R. Kelly is claiming that he was unaware of a ruling on August 2023 where six women were awarded $10.5 million over an alleged threat that led to the screening of the docuseries “Surviving R. Kelly” being canceled.
According to legal documents obtained by TMZ, Kelly claims that if he knew about the lawsuit he would have fought against it. The singer also claims that he became overwhelmed by his legal matters, which led him to change his legal representation. The change in legal representation is why he may have missed the lawsuit, he asserts in the documents.
If he did receive the lawsuit, the documents continue, Kelly claims he “cannot read or understand words beyond that of a grade schooler” and relies on his lawyers to share with him what charges he’s facing.
Donnell Russell, Kelly’s former manager, was sentenced in December 2022 to a year in federal prison for calling in a shooting threat that stopped the screening of the documentary in 2018. Before the guilty verdicts against Kelly, Russell tried to protect the singer by threatening one accuser and then phoned in a shooting threat to the Manhattan premiere of the Lifetime documentary.
The phone call claimed that someone at the event had a gun and was going to fire, which led to the premiere being canceled and people evacuating the building.
Kelly argues in the court documents that Russell was never his manager and that he shouldn’t be punished for what Russell did because “he did that for his own reasons.”
