Court documents reveal R. Kelly's lawyer vehemently-opposing the government's demand for the R&B singer to serve more time on his 30-year prison sentence
R. Kelly was sentenced to 30 years in prison last July on multiple charges of sex trafficking and racketeering; however, recently news broke of the federal government seeking to have Kelly serve an additional 25 years on top of his sentence. According to court documents obtained by AllHipHop (http://bitly.ws/Az3J), Kelly's attorney Jennifer Bonjean strongly-opposes this attempt by federal prosecutors.
"It is the government that fails to grasp that Kelly still enjoys a few constitutional and statutory protections that allow him to challenge the government’s take on the evidence and advocate for an appropriate sentence without being labeled a monster who has no remorse," she declares.
Continuing, she states "In reality, no one grasps the seriousness of the crimes for which Kelly was convicted more than Kelly...Kelly has every right to advocate for himself and argue for a fair sentence that acknowledges the seriousness of the offenses while also pushing back on the government’s embellished narrative that relies significantly on acquitted conduct."
Bonjean accuses the government for impeding upon R. Kelly's 5th Amendment rights and responsible for stymying any attempts by Kelly to "take responsibility".
Bonjean also goes on to accuse the federal government of trying to make Kelly appear as if he had used fear to conduct his sexual-crimes, to which his lawyer denies having been a possibility.
Bonjean affirms "Kelly did not use threats or force to induce Jane, Pauline and Nia into the prohibited sexual conduct, nor did he cause them to fear bodily harm, or any type of harm to induce the prohibited sexual conduct." She claims that instead, Kelly used gift-giving, affection, and star-power to commit his crimes.
Continuing, Kelly's lawyer states "Kelly is convicted of serious crimes as it is, yet the government is so committed to obtaining another life sentence for him that it resorts to invoking unsubstantiated Aaliyah claims, perpetuating rumors from tabloid docuseries, and attributing hyperbolic labels to Kelly rather than relying on the actual evidence to supports its ask."
R. Kelly currently holds an appeal in East New York as well as pending charges in Minnesota.
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