R. Kelly Faces Yet Another Legal Setback in Federal Trial

R. Kelly’s legal woes continue. The “I Believe I Can Fly” singer was found guilty of all counts of racketeering in his Brooklyn criminal trial last Fall. Kelly now faces sentencing, in that case, this coming March. But he has several other sex trafficking and abuse trials scheduled in multiple states, including his hometown of Illinois, Georgia, and Florida. Up next is Illinois, which is scheduled for August. But he may be going to trial without his current legal team who helped in his Brooklyn case.

According to Hot New Hip Hop, Kelly’s lawyers no longer want to represent him in his upcoming child pornography trial. His attorneys Steve Greenberg and Michael Leonard just requested to be removed from the case. There have been rumors circulating in recent weeks that both Greenberg and Leonard filed a motion to withdraw from the case. Greenberg confirmed the rumors are true. 

It’s not the first time his attorneys have tried to withdraw themselves from Kelly. Right before his federal New York case last year, they filed a similar motion to the court. At the time, Greenberg told reporters that Kelly was “insistent that we work with people who we felt would be rendering ineffective assistance as counsel.”

In terms of his Brooklyn case, Kelly will face anywhere between 10 years to life in prison. If found guilty in the upcoming cases, he faces similar times. Kelly is looking to appeal the verdict in the Brooklyn case.

Jennifer Bonjean, who helped appeal Bill Cosby’s verdict, said that she’s “looking forward to getting familiar with the record” in Kelly’s case, as reported by the Chicago Tribune. She continued on working with Kelly: “I am becoming increasingly concerned with how the government is abusing the RICO statute in order to plead around the statute of limitations and essentially put people’s entire lives on trial,” Bonjean said. “It’s becoming a formula for the government. You have a right to defend yourself against specific allegations.”