R. Kelly Has Health Issues That Aren't Being Treated In Jail, Lawyer Claims In Bid For His Release

R. Kelly’s lawyer is fighting to have the singer released from jail due to various issues with his health that he says aren’t being treated while Kelly is behind bars.

Kelly, 52, is currently in custody at Chicago’s Metropolitan Correctional Center as he awaits trial on a number of federal charges, but his lawyer, Steve Greenberg, is working overtime attempting to secure his release. Greenberg filed a motion Monday claiming that Kelly suffers from “numbness in his hand, anxiety, and an untreated hernia,” and he is “not presently receiving adequate medical care” for those conditions, the Chicago Sun-Times reports.

Greenberg also lodged complaints regarding the visitation policies at the facility, according to the paper. Kelly is given a phone allowance of only 300 minutes per month, while his in-person visits are also restricted, with Kelly being unable to visit freely with his multiple “lady friends,” he explained.

“His visits are severely restricted; presently, he is only allowed one unrelated person to visit. In other words, although he lives and has lived with two lady friends, only one of them is allowed to be on his visiting list, and after 90 days he is required to switch,” the filing reads, according to the Sun-Times.

“No other friends or professional colleagues are allowed to visit. That is not right,” Greenberg went on.

Of Kelly’s two “lady friends,” Azriel Clary is currently cleared to visit him, TMZ reports. Joycelyn Savage, who has also been linked to Kelly, is likely the second “lady friend” who will have to wait before she’s allowed to meet with the singer, the outlet theorized.

In his attempt to get secure bail for Kelly, Greenberg brought up his client's lack of previous convictions and claimed that he is not likely to flee from justice, according to NBC Chicago. The motion reportedly mentions Kelly’s passport, which has not been stamped even once, despite it being issued to Kelly nearly 10 years ago.

Kelly also has “almost no financial resources,” making his escape even more unlikely, the motion claims.

Greenberg’s request was filed in the Eastern District of New York, where Kelly is also facing numerous charges, including racketeering, kidnapping, and the sexual exploitation of a child. A separate indictment in Chicago also involves child sex crimes.

Both indictments were unsealed in July and contain a number of disturbing allegations. Kelly has been accused of engaging in sexual acts with minors over a period of decades and recording those illicit activities and keeping the tapes as part of his “collection.” He and his business manager are also alleged to have paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes to persuade Kelly’s alleged victims to withhold evidence from law enforcement.

Kelly is also facing similar allegations in Minnesota, but authorities have said that the federal charges he’s facing in New York and Illinois take precedence over the charges there, which include claims that Kelly paid a 17-year-old girl to take off her clothes in front of him.

Kelly was arrested most recently in Chicago in July and has been in police custody ever since. He was previously denied bail in August and has pleaded not guilty to the charges he faces.

A status hearing for Kelly’s case in New York is scheduled to take place on Wednesday, according to the Sun-Times.