Disgraced R&B singer R. Kelly was hospitalized last week after overdosing on medication that prison staff gave him, his lawyers said.
In a court motion filed Monday, Kelly’s lawyers claimed prison staff gave him an overdose of his anxiety and sleep medications while he was in solitary confinement.
Kelly is serving a 30-year sentence in North Carolina for racketeering and sex trafficking. He was moved to solitary confinement earlier in June, according to the motion.
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His lawyers said that after the overdose, the singer was taken to a hospital, and he was there for two days before he was removed from the hospital and brought back to prison against medical advice. According to Kelly’s lawyers, the singer was set for surgery for blood clots in his lungs, adding that without the surgery, he could die.
The Federal Bureau of Prisons did not comment on the incident, citing pending litigation, CNN reported.
Kelly’s lawyers claim the 58-year-old is not safe in prison and are asking that a judge move him from the North Carolina prison where he is serving his sentences to home detention.
“Mr. Kelly’s life is in danger and the threat comes from Bureau of Prisons officers whose duty is to protect him,” lawyer Beau Brindley wrote in the court motion.
Brindley alleged the federal Bureau of Prisons is “seeking to kill” the singer “to cover up crimes committed in the investigation of his case.”
Brindley had claimed earlier in June that prison officials recruited a white supremacist to kill Kelly.
