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R. Kelly moved out of solitary confinement in Chicago jail

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Scott Olson/Getty ImagesR. Kelly is no longer in solitary confinement as he awaits trial in Chicago.

The R&B singer has been incarcerated in Chicago’s Metropolitan Correction Center, or MCC, since he was arrested July 11 after being indicted on numerous alleged sexual assault crimes, with the exception of August 1 through 7, when Kelly traveled to New York City to be arraigned there on other sexual assault charges.

Since his initial arrest in Chicago, Kelly as spent all of his time at the MCC in the so-called Special Housing Unit, or SHU, aka solitary confinement.  In response to a motion filed by his attorneys demanding that Kelly be moved from SHU to the general population, the U.S. attorney overseeing Kelly’s case on Tuesday revealed that not only had it already been done that very day, but that Kelly had been held in the SHU at his own request.

“[D]efendant himself chose not to be housed in general population, which is documented in a recorded jail call,” the response to the motion reads, in part.  “In addition, defendant initially refused a cellmate in the SHU. … After his initial refusal, MCC staff gave him a cellmate anyway, and since then defendant has not been in solitary confinement.”

The response continues: “The SHU is certainly more restrictive than general population, but defendant’s last three weeks in the SHU were not in solitary, and in any event, until recently, defendant preferred to be in the SHU over general population. Once defendant changed his mind about general population, MCC staff began making arrangements for his transfer, which occurred on September 3, 2019.”

The three-page response also includes a timeline of related events to back federal prosecutors’ claims.

Kelly was indicted in Chicago on 18 counts of alleged sex crimes against 10 victims and is also facing charges in Brooklyn, New York. Through his attorneys, he’s denied all of the charges.

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