R. Kelly in a Chicago Police Department mug shot, UnWinewithTashaK YouTuber Tasha K pictured during the Nov. 7, 2019 R. Kelly Can’t CONTROL his Girlfriends while BEHIND BARS! video referenced in the lawsuit (YouTube/screengrab)
Racketeering, sex-trafficking, and child pornography convict Robert Sylvester Kelly, better known as R. Kelly, has sued the United States of America, a Bureau of Prisons officer, and a YouTuber over the leak of “private information” about his “romantic relationships,” claiming repeated invasions of his privacy were done for “monetary gain, clout, or simple harassment.”
Kelly, now 56, claimed the U.S. is liable for negligence due to Unknown BOP Officer A’s violations of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) through “unauthorized access to Plaintiff’s TruView [private BOP prison] records a whopping 153 times,” which allegedly resulted in the sharing or selling of the information to LaTasha Kebe, the UnWinewithTashaK YouTuber who has more than one million subscribers on her channel.
The lawsuit, identifying R. Kelly as a “Grammy-award winning recording artist and a nationally recognized celebrity” who is “indisputably the King of R&B,” alleged that invasions of privacy were far more widespread, with “at least 60” federal prison officers accessing his “sensitive, confidential, and private information.”
“Some of those BOP officers either shared and/or sold that information to third parties including members of the media and witnesses in Plaintiff’s criminal prosecution,” the suit said, mentioning that a Washington Post reporter wrote a story about Kelly’s trust account funds, before those funds were seized by the government in 2022.
“The publication not only placed Plaintiff in a false light, falsely suggesting he was concealing his resources (the monies were actually generous gifts from his loyal fan base) but resulted in the DOJ confiscating nearly all of Plaintiff’s monies held in his prison trust account, over $25,000,” the suit claimed.
Beyond that, the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Inspector General conducted a “secret investigation into the unauthorized access” and a special agent concluded that there was “probable cause” to charge Unknown BOP Officer A with a criminal computer fraud offense, the lawsuit said. But no criminal case was brought, leading plaintiff Kelly and his lawyer Jennifer Bonjean to allege that “there has been a cover-up of the rampant BOP misconduct that is ongoing.”
Kelly further claimed that Tasha K used “stolen information” to “harass” him and expose private details about his “literacy,” “medical issues,” and “his romantic relationships,” as part of an alleged effort to “influence witnesses in Plaintiff’s [Eastern District of New York] criminal prosecution.” The lawsuit singled out the Nov. 7, 2019, YouTube video “R. Kelly Can’t Control his Girlfriends while Behind Bars.”
The inmate said that in January 2020, while he was a detainee in Chicago, his longtime girlfriend “began behaving in a hostile and accusatory fashion toward” him “without explanation,” and that they argued about money, “romantic issues, and other highly personal issues.”
The girlfriend Jane Doe, Kelly claimed he “later learned,” then “abruptly began cooperating with the government which led to her becoming the government’s star witness against him in the EDNY prosecution.”
In the Nov. 7, 2019, Tasha K video, the suit continued, the YouTuber “told her viewers that the information came from a ‘phone tap somewhere’” and she appeared to “disclose private and personal information about [his] romantic relationships” — “information that appeared to come from Plaintiff’s prison calls with Jane Doe and his girlfriend JS.”
Kelly noted he was behind bars and, thus, could not watch the YouTuber’s content for himself, so he “had no idea how certain private information was making its way into the public domain.”
Thereafter, the Office of Inspector General’s investigation filled in some of the gaps, the suit said.
Kelly alleged that the “feeding frenzy” on the internet about his “personal life” caused him “significant emotional distress” and “sleepless nights,” as he “did not feel at liberty to freely speak with his attorneys” and worried about the extent to which his private talks had been exposed.
The lawsuit may be a way for Kelly to discover the identity of Unknown BOP Officer A, since the government would certainly have information about its own employees — and then some.
“Defendant Unknown BOP Officer A was not the only BOP officer who engaged in unauthorized access of Plaintiff’s private records. Indeed, Agent Loux reported that at least 60 BOP officers had made unauthorized access to Plaintiff’s confidential TruView records during a six month period. The BOP knows the precise identity of those officers as do the officers who engaged in this unauthorized conduct,” the suit said.
Kelly filed the lawsuit on Monday, under six months after he filed a $1,000,000 claim under the Federal Tort Claims Act, a claim that was rejected.
He sued the U.S. for negligence, and sued Unknown BOP Officer A, other officers and Tasha K for invasions of privacy, conversion, civil conspiracy, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. A seventh cause of action accused Unknown BOP Officer A of violating the CFAA.
Kelly, serving 30 years behind bars, sought a jury trial, compensatory damages, punitive damages “against each of the individual Defendants in their individual capacities,” as well as attorneys’ fees and costs.
The law firm of attorney Jennifer Bonjean said in a press release that Kelly brought the lawsuit to “get answers and justice, because despite opening an investigation into the serious
misconduct, the DOJ ultimately declined to indict the wrongdoers and allowed the misconduct to continue.”
Read the lawsuit here.
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