A federal judge has denied R Kelly’s second attempt at using the COVID-19 pandemic to prison release.
According to a report by TMZ, US District Judge Ann Donnelly denied the singer’s request to leave the Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC) in Chicago; where he is currently awaiting a trial.
While she acknowledged that the disease had spread to the facility, Donnelly stressed that Kelly’s bond did not present enough evidence of the child molester’s vulnerability to the disease.
The lawyer reassured the court that if released to a loft apartment in Chicago; where his girlfriend Joycelyn Savage lives, Kelly would not be a flight risk. Rather, he would have round-the-clock GPS monitoring and surveillance.
However, the judge didn’t buy Kelly’s lawyer’s argument that he wasn’t a flight risk; because he faces serious charges, including tampering with witnesses.
There were 23 inmates who tested positive at the jail as of Monday, the Chicago Tribune reports. The facility houses around 700 inmates.
The R&B singer has been in jail awaiting trial since last July. The 53-year-old faces several dozen counts of state and federal sexual misconduct charges in Illinois, Minnesota, and New York; from sexual assault to heading a racketeering scheme aimed at supplying him with girls.
Kelly has pleaded not guilty to all counts. Judge Donnelly denied Kelly’s first motion for release from prison last Tuesday, ruling that the R&B singer was a flight risk.
She noted in her decision that at the time, the MCC had no confirmed cases of COVID-19 at the jail, hence, the second appeal.
