Entertainment
R. Kelly Rushed to Hospital After Overdose, Lawyers Say His Life Is in Danger
American singer R. Kelly was taken to the hospital on June 13 after collapsing in his prison cell from what his lawyer says was a near-fatal overdose.
Kelly, 58, is serving a 30-year sentence for sex trafficking and racketeering in a North Carolina prison. He had been placed in solitary confinement just three days before he fainted.
His lawyer, Beau Brindley, said Kelly was given a dangerously high dose of medication on June 12. “This was no mistake,” Brindley said. “It was a dose that jeopardized his life and nearly ended it.”
Doctors at Duke University Hospital found blood clots in his lungs and legs and said he needed emergency surgery. But before the surgery could happen, armed officers came and forced him back to prison, ignoring the doctors’ warnings.
“He was taken from the hospital against his will and against the directives of the doctors,” Brindley said. “Hospital records will confirm it. It is undeniable.”
Kelly’s lawyers are now asking the court to let him leave prison temporarily so he can get proper medical care. They fear he could die if he stays.
They also included a statement from another inmate, Mikeal Glenn Stine, who claimed prison staff and white supremacist groups were plotting to kill Kelly. Brindley believes the overdose may not have been an accident.
Since then, Kelly has been kept in solitary, where he sleeps in a dirty cell with bugs, no phone calls, and refuses to eat out of fear of being poisoned.
“This is not a theory,” Brindley said. “This happened. And if nothing is done, he may not survive.”
