he has not been able to meet with his lawyers, but the judge doesn’t feel as though Kelly should be walking the streets.

“While I am sympathetic to the defendant’s understandable anxiety about COVID-19, he has not established compelling reasons warranting his release,” U.S. District Judge Anne Donnelly wrote in her opinion, per Billboard. “At present, there are no confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the MCC in Chicago.”

“The defendant is currently in custody because of the risks that he will flee or attempt to obstruct, threaten or intimidate prospective witnesses. The defendant has not explained how those risks have changed,” Donnelly also wrote. “The defendant here has not demonstrated an analogous change in circumstances that would alter the Court’s conclusion that he is a flight risk and that he poses danger to the community, particularly to prospective witnesses.”

So Kelly will have to stay put.