R. Kelly has had his prison commissary fund seized and it will be stashed for a later date to be used as restitution for each of the disgraced singer’s victims.
via: New York Post
Federal Judge Ann Donnelly ordered the Bureau of Prisons to turn over $27,828 from Kelly’s inmate trust account in a Chicago lockup to be put in an interest-accruing account until she determines how much money should be paid in restitution to his victims.
The BOP froze the money last month after prosecutors noted that Kelly had “accumulated substantial funds in his inmate trust account,” to the tune of $28,328.24.
Kelly’s lawyers argued “that the BOP impermissibly ‘confiscated’ the funds,” urging the “immediate return” of the money.
But Donnelly noted in a decision from Friday that Kelly — who was convicted last year in New York of sexually abusing women, girls and boys for decades — still hadn’t paid nearly $150,000 in fines and fees ordered at his sentencing.
“The government is entitled to the defendant’s funds because he owes substantial fines,” Donnelly wrote.
“I am also mindful of victims’ rights ‘to full and timely restitution,’” Donnelly said.
“Once restitution is determined by the court, the Clerk of Court should apply the monies held in the interest-bearing account first to the $900 special assessment and then to the restitution judgment,” Donnelly ordered.
Kelly’s lawyer Jennifer Bonjean told The Post, “We plan to appeal.”
In June, Kelly — whose real name is Robert Sylvester Kelly — was sentenced to 30 years in prison in the New York case.
The 55-year-old disgraced R&B singer is on trial in Chicago in a separate case accusing him of videotaping himself having sex with multiple children, luring children for sex and rigging his 2008 pornography trial.
