Sam Kelly
Kelly is the author of HUMAN HISTORY ON DRUGS: An Utterly Scandalous but Entirely Truthful Look at History Under the Influence. He is a history grad from Stanford
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Time Magazine
13 hours ago
- Time Magazine
Sam Kelly
Kelly is the author of HUMAN HISTORY ON DRUGS: An Utterly Scandalous but Entirely Truthful Look at History Under the Influence. He is a history grad from Stanford
Los Angeles Times
a day ago
- Los Angeles Times
R. Kelly is hospitalized and lawyer blames alleged murder plot. Feds call the allegations ‘fanciful'
R. Kelly collapsed in prison Friday and had to be hospitalized outside prison walls, then didn't get care that hospital staff said he needed, his attorney alleged in a Monday court filing. The disgraced R&B singer's attorney said federal prison officials attempted to kill Kelly via a drug overdose Friday, two days after a previous motion was filed stating that the 'I Believe I Can Fly' singer was in danger from an interstate plot involving prison authorities and the Aryan Brotherhood prison gang. Authorities are allegedly trying to prevent Kelly from spilling compromising information about misconduct by the Department of Justice and the Bureau of Prisons, per court documents filed on Kelly's behalf and reviewed by The Times. The federal government dismissed the intentional overdose allegations, filing a response Tuesday that characterized the idea of a prison murder plot as 'fantastic' and 'fanciful.' Kelly, 58, is serving 30-year and 20-year federal sentences that are largely concurrent at the FCI Butner prison facility in North Carolina after convictions in Illinois and New York on charges of child sex crimes and racketeering. Last week, attorney Beau B. Brindley filed an emergency furlough request on the singer's behalf, stating that he was the target of a BOP-related murder plot involving a member or members of the racist Aryan Brotherhood being told to order his killing. The filing included a sworn declaration from Brotherhood honcho Mikeal Glenn Stine, who has been incarcerated since 1982 and said he chose to come clean to Kelly about the alleged plot because he is 'a dying man' with terminal cancer and wanted BOP officials to be held accountable for decades of using inmates for their own purposes. The solution? Brindley asked that his client to be sent to home detention for an unspecified amount of time until the threat is gone. The filing insisted that time was 'of the essence' in a plot that allegedly was hatched in February 2023. That threat, he said in the Monday filing, loomed larger than ever after Kelly was taken to solitary confinement early last week with medicines for sleep and anxiety in his possession, then was given additional medications by prison officials along with instructions on how to take them. Brindley said he filed the initial motion alleging the murder plot two days after that, on June 12. 'In the early morning hours of June 13, 2025, Mr. Kelly awoke,' the additional Monday motion said. 'He felt faint. He was dizzy. He started to see black spots in his vision. Mr. Kelly tried to get up, but fell to the ground. He crawled to the door of the cell and lost consciousness. He was placed on a gurney. Prison officials wanted him to be taken to the on-site medical facility, but staff there could not assist him. Consequently, Mr. Kelly was taken by ambulance to nearby Duke University Hospital. While in the ambulance, he heard one of the prison officers with him state: 'this is going to open a whole new can of worms.'' Kelly learned at the hospital that he had been given a life-threatening overdose amount of medication, Brindley said in the Monday motion. The singer was hospitalized for two days for treatment. '[W]ithin two days of the filing of his [initial] motion, Bureau of Prisons officials administered an amount of medication that significantly exceeded a safe dose and caused Mr. Kelly to overdose, putting his life in jeopardy. They gave him an amount of medicine that could have killed him,' the Monday motion said. In a response to the Kelly team's initial filing from last week, prosecutors said Tuesday that the singer was asking the court to let him go home indefinitely 'under the guise of a fanciful conspiracy.' They argued that the district court in Illinois doesn't have jurisdiction over Kelly's request for a change in his sentence and therefore need not consider the request. 'The government disputes the fantastic allegations in Kelly's motion,' U.S. Atty. Andrew S. Boutros wrote. 'Kelly is in prison because he is a serial child molester whose criminal abuse of children dates back to at least President Clinton's first term in office — decades before Kelly was taken into federal custody.' Kelly's legal team doubled down on its allegations Tuesday in a reply to that government response, alleging that 'the Federal Bureau of Prisons is taking active steps to kill Robert Kelly' and had 'overdosed Mr. Kelly on medications and nearly killed him,' then 'took him out of a hospital at gunpoint and denied him surgery on blood clots in his lungs that the hospital said needed immediate intervention.' The blood clots reference was related to an allegation that Kelly had been seeking medical care for a swollen leg but had been denied. 'The government doesn't care if R. Kelly is killed in the Bureau of Prisons,' Brindley said in his Tuesday reply. 'They don't care if he dies in solitary confinement. That is obvious. The smug and sanctimonious tenor of their briefing makes that plain. But there is nothing sanctimonious about what is happening to Mr. Kelly.'
American Military News
a day ago
- American Military News
R. Kelly hospitalized after overdosing on meds given by prison staff, lawyer says
Disgraced R&B artist R. Kelly was rushed to a hospital last week after overdosing on medications allegedly given to him by prison staff, his legal team claimed in a new court filing. The 'I Believe I Can Fly' singer, currently serving a 30-year sentence for racketeering and sex trafficking, claims he overdosed after taking medication he received while being held in isolation. According to a June 17 court filing reviewed by USA Today, the 58-year-old was placed in solitary confinement 'against his will' on June 10 after his lawyers filed an emergency motion requesting that he be moved from federal prison to house arrest claiming three Bureau of Prisons officials were allegedly plotting to have him killed. Later that day, prison staff instructed him to take additional medication alongside the anti-anxiety drugs he regularly uses, according to the filing. Three days later, he woke up feeling 'faint' and 'dizzy.' 'He started to see black spots in his vision. Mr. Kelly tried to get up, but fell to the ground,' the lawyers wrote. 'He crawled to the door of the cell and lost consciousness.' The three-time Grammy winner, real name Robert Sylvester Kelly, was taken to Duke University Hospital in Durham, N.C. He was later forcibly discharged two days later against medical advice, since he was scheduled to undergo surgery to treat an ongoing blood clot issue, according to the filing. Even though he was expected to stay at the hospital for two weeks for the procedure, 'officers with guns came into his hospital room' to take Kelly back to solitary confinement, the complaint alleges. His lawyers said they weren't able to speak with their client until late Monday, after a scheduled call was canceled 'without explanation.' Kelly was sentenced to 30 years in prison in 2022 after being convicted in New York of orchestrating the sexual abuse of young female fans over decades. Earlier this year, a federal appeals court in New York rejected his bid to overturn the conviction. He was also convicted on child pornography charges in his hometown of Chicago and sentenced to 20 years, most of which will be served concurrently. Last week, Kelly's defense team said they were 'in open discussions with people close to President Trump' regarding a potential presidential pardon. 'We believe that President Trump is the only person with the courage to help us,' attorney Beau Brindley told People. Kelly, who maintains his innocence, is serving his sentence at a medium-security prison in Butner, N.C. He'll be eligible for release in 2045, at age 78. ___ © 2025 New York Daily News. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
