Donnell Russell, who used to be R. Kelly’s manager, has been sent to jail for stalking the singer’s victims of sexual assault.
Russell had already admitted that he had threatened, bothered, and scared Kelly’s victims while the singer was on trial.
In July, the Chicago district attorney said that Donnell also said he would release naked pictures of an unnamed victim if she kept suing the singer.
The statement said, “Between November 2018 and February 2020, Russell, a self-described manager, advisor, and friend of Kelly, used the mail, phones, and the internet to harass and intimidate Jane Doe, a victim in the Kelly case, and her mother after Jane Doe filed a civil lawsuit against R. Kelly.
“Specifically, Russell threatened to reveal sexually explicit photographs of Jane Doe and to publicly reveal her sexual history if she did not withdraw her lawsuit against Kelly and ‘cease her participation and association with the organizers’ of a ‘negative campaign’ against Kelly.”
After Russell pleaded guilty, a federal judge in Brooklyn gave him a 20-month prison sentence on Thursday.
Breon Peace, the US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, praised the decision and said the sentence was a “victory for crime victims.”
“The punishment meted out to the defendant today is a victory for crime victims, particularly those of sexual assault and abuse, who are often reluctant to come forward to law enforcement or pursue legal recourse, given the trauma and fear of retaliation associated with publicly discussing their experiences,” Peace said in the statement.
In June, a federal court in Brooklyn sentenced the musician, whose real name is Robert Sylvester Kelly, to 30 years in prison for recruiting and trapping teenagers and women for sex.
In September 2021, a jury in New York also found him guilty of running a sex crime ring for ten years.
