R. Kelly Accused of Blackmailing and Threatening the Families of Alleged Victims
Written by SOURCE on October 7, 2019
R. Kelly and his attorneys are fighting to get the singer released on bond, but the prosecution believes that this would put his victims and their families in danger.
According to court documents obtained by The Blast, the prosecution claims that R. Kelly will be a threat if he’s released from jail. To attempt to prove this, they pointed to his history of intimidating witnesses and victims. The prosecution showed the court typewritten letters to an unnamed accuser’s lawyer. In the letters, Kelly threatens to release “compromising and potentially embarrassing photographs” if she pursued a criminal case against him.
To halt Kelly from claiming that his learning disabilities would prevent him from writing the letters, the prosecution provided the judge with screenshots of Kelly’s conversation with the woman and the pictures that he planned to release. These items were allegedly attached to the letters that were sent to the victim. They claim that Kelly has a reputation of “coercing women to write letters containing false and embarrassing allegations” while several women claim that he issued “veiled threats designed to prevent [them] from testifying against him.”
The prosecution also went after Kelly’s claims that financial constraints will prevent him from being a flight risk. According to their documents, Kelly is owed “hundreds of thousands of dollars” in back royalties. They say Kelly would be able to redirect this money from his frozen accounts to accounts under another name. They continue by saying this money could not only be used to help the singer evade prosecution, but that the prosecution believes that Kelly would also use this cash to either pay off the witnesses or have them harmed.
R. Kelly has been in jail since July while he awaits trial for charges stemming from his alleged sexual assault of underage women. The singer is facing up to 195 years in jail, but he wants to be afforded bail because he claims the conditions in jail are affecting his health.
