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Artist News Legal Top Stories
R Kelly’s lawyer accuses State Attorney of acting improperly
By Andy Malt | Published on Tuesday 2 April 2019
R Kelly’s attorney Steve Greenberg has filed a motion in court to have all communications between Cooke County State Attorney Kim Foxx and lawyer Michael Avenatti preserved. He argues that the two have improperly worked together on the criminal case against his client, and that there are now “serious questions” about “whether Kim Foxx was bullied or just simply manipulated by Avenatti”.
Foxx urged Kelly’s accusers to come forward in the wake of the documentary ‘Surviving R Kelly’. Meanwhile legal man Avenatti has been conducting his own investigations into various accusations of child abuse against the star. He has said that he has uncovered various pieces of video evidence that prove the musician’s guilt. One, which was handed to Foxx’s office, allegedly shows Kelly having sex with a fourteen year old girl.
Greenberg said yesterday that Avenatti has “acted as a de facto prosecutor” and has “polluted” the case, with the co-operation of Foxx. He says he wants the court to ensure that all communications between Foxx and Avenatti are preserved so that they can be investigated for impropriety.
Attempting to cast doubt on the trustworthiness of those working on the case against Kelly, he highlighted recent accusations that Avenatti attempted to extort millions of dollars from Nike and criticism of Foxx’s handling of the recent Jussie Smollet case. He said that Avenatti was using the Kelly investigation to distract attention away from him and that Foxx was too easily swayed by others.
Greenberg also said that Foxx’s admission that she had been abused as a child “creates the appearance of bias and an understandable willingness, desire and propensity to rush to judgment in prosecuting”.
Responding via a statement on Twitter yesterday, Avenatti wrote: “Steve Greenberg, R Kelly’s attorney, is now trying to distract attention away from the clear guilt of his client by raising bogus arguments about me and Kim Foxx. The evidence is the evidence. Multiple witnesses/tapes, plus DNA. R Kelly will be convicted for his sexual abuse of girls”.
“The only thing that has ‘polluted’ the R Kelly case”, he added, “is Steve Greenberg and R Kelly’s never-ending bullshit”.
Foxx’s office declined to comment, but, according to the Chicago Sun-Times, in a court response to Greenberg’s motion, Assistant State Attorney Jennifer Gonzalez said that the “accusations and speculation [are] lacking in factual support, [and] also bear no discernible relation to defendant’s request that certain evidence be preserved”. She also noted that state laws already require records of communications to be kept.
Kelly’s request to be allowed to travel to Dubai for a series of live shows was also put on hold yesterday. Last month his legal team requested that he be allowed to leave the US for up to five concerts in the Middle Eastern country, which they said were booked before the recent sexual abuse charges that required him to rescind his passport. However, the Dubai government quickly issued a statement saying that no such shows were scheduled.
Greenberg said that the request to travel may be revived at a later date, but it would be done through Kelly’s entertainment lawyer.
