R. Kelly’s ex-manager Donnell Russell pleads guilty to stalking victim

A counselor close to convicted sex trafficker R. Kelly pleaded guilty to molesting and intimidating one of the ex-R&B singer’s victims, federal prosecutors said Tuesday.

Chicago native Donnell Russell, who described himself as Kelly’s manager, pleaded guilty to interstate stalking in federal court in Brooklyn after being accused of threatening to disclose sexually explicit photos of the victim, according to the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York.

Russell warned the victim that he would publicly disclose her sex history if she didn’t withdraw a civil suit she had filed against Kelly, prosecutors said. He urged her to “stop her participation and association with the organizers” of a “negative campaign” against the “I Believe I Can Fly” singer.

Kelly, whose real name is Robert Sylvester Kelly, was convicted in September 2021 of decades of sexually abusing women and underage girls and boys.

Russell’s guilty plea is just the latest legal trouble for the Kelly loyalist.

On Friday, he was found guilty of threatening harm through interstate communications after he filed a threat with an active shooter at a private Manhattan club showing a 2018 screening of Lifetime docuseries Surviving R. Kelly.

US Attorney Breon Peace criticized Russell in a statement Monday for using “threats, harassment and intimidation to silence one of R. Kelly’s victims and prevent her voice from being heard.”

“When his initial attempt failed, he continued his vile campaign, sending threatening messages to Jane Doe and her mother and posting explicit photos of the victim on the internet before and after Kelly was charged.

“As this indictment makes clear, the conduct of the defendant was not only reprehensible but also criminal and will not be tolerated.”

Federal prosecutors outline how Russell cruelly molested the victim and those close to her from November 2018 to February 2020.

In November 2018, Russell helped send a letter with attachments allegedly written by Kelly to the victim’s attorney in Brooklyn, which included cropped nude photos of the victim, the FBI said. The text in the letter read: “The next two pictures have been cropped so as not to expose her extremities to the world yet!!!”

The following month, Russell sent a spate of texts to the victim and her mother, using the alias Colon Dunn, with the same nude photos, saying, “Just a rehearsal. We will file a criminal complaint. You have been warned” and “Will be released soon.”

He also wrote “[T]his is Colon.”

In early 2019, he again texted the victim and her mother, “Unplug or you’ll be exposed.”

Also in January 2019, he launched a Facebook page intended to defend Kelly and posted a text exchange between Kelly and the victim using the same sexually explicit images, prosecutors said. The Facebook page was Surviving Lies, part of the Surviving R. Kelly series.

And then, in January 2020, he showed the sexually explicit photos again during live interviews with vloggers via YouTube, who supported Kelly amid his mounting legal troubles.

He could face five years in prison.