Judge: Kelly’s lawyers will have to wait to learn accusers’ identities

Singer R. Kelly’s lawyers will have to wait to learn the identities of two of his accusers after a ruling Wednesday from a federal judge in New York who said prosecutors “substantiated” that Kelly has the ability to interfere with his case from prison.

U.S. District Judge Ann M. Donnelly wrote in a four-page ruling that courts routinely deny requests for victims’ identities in racketeering cases, “especially when the government demonstrates a risk to witness safety, the potential for witness intimidation or subornation of perjury.”

In Kelly’s case, the judge noted prosecutors cited “instances in which the defendant has circumvented prison protocols to communicate with third parties, including by abusing the legal mail system and using a prison staff member’s telephone.”

The feds alleged earlier this month that Kelly smuggled a letter into the federal jail where he’s been locked up and used an “unmonitored line” to make an unrecorded phone call.

Kelly has been held in Chicago’s downtown Metropolitan Correctional Center ever since his arrest in July.

Prosecutors said the smuggled letter was brought to Kelly by an attorney who “is not one of the defendant’s attorneys of record in this case.” They said it was marked “Legal” to avoid inspection.

They also said a prison staff member gave Kelly permission to use a telephone to contact a third party — a call that “was not recorded and obviously circumvented the protocols in place to ensure monitoring of the defendant’s communications.”

Kelly’s defense attorney, Steve Greenberg, has argued Kelly “simply has no means or method by which to engage in any obstructive conduct.” Greenberg has also said “the defense cannot conduct any investigation or adequately prepare for trial without knowing who each of the supposed ‘victims’ are.”

The victims are referred to in court records in New York as “Jane Doe #2” and “Jane Doe #3.”

Prosecutors have said in court documents they intend to disclose the full identity of the witnesses to Kelly’s legal team about two weeks before the trial date.

The R&B star faces federal indictments in Chicago and Brooklyn, as well as local charges in Cook County and Minnesota. The federal case in Chicago alleges child pornography and obstruction of justice, while the feds in Brooklyn have alleged racketeering.

A revised version of the Brooklyn indictment filed in December also accused Kelly of scheming with others to obtain fake identification for his onetime protégé, Aaliyah, through bribery around the time of their marriage in 1994. Aaliyah was 15 at the time.

Prosecutors in New York have said witnesses told them Kelly married Aaliyah to avoid criminal charges and to keep her from testifying against him. Aaliyah died in 2001.