CHICAGO — The new lawyer for Chicago-born R&B singer R. Kelly has asked a federal judge to overturn his conviction on racketeering charges in New York, saying prosecutors misused a federal statute meant to go after gang leaders and that Kelly’s ineffective lawyers failed to keep hopelessly biased jurors off the panel.
Kelly, 54, was convicted Sept. 27 in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn on racketeering conspiracy charges alleging he used his music career to further a criminal enterprise.
The jury found him guilty of 12 individual illegal acts, including sex with multiple underage girls as well as a 1994 scheme to bribe an Illinois public aid official to get a phony ID for 15-year-old singer Aaliyah so the two could get married.
