Sometimes life is way stranger than fiction. In the wake of the Me Too era we’ve seen a multitude of celebrities bite the dust and for a lot of them it was a long time coming.
Many of their careers are over and there’s really no coming back from that. One of them is R&B musician R. Kelly who has been accused of some downright harrowing sexual deviances for decades.
And now that R. Kelly is facing criminal charges, the rapper skipped his court hearing for an absurdly hilarious reason.
Famed R&B musician R. Kelly is currently being held in Brooklyn, New York facing federal charges but he also awaits sex-trafficking and racketeering cases in Chicago, Brooklyn and Minneapolis.
The Grammy Award winner is being held without bond, which is normal procedure considering the severity of his charges and also the possibility of Kelly being a flight risk.
The story?
On February 8, 2002, the Chicago Sun-Times broke the story after receiving a video anonymously showing Kelly engaging in sex and urinating on an underage girl.
Four months later, Kelly was indicted on 21 counts of child pornography and six years later a Chicago jury found the Grammy winner not guilty of all charges.
Things mostly remained dormant for Kelly until earlier this year when a six-part Lifetime documentary called “Surviving R. Kelly,” painted a harrowing picture of women he allegedly sexually abused recounting their stories.
Following the release of that documentary, Kelly was indicted on new charges that spanned three states – Illinois, New York and Minnesota – and also included federal charges as well.
He’s in a world of trouble.
There was an eleven page motion filed with a federal judge, Judge Ann Donnelly, asking for the court to reconsider his no-bond deal.
The motion noted, “Mr. Kelly is in his 50’s, does not have any criminal history, has never missed a court date, could not hide or evade surveillance given his fame, now has no passport, has posted a substantial bond in State court, has voluntarily turned himself in on all charges and made no attempt to flee in the face of imminent federal charges, and is presumed innocent.”
But R. Kelly skipped his scheduled court hearing in Chicago on Wednesday due to an infected toenail. Kelly worried that someone might step on it.
Again, sometimes life is way stranger than fiction.
Can you imagine trying to argue in court that the reason why you weren’t able to appear is because you stubbed your toe? They’ll literally transport you from the hospital to court if the circumstances justify it.
The 52-year-old’s defense lawyer for R. Kelly, Steve Greenberg, explained that one of Kelly’s toenails had to be removed as treatment and Kelly was worried someone might trample on his toe as he was escorted to and from court.
The kicker with this story is that he’s literally in a jail only two blocks from the courthouse.
Kelly has pled not guilty to all charges in New York City and Chicago where he’s facing racketeering for sexually abusing girls across state lines.