R. Kelly Seeks Prison Release and Asks for House Arrest After Inmate Alleges Officials Asked Him to Kill Singer

An attorney for R. Kelly is alleging that the singer’s life is in danger and asking that he be removed from federal custody and placed on home detention.

An emergency motion for temporary furlough filed in federal court on Tuesday, June 10, and obtained by PEOPLE alleges that three officials with the Bureau of Prisons devised a plot to have Kelly killed by a fellow inmate.

The filing also includes a declaration from that inmate, Mikeal Glenn Stine, who alleges that he was asked to carry out this plot by three high-ranking individuals from the BOP while incarcerated at the United States Penitentiary Tucson in Arizona.

In the declaration, Stine claims to be a longtime member of the Aryan Brotherhood and alleges he even held the title of commissioner at one point, which gave him the “power to order beatings, stabbings, and executions that were carried out by other members of the A.B.”

He goes on to allege that it was a BOP official who had previously “directed [Stine] to order assaults, beatings, and killings of inmates” who approached him about ending Kelly’s life.

Stine claims that he was then transferred across the country to the Federal Correctional Institute Butner in North Carolina — the same facility where Kelly is serving his sentence — and eventually placed in the same unit as the singer.

Once Stine completed his assignment, he alleges officials said he would be allowed to escape from custody and live his final months as a “free man,” an offer that he found appealing because he claims to have been diagnosed with terminal cancer at the time.

Stine alleges in the filing that an official also approached him shortly after he arrived at FCI Butner and said: “You need to do what you came here for.”

He says that after surveilling Kelly for weeks, he had a sudden change of heart and decided to inform the singer about the purported plot and how officials had allegedly tasked him with carrying out the execution.

Stine then claims in the filing that he will undergo a polygraph examination to establish that he is being truthful and also reveal the names of inmates whose beatings and killings he has participated in over the years.

He is no stranger to legal actions, having filed well over 100 civil suits and petitions in federal court over the past two decades.

Stine was also convicted of threatening to assault and murder a federal magistrate judge and an assistant United States attorney back in 2015 for letters he sent from his prison cell.

Kelly’s lawyer writes that, regardless of Stine’s past, in light of his claim, “drastic relief is warranted” to protect the singer’s life, saying: “Mr. Kelly’s continued incarceration while he knows his life is in jeopardy constitutes cruel and unusual punishment.”

Stine also received a transfer from Arizona to North Carolina, as he claims in his declaration, according to BOP records.

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Kelly’s attorney, Beau Brindley, tells PEOPLE that his client has been attacked in the past, and that his fears of a future incident are only heightened by his belief that officials inside the prison might not adequately, or outright refuse to, protect the singer.

“He is not safe in federal custody,” Brindley says. “And to keep him in prison while he is under threat like this is cruel and unusual punishment.”

Kelly is currently serving a 30-year sentence after being convicted of multiple charges of racketeering predicated on criminal conduct in the Eastern District of New York.

That conduct included the sexual exploitation of children, forced labor and violations of the Mann Act involving the coercion and transportation of women and girls in interstate commerce to engage in illegal sexual activity

A representative for the Bureau of Prisons did not respond to a request for comment.