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By Chris Cooke | Printed on Friday 18 November 2022
A former supervisor of R Kelly has been jailed for 20 months after pleading responsible to harassing and intimidating one of many musician’s accusers.
Donnell Russell pleaded responsible earlier this yr to prices of stalking, associated to the harassment and intimidation of a lady who accused Kelly of abuse. Russell initially started intimidating the lady and her mom after she filed a civil lawsuit in opposition to the musician, and continued that exercise as soon as it turned clear the lady would seemingly testify as a part of one of many legal prosecutions involving Kelly.
That legal case was in New York, the place Kelly was discovered responsible of operating a legal enterprise to be able to entry and abuse youngsters and girls, a conviction that resulted in a 30 yr jail time period for the music star. He was then later discovered responsible of sexual abuse in a separate trial in his dwelling city of Chicago.
Russell’s prices have been filed again in New York. And yesterday the US Legal professional’s Workplace for the Japanese District of New York confirmed that the previous supervisor had been jailed for 20 months “for his participation in a scheme to harass, intimidate, and trigger substantial emotional misery to Jane Doe, a sufferer within the Japanese District of New York racketeering case in opposition to Robert Sylvester Kelly, often known as R Kelly, and Jane Doe’s mom”.
The assertion from the Legal professional’s Workplace continued: “Between November 2018 and February 2020, Russell threatened to disclose sexually express pictures of Jane Doe and to publicly reveal her sexual historical past if she didn’t withdraw her lawsuit in opposition to Kelly”.
Welcoming the sentencing, US Legal professional for the Japanese District of New York, Breon Peace, said: “For greater than a yr, the defendant engaged in a vicious marketing campaign to harass, humiliate and threaten the sufferer to be able to drive her to dismiss her lawsuit in opposition to R Kelly and cease talking publicly about him”.
“The punishment meted out to the defendant right this moment is a victory for crime victims”, he added, “significantly these of sexual assault and abuse, who are sometimes reluctant to return ahead to legislation enforcement or pursue authorized recourse, given the trauma and worry of retaliation related to publicly discussing their experiences”.
This isn’t Russell’s solely run in with the legislation in relation to his defence of Kelly. Earlier this yr he was additionally discovered responsible of calling in a false gun risk to a New York cinema that was making ready to display screen the documentary ‘Surviving R Kelly’ in 2018. That risk resulted within the occasion being referred to as off.
