R. Kelly manager demands speedy trial in federal case

The business manager indicted along with R&B singer R. Kelly is insisting on going to trial in Chicago’s federal courthouse in April, according to paperwork filed Monday.

The unusual speedy trial demand from Derrel McDavid, Kelly’s longtime manager, followed last week’s news that a grand jury had handed up a revised indictment against Kelly, McDavid and Kelly employee Milton Brown.

Though that indictment threatens to delay the April 27 trial set for all three men, McDavid attorneys Beau Brindley and Vadim Glozman wrote Monday that “It is Mr. McDavid’s request to be tried on the April 27, 2020,” and they objected to any further delay.

The next hearing in the case is set for March 5. Kelly is also set to go to trial July 7 in federal court in Brooklyn.

Kelly has faced federal indictments in Chicago and Brooklyn since last summer, in addition to earlier local charges in Cook County and more recent charges in Minnesota. The federal case in Chicago alleges child pornography and obstruction of justice, while the feds in Brooklyn have alleged racketeering.

The new indictment that landed last week in Chicago added an alleged victim to the set of allegations against Kelly. It also removed an individual from the list of victims.

McDavid also faces child pornography and obstruction of justice charges in the new indictment. It alleges McDavid played a key role in paying off victims and witnesses in the lead-up to Kelly’s 2008 Cook County child pornography trial, which ended in Kelly’s acquittal.