R. Kelly is suing the United States government in an attempt to get his commissary funds back. The case stems from a March 2023 ruling, in which the Illinois Supreme Court decided Heather Williams was entitled to access the disgraced singer’s funds. “The defendant is appealing his conviction and the government’s seizure of his substantial Bureau of Prisons commissary account to satisfy the financial penalties imposed in the case,” an announcement of the lawsuit caught by HipHopDX reportedly read. Assistant United States Attorney Kayla Bensing will represent the United States in the matter.
Kelly has faced countless sexual misconduct allegations over the years. In 2021, he was convicted under the Mann Act and for racketeering while a year later, he was convicted for three child pornography charges and three charges of enticing a minor. Kelly’s currently serving a 31-year sentence at FCI Butner Medium I. He’s due for release on December 21, 2045, at the age of 78.
Back in January, Kelly claimed he wasn’t aware that he had lost a $10.5 million lawsuit back in August of 2023. He mentioned facing a high number of cases and switching legal teams as potential reasons for the slip up. In a statement, his attorney, Jennifer Bonjean, said to XXL: “We are absolutely pushing back on the $10.5 million default judgment that was entered against him without notice and without a sound legal justification. It would be simplistic and silly to write that the basis for our motion to vacate the windfall judgment relates solely to his illiteracy (although he is in fact functionally illiterate per formalized testing). The more significant problem is that there was no legal basis to enter the default judgment on the merits.”
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Check out some of the documents obtained by HipHopDX in the post above. Kelly’s next hearing will go down on Monday.
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