R. Kelly's legal trouble continues to mount and mount, this time over a lawsuit that he allegedly was never aware of. Moreover, according to new court documents reportedly obtained by TMZ, he blasted a $10.5 million August judgement awarded against him to a group of women. The judge in this case oversaw the case of six females who sued the artist and his alleged former manager Donnell Russell for reportedly sabotaging and shutting down a New York City screening of the Surviving R. Kelly docu-series in December of 2018 by threatening a mass shooting. He supposedly expressed that, if he was aware of the suit in the first place, he would have defended himself.
As such, it seems like this $10.5 million sum is a default judgement based on R. Kelly's failure to respond, although that's just an assumption. Given his response, though, it would make sense that said outcome was what won the lawsuit for the six women in this case and time. Regardless, this also follows a pattern of legal pushback from the Chicago native against endeavors against him. For example, he sued Tasha K and various prison workers last year for allegedly leaking information about him.
R. Kelly At A 2019 Chicago Hearing
Back to this specific judgement, though, R. Kelly reportedly expressed that he's simply overwhelmed by the many lawsuits and cases against him, which he can't handle from his North Carolina prison cell. Beyond the sheer quantity, another reason he cited is the many changes in his legal team as of late, which caused him to completely miss the lawsuit. In addition, the 57-year-old said he "cannot read or understand words beyond that of a grade schooler," so he wouldn't have been able to understand the suit in the first place without solid legal counsel. As the final cherry atop the excuse sundae this time around, he claimed Russell was never his manager and that, if he tried to stop the Surviving screening without Kelly, he did it "for his own reasons," not on his orders.
Meanwhile, we'll see if there are any reversals or double-downs in this case. The pop culture world continues to discuss this situation, whether it's for a morbid laugh or for a serious conversation on abuse of power. Surely, it's too big of a case for it to slow down anytime soon. For more news and the latest updates on R. Kelly, come back to HNHH.