“Pull the plug or you will be exposed:” Manager sentenced for stalking R. Kelly victim

CHICAGO — Donnell Russell was sentenced to 20 months in prison for his involvement in harassing, intimidating and stalking Jane Doe, a woman in the Eastern District of New York racketeering case against R. Kelly.

According to U.S. Attorney’s Office, Russel, who was a self-described manager, advisor and friend of R. Kelly harassed and allegedly stalked Jane Doe and her mother after she filed a civil lawsuit against Kelly.

The State’s Attorney’s Office said that in 2018, Russell threatened to revel sexually explicit photographs of Jane and would publicly reveal her sexual history if she did not withdraw from the lawsuit. Russell also sent a letter with photos, written by Kelly, to Jane Doe and her mother under the alas name ‘Colon Dunn,’ with a series of text messages like “Just a sample,” “Publishing soon,” and “You’ve been warned.”

According to the documents, on January 3, 2019, Russell also sent additional messages to Jane Doe stating, “Pull the plug or you will be exposed.” A few days later, Russell, using the Colon Dunn alias, created a Facebook Page named “Surviving Lies,” a play on the title of Lifetime’s “Surviving R Kelly” documentary and posted screen shots of text messages between Kelly and Jane Doe, which contained the same sexually explicit photographs of Jane Doe.

The Office also said that in January 2020, Russell appeared on two live interviews with “vloggers” supporting Kelly and discussed Kelly’s legal troubles, which were streamed live on the internet via YouTube. Russell again displayed the same sexually explicit photographs of Jane Doe and broadcast them publicly over the internet.

Russell was sentenced to 20 months of imprisonment in federal court in Brooklyn Thursday morning.