R. Kelly's manager, Donnell Russell, was sentenced to 20 months in prison on Thursday, after pleading guilty to stalking one of the singer's sexual abuse victims and the unnamed woman's mother.
Per a statement released by the Department of Justice, Russell was charged with interstate stalking, harassing the victim, identified as Jane Doe, via telephone calls, text messages, and emails.
The prosecution accused Russell of launching the campaign to discourage the victim from coming forward with accusations against disgraced musician Kelly, 55.
Breon Peace, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said in announcing the sentence: "For more than a year, the defendant engaged in a vicious campaign to harass, humiliate and threaten the victim in order to force her to dismiss her lawsuit against R. Kelly and stop speaking publicly about him.
"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."
Per the Department of Justice, between November 2018 and February 2020, Russell, 47, threatened to expose sexually explicit photographs of the victim and reveal her sexual history if she did not withdraw her lawsuit against Kelly.
In November 2018, the victim's lawyer received a letter purportedly written by Kelly that included attachments of cropped nude photographs of Jane Doe. The accompanying text threatened that "the next two pictures have been cropped for the sake of not exposing her extremities to the world, yet!!!"
The following month, Donnell, using the alias Colon Dunn, sent a series of text messages to the victim and her mother. The messages included the same photographs of the victim, alongside the message: "Just a sample. We will seek criminal charges. You've been warned." Another message stated: "Publishing soon."
In January 2019, a message sent to the victim and her mother read: "Pull the plug or you will be exposed."
That same month, Russell, using the Colon Dunn alias, created a Facebook Page named "Surviving Lies," in reference to Lifetime's 2019 documentary Surviving R. Kelly, which detailed a series of allegations against the singer.
Per prosecutors, Russell posted screenshots of text messages between Kelly and the victim. The messages included the same sexually explicit photographs of Jane Doe. The images were again shared by Russell when he appeared on two livestreamed YouTube interviews with vloggers as he spoke in support of Kelly.
Kelly, full name Robert Sylvester Kelly, was in September found guilty in his Chicago federal trial of several charges related to child porn.
He was found guilty of six charges related to sexual abuse of minors, the production of child pornography and an alleged cover-up, Courthouse News Service reported. The jury chose to acquit him on seven additional charges.
The R&B star had been on trial along with one of his former assistants, Milton "June" Brown, and his previous business manager, Derrel McDavid. The charges brought against Kelly included sexual exploitation of children, child pornography and conspiracy to defraud the U.S.
For their part, Brown and McDavid face allegations that they had conspired to "bribe and intimidate witnesses in a bid to conceal evidence pertaining to a 2008 criminal trial on child pornography charges in Cook County, Illinois," Newsweek previously reported.
In another trial, jurors found Kelly guilty on nine counts of federal racketeering and sex trafficking. He was slapped with a 30-year prison sentence in June, although his attorneys previously stated that they would seek an appeal.
Kelly has maintained his innocence in both cases.
Update 11/18/22, 5:15 a.m. ET: This article was updated to add extra information.
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