A key attorney for indicted singer R. Kelly has abruptly asked to withdraw from the federal case against him in New York, potentially throwing his legal team into further disarray just a week before jury selection is set to begin there.
Nicole Blank Becker, who took over the case in June after Kelly said he wanted to part ways with his two Chicago-based attorneys, filed her motion to withdraw last week under seal, according to court records and sources who spoke to the Tribune about the matter.
Over the weekend, an order from U.S. District Judge Ann Donnelly appeared briefly on the public docket giving Becker until 5 p.m. Monday to submit a letter privately to the judge supporting her request to withdraw. The submission was to be made ex parte, meaning prosecutors would not get to see it.
The reasons for her request are unclear and it’s not known whether the judge will grant it. The motion is expected to be discussed Tuesday at Kelly’s final pretrial conference in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn.
Contacted by phone Monday, Becker declined to comment on the situation. “We’ll find out tomorrow,” she said.
The development comes as Becker and her co-attorneys hit back on a request by federal prosecutors to admit new evidence of sexual abuse at trial, saying in a court filing over the weekend they were “blindsided” and have no time to prepare an adequate defense.
The motion asked Donnelly to deny prosecutors’ attempt to add 15 new alleged victims to the case, which alleges a conspiracy by Kelly to use his music career to serve his own illegal sexual appetites.
“Given the nearness of trial, the defense is not given ample amount of time to ensure an adequate opportunity to assess the evidence, the purpose for which the evidence is offered,” and whether prosecutors had the legal basis for their request, Backer and attorney Thomas Farinella wrote in the 13-page motion late Friday.
Kelly, 54, is scheduled to go on trial in Brooklyn Aug. 9 on racketeering charges alleging he ran a criminal enterprise that recruited women and underage girls for illegal sexual contact, then isolated and threatened them to keep them under control.
The allegations in the indictment include dozens of acts involving six victims, identified only as Jane Does 1 through 6.
But a 55-page motion filed July 23, prosecutors said they want to bring in additional evidence involving sexual abuse, hush payments, unlawful imprisonment and other crimes dating back 30 years that are “directly relevant to and inextricably intertwined with the evidence of the charged crimes.”
Among the new evidence prosecutors want the jury to hear: Kelly allegedly sexually abused a 17-year-old boy he’d met at a Chicago McDonald’s in December 2006; he secretly arranged to marry 15-year-old phenom singer Aaliyah to “shield himself” from criminal charges after he allegedly got her pregnant; and he allegedly talked about bribing a Cook County Circuit Court clerk for information when he was under investigation in 2019.
Kelly’s lawyers said in response that prosecutors “blindsided” them with the allegations about the sexual abuse of the boy, which was the first to involve a male victim and would have led to additional questions about sexual orientation on the questionnaire that went out to potential jurors last month.
The new allegations also contend the first boy, identified only as John Doe #1, introduced Kelly to a second teenage boy identified as John Doe #2, with whom Kelly also allegedly had an improper sexual relationship.
“The topic of sexual orientation has become as controversial as politics,” Kelly’s attorneys wrote. “This topic would have been ripe for questioning in the jury questionnaire. … There is no question that the only purpose for which government seeks to introduce evidence from the John Does is purely salacious and sensational reasons.”
The motion also stated there was “absolutely no physical proof, nor circumstantial proof,” that the new allegations involving Aaliyah — identified in the indictment as Jane Doe #1 — are true, and even if there was such evidence, she can’t be questioned about it since she died in a plane crash nearly 20 years ago.
“Therefore, the additional information the government seeks to introduce regarding (Aaliyah) is nothing more than conjecture and an effort to further shape their narrative,” the motion stated.
Kelly’s attorneys also objected to prosecutors failing to identify the alleged new victims by name, which they say puts them at a “disadvantage when it comes to adequately preparing” cross-examinations of witnesses.
Donnelly is expected to rule on whether the new evidence can come in to the trial after Tuesday’s pretrial conference.
Opening statements are scheduled for Aug. 18. The trial is expected to last at least a month.
Kelly, who is being held at a federal jail in Brooklyn, also faces charges in U.S. District Court in Chicago related to alleged sex abuse of minors, as well as separate indictments brought in Cook County.