Incarcerated crooner R. Kelly is looking for a reduction in his 30-year prison sentence, and his lawyer mentioned frat culture during her appeal request.

In an appeals court hearing yesterday(March 18), attorney Jennifer Bonjean said college fraternities could also be considered racketeering organizations under the law that Kelly was convicted of. The law was used when he was found guilty of three counts of child pornography and three counts of child enticement.

MSN reported that Bonjean tried to convince judges that prosecutors misused a racketeering statute that was meant to shut down organized crime to convict R. Kelly in her attempt to get him a new trial or reverse the 2021 convictions.

She said it was unfair prosecutors charged Kelly with leading a Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization (RICO) enterprise from 1994 to 2018.

“This was not a collection of people who had a purpose to recruit girls for sexual abuse or child pornography,” she said. “Whether they turned a blind eye, whether some of them suspected that some of these girls were underage, that’s a whole different matter. And once we get into that sort of territory, where we’re going to say that constitutes a RICO enterprise, well we have a lot of organizations — we have a lot of frat houses — we have all types of organizations that are now going to become RICO enterprises.”

Assistant U.S. attorney Kayla Bensing stated that Kelly’s network of aides and employees was part of his “system in place that lured young people into his orbit” before he “took over their lives.”

TheSource.com will update this story as more details develop.

The post R. Kelly’s Attorney Cites Fraternity Culture While Requesting Sentencing Reduction first appeared on The Source.

The post R. Kelly’s Attorney Cites Fraternity Culture While Requesting Sentencing Reduction appeared first on The Source.

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