LAST CHANCE

R. Kelly’s Lawyers’ Last-Ditch Effort to Dismiss Charges: Herpes Isn’t That Bad

The disgraced singer was set to stand trial in Brooklyn federal court Wednesday, and his defense team tried one last bizarre, typo-laden push to get him off the hook.

The day before R. Kelly faced his long-awaited trial on racketeering charges in Brooklyn federal court, his lawyers made their final bid to dismiss the case. Among other bizarre, typo-laden arguments, they claimed the disgraced R&B singer should not be held criminally responsible for transmitting herpes to a minor because it is not life-threatening.

In a memo filed Monday night in response to the government’s opposition to their motion to dismiss the nine-count indictment against Kelly, the singer’s defense lawyers argue that herpes does not fall under a public health law’s definition of an “acute, bacterial venereal disease.” The memo adds that if HIV is not considered a serious injury because “it no longer poses a grave risk of death”—and thus its transmission is not criminally liable— then “herpes should not be judge [sic] differently.”

Brooklyn prosecutors allege Kelly knowingly exposed at least one minor to a sexually transmitted infection that they subsequently contracted in 2015. Kelly’s lawyers also argue that count one—which alleges Kelly engaged in a conspiracy to bribe and kidnap women and girls—“should be dismissed because the alleged violations of law occurred outside the proscribed statutory period of time such claims could be made.”

See more of our coverage in your search results.

ADD THE DAILY BEAST ON GOOGLE

Pilar MelendezSenior National Reporter

Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast here.