In the latest development of the rape case against Chris Brown and his friend, Lowell Grissom Jr., a Los Angeles judge has ordered Chris to pay $2,500 in sanctions to the woman suing Chris and Lowell for sexual assault. The Jane Doe has alleged that she was raped by Chris, Lowell, and an unnamed female friend of theirs at an after-party at Chris’ home in the Tarzana neighbourhood of Los Angeles in February 2017. In the suit, she also claims that she was forced to have her phone confiscated, and accuses Chris of trying to give her cocaine, molly, and marijuana before the alleged assault was committed. He has denied the allegations.

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In December, Jane Doe asked that Chris be forced to sit for a deposition and grilled under oath, after demanding his phone records be handed over to the court a month prior. She filed a motion accusing him of making it difficult to schedule a deposition, which was heavily redacted. The judge has agreed to her request and has scheduled Chris to appear for a deposition on Wednesday, February 19th, 2020, at 10:00am. These developments come in the wake of Chris’ legal representation filing a motion demanding to be withdrawn from his case, accusing him of failing to meet his obligations under their contract.

“Over the past several months, Mr. Brown has not met his material obligations under the terms of our engagement letter, and has rendered it unreasonably difficult for Tarlow & Berk to carry out the representation effectively,” said his lawyer, Blair Berk “Our relationship with Mr. Brown has come to a point where Tarlow & Brown and I can no longer adequately defend or represent him,” she said. 

For some reason, R. Kelly has been expecting prosecutors to take it easy on him. Earlier today, it was reported that his request was denied to have the identities of two Jane Doe accusers revealed in his federal case. Kelly’ lawyer, Steve Greenberg, claimed that it would be difficult to build a defence without this information, but the judge was more concerned about Kelly intimidating his alleged victims, as he has in the past. 

Turns out Greenberg had also asked the judge to cut Kells some slack in regards to his attendance at an upcoming hearing. There is a hearing scheduled for February 6 in New York for his federal case, but Kelly wished to be exempt from appearing at it. According to court documents obtained by The Blast, Greenberg wrote in a letter to the judge that he would not be able to make it on that date and neither would another one of Kelly’s lawyers. 

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Frankly, the prosecutors did not give two hoots about whatever excuse Kelly and his team were providing. They responded to the request: “In light of the upcoming trial date and the serious nature of the charges that the defendant faces, the government respectfully requests that, absent a compelling reason, the defendant appear by video conference at the conference scheduled for February 6, 2020.”

With all the charges being brought against R. Kelly in both federal and state courts, it seems highly unlikely that he will become a free man any time soon. Regardless, he is denying accusations wherever he can and one particular case is proving especially challenging for him to defend himself. 

In his federal trial taking place in Brooklyn, the disgraced singer has been fighting to get two of his accusers identified, as they are currently listed as Jane Doe No. 2 and Jane Doe No. 3 in court papers. A few weeks ago, Kelly’s lawyer, Steve Greenberg, wrote a letter to the judge pleading for the accusers’ names to be released to help Kelly’s team prepare for the trial. “It is impossible to interview witnesses, to search for records, or to do anything without this information,” Greenberg wrote. 

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Despite Greenberg’s argument, Brooklyn Federal Judge Ann Donnelly is refusing to cooperate. According to Page Six, The request was formally denied on Wednesday (Jan. 29), as prosecutors informed Donnelly that Kelly has a history of using intimidation tactics against his accusers. An example was cited of Kelly sending a threatening letter to Heather Williams, who filed a lawsuit against him for giving her herpes in 2017 when she was 19. In the letter, Kelly supposedly told Williams that if she “really cares about her own reputation she should cease her participation and association with the organizers of this negative campaign.” The court papers also state that he warned her that “counter actions are in the developmental stages and due to be released soon.”

Kelly’s legal team will have to find a way to move forward without the alleged victims’ names. Jane Doe No. 2 claims the defendant had sex with her in 1999, when she was 16 years. Jane Doe No. 3 claims that, between 2003 and 2004, Kelly locked her in a bedroom in a Chicago recording studio for three days without food and sexually assaulted her while she was unconscious.

R. Kelly‘s star power may have got him out of a few binds in the past but these days, the feds have all eyes on him. As the singer awaits his day in court, he’s facing more allegations from the prosecutors about his alleged conduct inside the jail system. According to The Blast, prosecutors have accused R. Kelly of violated prison regulations with unmonitored communication with the outside.

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It all started when Kelly tried to file a motion in his recent criminal case demanding to know the names of the two Jane Does list in the criminal indictment for his own defense. Prosecutors later argued his history of harassment towards his accusers. “At the time of his arrest Mr. Kelly was living in a small condominium, working with his longtime producer, without other employees of note, and effectively without any income. He had no “enterprise” as the government likes to call his career and his business, RSK Enterprises,” said Kelly’s lawyer.

Prosecutors pointed out an incident of a threatening letter sent to an accuser. Kelly’s lawyer said that he doesn’t know how to read or write but the prosecutors said that doesn’t mean he can’t direct others to write it for him. 

In terms of unmonitored conversation, they said he took purposeful “steps on multiple occasions to bypass these safeguards. 

In November 2019, the defendant, in contravention of prison regulations, used an intermediary to smuggle a letter a third party wrote to him into the detention center where he is currently housed. The letter was marked “Legal” – in an attempt to avoid inspection of the correspondence – and was provided to the defendant during a legal visit by an attorney who is not one of the defendant’s attorneys of record in this case (the “Attorney”) during a visit with the Attorney. Again, it is clear, despite the defendant’s claims to the contrary, that he has methods of passing messages between himself and his confederates with no evidence of visits or telephone calls between them.

These incidents demonstrate that the defendant has sought out, and likely will continue to seek out, clandestine means of communication. It also demonstrates that the defendant has, at his disposal, individuals willing to assist him in bypassing the traditional methods used to monitor the defendant’s communications while incarcerated. In these circumstances, the defendant’s attempt to paint himself as being completely isolated from the outside world and unable to communicate without monitoring such that obstructive conduct would be impossible is simply not credible.

These same documents filed also alleged Kelly used his marriage to Aaliyah to avoid prosecution.