R. Kelly’s former manager James Mason has surrendered to police over accusations that he threatened the family of a woman Kelly was alleged to be holding captive.
According to TMZ, the father of Joycelyn Savage claims that Mason called him and said, “I’m gonna do harm to you and your family, when I see you I’m gonna get you, I’m going to f—ing kill you.”
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In August 2018, the Henry County Sheriff’s Department issued a warrant for Mason’s arrest, citing charges of making “felony terroristic threats and acts.”
Mason finally turned himself in early Friday morning, subsequently being released hours later on $10,000 bond. He was ordered to have absolutely no contact with the Savage family, and he is not to leave the country unless he first gets the trip approved by the court.
The allegations that Kelly had brainwashed Savage and was holding her hostage in a sex cult surfaced in 2017, with her family going non the record as to how they first came to be in contact with the R&B singer in the first place.
“When we got to go backstage with R. Kelly, we stayed there over two hours,” said the mother. “One-on-one with just me and my daughter and him. We went back to talk about the music. He listened to her CD. He was going to help her with her CD, and I was really impressed with him at first, because I have always been an R. Kelly fan.”
Following that first meeting, the Savage family says that Joycelyn maintained communication with Kelly in secret. “As far as I know, we weren’t talking to [Kelly] anymore. Or at least I wasn’t talking to him anymore,” her mother reportedly said.
The family went on to say that Kelly then brought Joycelyn into one of his many alleged “cult” homes, and forced her to cut off all contact with them.
“It was as if she was brainwashed. [She] looked like a prisoner — it was horrible,” her mother recalled at the time, speaking of one of the last times they saw their daughter in person. “I hugged her and hugged her. But she just kept saying she’s in love and [Kelly] is the one who cares for her.”
“I don’t know what to do. I hope that if I get her back, I can get her treatment for victims of cults. They can reprogram her, ” she added. “But I wish I could have stopped it from happening.”
Kelly has consistently and vehemently denied the accusations against him, but recently found himself facing even more scrutiny after the release of Surviving R. Kelly, a docuseries that focused on the many sexual assault and misconduct allegations against him.
He is also now at the center of a police investigation regarding the accusations.
