VALDOSTA — A Lowndes County man was arrested in Florida Tuesday, accused of trying to tamper with a witness in the federal racketeering case against R&B/hip-hop singer R. Kelly, according to court documents.

Michael Williams, 37, was arrested in Broward County, Fla., by the U.S. Marshals Service and is being held in the county jail, county inmate records show.

He was being held on a charge of tampering with a witness, according to jail records.

Williams is related to a former publicist for Kelly, the federal complaint says.

On June 20, 2019, a grand jury in New York indicted Robert Sylvester Kelly, a.k.a. R. Kelly, on racketeering charges involving the Mann Act, a federal law which forbids taking women and girls across state lines “for the purpose of prostitution or debauchery, or for any other immoral purpose.” Other grand jury indictments followed, including bribery.

Court papers show Kelly and others are being investigated for extortion, production of child pornography and crossing state lines for sex with underage persons.

Some of the charges involved a woman identified in court papers only as “Jane Doe,” who was cooperating with federal authorities.

The complaint against Williams states on June 11, 2020, an SUV rented by Jane Doe’s father and parked outside the family residence in Kissimmee, Fla., was set on fire in an apparent arson. There were four adults and two children inside the home at the time.

A federal court ordered Google to research users who had done online searches of the home’s address close to the time of the fire; this led to a phone owned by Williams, according to the complaint.

Records from Verizon, ordered by the court, showed the phone had been taken from Valdosta to the area of Kissimmee and back to Valdosta from June 10-11.

Law enforcement conducting surveillance on Williams’ Valdosta home noted a White GMC Yukon with no front license plate with visible damage, the complaint says. Florida Department of Transportation photographs found a matching Yukon on Florida roads about 60 miles from the site of the SUV fire on June 11.

A court-authorized search of related Google accounts turned up searches such as “where can i buy a .50 custom machine gun,” “can you drive in Florida without a tag as long as you have insurance on your car,” “case law for tampering with a witness” and “How Do Fertilizer Bombs Work?” the federal complaint says. 

Williams’ first appearance in court was scheduled for Wednesday in the federal courthouse in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.

The federal complaint was filed Aug. 4, but was ordered sealed by a federal judge because Williams was considered a flight risk, court documents show. The complaint was unsealed Tuesday.

The Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office accompanied the Department of Homeland Security when the DHS seized the Yukon but did not participate in surveillance or the actual seizure, LCSO Capt. Stryde Jones said.

 “That was all (DHS),” he said.

Terry Richards is senior reporter at The Valdosta Daily Times.