R. Kelly Sues US Prison Bureau For Seizing His Commissary Funds

R. Kelly recently filed a lawsuit against the United States government to retrieve his commissary funds, which Heather Williams accessed following a ruling by the Illinois Supreme Court in March 2023. The lawsuit announcement was made public and caught by HipHopDX. It read, in part,

“The defendant is appealing his conviction and the government’s seizure of his substantial Bureau of Prisons commissary account to satisfy the financial penalties imposed in the case,…”

With ongoing lawsuits and criminal charges, Kelly’s legal troubles have mounted over the years. He has been the target of several accusations of sexual assault. He was found guilty of racketeering and the Mann Act in 2021; three counts of luring a juvenile and three counts of child pornography followed a year later. At FCI Butner Medium I, Kelly is now serving a 31-year sentence. His release date is December 21, 2045, at the age of 78. Kelly stated in January of 2023 that he was unaware that he had lost a lawsuit for $10.5 million in August of 2023. He pointed to dealing with several cases and changing legal teams as possible errors. Despite his claims of unawareness, the consequences of his actions are apparent in the significant financial and legal penalties he faces, even as he continues to battle with the law.

In a statement, his attorney, Jennifer Bonjean, said:

“We are absolutely pushing back on the $10.5 million default judgment that was entered against him without notice and without a sound legal justification. It would be simplistic and silly to write that the basis for our motion to vacate the windfall judgment relates solely to his illiteracy (although he is in fact functionally illiterate per formalized testing). The more significant problem is that there was no legal basis to enter the default judgment on the merits.”

Assistant United States Attorney Kayla Bensing will represent the United States.

R. Kelly sues Bureau Of Prisons over seized commissary funds pic.twitter.com/SqGyL8b9Ck

— HipHopDX (@HipHopDX) March 17, 2024