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Jailed Singer R. Kelly Contracts COVID-19 In Prison While Awaiting Sentencing

Embattled R&B singer R. Kelly has contracted COVID-19 while awaiting sentencing in a Brooklyn federal jail for his racketeering conviction, his lawyer revealed in a court filing early Tuesday.

Kelly’s lawyer, Jennifer Bonjean asked for a two-week extension, whilst stating that the singer’s diagnosis has hampered his ability to speak on the phone about the appeal of his conviction, which is due Thursday.

“It is vitally important that Mr. Kelly meaningfully participates in his post-trial defense,” Bonjean wrote in the motion, saying she hoped to communicate with him in an upcoming Zoom call.

U.S. District Judge Ann Donnelly granted the extension Tuesday morning, giving Bonjean until Feb. 17 to file.

Later in the day, Bonjean tweeted that Kelly was “doing well,” but said the COVID policies of the Brooklyn federal jail were “putting all inmates in harm’s way.”

Kelly, 54, was convicted Sept. 27 on racketeering conspiracy charges, alleging he used his music career to further a criminal enterprise. The jury found him guilty of 12 individual illegal acts, including sex with multiple underage girls as well as a 1994 scheme to bribe an Illinois public aid official to get a phony ID for 15-year-old singer Aaliyah so the two could get married.

He faces 10 years to life in prison when he’s sentenced in May.

The singer also is charged in U.S. District Court in Chicago with running a yearslong scheme to buy back sex tapes he allegedly made with underage girls and to bribe or coerce witnesses in his 2008 child pornography trial in Cook County, which ended in acquittal. 

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