There’s a good chance R. Kelly spends the rest of his life in prison for his role as a convicted rapist and sex trafficker. But his onetime business manager and co-d says since he was acquitted on charges of helping Kelly orchestrate a conspiracy, he wants his life back and that starts with trying to recoup the $850,000 he spent on his defense.
The attorney for the former manager, Darrel McDavid, filed paperwork earlier this week seeking to have a federal judge order prosecutors to pay him back the money he spent defending against charges of which he was acquitted last month. McDavid was accused of working with Kelly back in 2008 to help him jury-rig his original kiddie porn trial back then.
Kelly has since been convicted on sex trafficking and racketeering charges in New York, for which he was sentenced to 30 years in prison. He was also convicted of child pornography in the case in which McDavid was also charged in Illinois last month. Kelly has yet to be sentenced there.
McDavid is essentially arguing that it’s prosecutors’ fault that he had to shell out the small fortune needed to defend himself, which, on its face, isn’t wrong. Every defendant has the right to legal counsel and can get a public defender appointed if they can’t afford it but we all know justice in this country tends to come with a price tag. Poor people get slapped with charges, spend long periods in jail if they can’t afford to pay cash bail to get themselves out, and then take their chances with an overworked, state-appointed lawyer or a plea deal.
Rich folks? Well, they pony up what it takes to mount a defense and then, at least in McDavid’s case, ask a judge to get their money back from taxpayers.