R. Kelly is piling on those legal issues.
Just after being sentenced to 30 years in prison, the 55-year-old entertainer is taking on yet another legal matter. This time, he is suing the Metropolitan Detention Center.
R. Kelly was sentenced on charges of sexual abuse, trafficking, and racketeering. Shortly after, he was placed under suicide watch. Now, he is filing a lawsuit against warden Heriberto Tellez, claiming that he is being held under suicide watch as punishment due to his statues. He also alleged that he is being forced to wear a paper-like smock, and is not allowed to use cutlery when eating.
He stated that this is causing him mental distress, and his team calls his treatment “cruel and unconstitutional.” R. Kelly wants an “award of compensatory damages for all emotional distress, humiliation, pain and suffering, and other harm in an amount to be determined at trial.”
The government published a 19-page memo in response, which stated in part:
“[On] June 29, 2022, U.S. District Judge Ann M. Donnelly sentenced Plaintiff to 30 years in prison. That same day, a staff psychologist conducted an in-person assessment of Plaintiff upon his return to MDC. As a result of that clinical assessment, Plaintiff was temporarily placed on suicide watch.
Based on the clinical assessment and in accordance with Bureau of Prisons policy for preventing suicides, Plaintiff remains on suicide watch for his own safety. Plaintiff provides no salient authority that would permit this Court to take the unprecedented step of mandating that BOP remove an inmate from suicide watch.”
