R. Kelly was removed from suicide watch by the Metropolitan Detention Center of Brooklyn yesterday (July 5), just days after he sued the facility.
The singer has been in custody at the facility following his recent 30-year sentence for the federal racketeering and sex trafficking charges he was convicted of last year.
Kelly’s lawyers filed a lawsuit and temporary restraining order against the Brooklyn facility and its warden, Heriberto Tellez, alleging it has a “policy of punishing high profile inmates by placing them under the harsh conditions of suicide watch even though they are not suicidal.”
The suit claimed that Kelly was being made to wear a paper smock and wasn’t allowed utensils to eat his meals, and that he was seeking “compensatory damages for all emotional distress, humiliation, pain and suffering, and other harm in an amount to be determined at trial.”
According to a new court filing, Tellez has authorised the suicide watch to be lifted following a clinical assessment. As per Pitchfork, Kelly’s “emergency motion for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction is now moot.”
Kelly’s sentencing took place on June 29, after his lawyers attempted back in April to have it delayed. Prosecutors had recommended that Kelly be given at least 25 years for his crimes, with the R&B singer ultimately receiving 30.
“The public has to be protected from behaviours like this,” US District Judge Ann Donnelly said during the sentencing. “These crimes were calculated and carefully planned and regularly executed for almost 25 years. You taught them that love is enslavement and violence.”
Kelly is still set to stand trial in Chicago federal court on counts of child pornography and obstruction, and various other charges in Illinois and Minnesota.