R. Kelly is firing back against a huge judgment leveled against him in a lawsuit involving women who claimed they were victimized by him ... he says he didn't know about the suit and shouldn't be held accountable.
Here's the deal ... six women were awarded $10.5 million in August after suing him and his former manager, Donnell Russell, claiming they were responsible for an effort to shut down a December 2018 NYC screening of the 'Surviving R. Kelly' docuseries with a mass shooting threat.
According to new legal docs, obtained by TMZ, Kelly claims he would have defended himself against the lawsuit if he knew about the darn thing.
The disgraced singer claims his head is already spinning over his various criminal cases and prosecutions ... and he's been sued so many times lately he can hardly keep up with it all from his prison cell in North Carolina.
Kelly also claims he's also shuffled legal teams since being locked up ... and he says this lawsuit must have slipped through the cracks, or not have been delivered to him behind bars at all.
Even if the lawsuit had been received, Kelly says he wouldn't be able to understand it or distinguish it from any other legal documents ... saying he relies on his lawyers to explain things to him because "I cannot read or understand words beyond that of a grade schooler."
What's more, Kelly claims Donnell was never his manager as the lawsuit claimed ... and he says he had no idea Russell was trying to stop the 'Surviving' screening.
Kelly says he didn't ask Donnell to do so and says if Russell did make a mass shooting threat to stop the screening, "he did that for his own reasons."
There's still a question if the women will see a dime of the $10.5 million judgment ... but it’s clear Kelly doesn’t think he’s responsible for this one.