R. Kelly Becomes a Victim in Cell

R. Kelly was beaten up in his jail cell by an inmate who blamed the R&B singer because protests outside had caused the place to go on lockdown. Kelly was sitting on his bed when the inmate entered his cell in the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Chicago and started punching him, TMZ reports. A doctor found no serious injuries. The Federal Bureau of Prisons wouldn't say whether Kelly was attacked. "For privacy, safety, and security reasons, we do not comment on an individual inmate’s conditions of confinement or medical status," a statement said.

But a lawyer for Kelly, Steve Greenberg, tweeted Thursday that he'd been told there was an attack but had received no information from the jail and conflicting reports about injuries. He said Kelly hadn't called him. He called for Kelly to be freed, per the Sun Times. "The government cannot ensure his safety, and they cannot give him his day in court," Greenberg said. Kelly has been held since he turned himself in last summer pending trials on charges including racketeering, sexual exploitation of children and child pornography involving several jurisdictions. An attempt to win his release because of the coronavius outbreak failed. (More R. Kelly stories.)