The latest news to emerge from R. Kelly’s post-Surviving R. Kelly fall from grace was that he lost an underage sexual abuse lawsuit because he didn’t show up in court. Shortly after that, Kelly’s attorney reportedly said, “R. Kelly was served while incarcerated on the child support case and he was overwhelmed by the experience of being in jail. [Being overwhelmed] coupled with Mr. Kelly not being cognizant of what the motion fully meant led to him missing the hearing. I had no idea he had been served.”
Now the reason that Kelly missed the hearing has been clarified further. Over the weekend, TMZ reported that Kelly’s attorneys, Zaid Abdallah and Raed Shalabi, filed court documents in which they disclose that Kelly cannot read, so after he was served, he did not follow-up appropriately. The documents say that Kelly “suffers from a learning disability that adversely affects his ability to read […] in essence he cannot.”
The documents also say that Kelly was in Cook County Jail when he was served, and that he should not have been served there. In light of all of this, Kelly’s legal team is trying to have the original judgment vacated so Kelly will have the opportunity to defend himself in court.
