R. Kelly Victims Awarded $10.5M Over ‘Surviving R. Kelly’ Screening Threat
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A judge has ruled that R. Kelly must pay a group of women who filed a lawsuit after a screening of Surviving R. Kelly was shut down in December 2018 due to violent intimidation.
According to TMZ, the singer, legal name Robert Kelly, and his former manager Donnell Russell were named as plaintiffs. Defendants claimed that when legal maneuvers did not prevent the planned screening from taking place, a threat was made that someone was “going to shoot up the place.”
Victims alleged the experience triggered their past trauma and resulted in them suffering PTSD and panic attacks, per the tabloid. A judge sided with the women and awarded the group of six $10.5 million, roughly between $1.1 million and $2.25 million each.
Earlier this month, U.S. District Judge Ann Donnelly of Brooklyn ordered a garnishment of Kelly’s royalties to pay owed restitution and fines totaling $506,950.26 to his victims. Donnelly had previously ordered Kelly to surrender the $28,000 in his prison commissary and apply the money to his debt.
Back in March, one victim, Heather Williams, was granted access to his Sony Music royalties, worth $1.5 million, as well as a separate $4 million settlement from her 2019 lawsuit, which claimed she was lured into Kelly’s studio at age 16 and was repeatedly sexually assaulted.
In July 2022, Russell was convicted of the aforementioned threat and sentenced to one year in prison that December. Kelly was convicted of racketeering and sex-trafficking charges in September 2021 and sentenced to 30 years behind bars.
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