R. Kelly is currently on lockdown in more ways than one. Since his transfer from a Chicago jail to a Brooklyn one, he's under a mandatory quarantine and his lawyers want to use this chance to delay his forthcoming trial.
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His New York City sex-trafficking trial is set to begin on August 9th, but his legal team is arguing that more time is needed to prepare, according to the Associated Press. In a letter sent to the U.S. District Judge Ann Donnelly this past Monday (July 5), his lawyer Deveraux Cannick wrote that the singer's two-week quarantine has "exacerbated" what Cannick stated was a “herculean effort” to get caught up, following their June 21 hiring.
Cannick also argues that the singer's new lawyers have yet to meet with him face-to-face, due to the required quarantine and that moving forward with the scheduled trial would "rob him of effective and meaningful representation."
Cannick continued to state that the request was not a delay tactic and that “[Kelly] is anxious to have his day in court; however not at the expense of his Sixth Amendment rights.” Donnelly has yet to rule on the matter.
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