CHICAGO (AP) — A Chicago prosecutor said Monday he will drop sexual assault charges against singer R. Kelly, following two federal court convictions that ensure the disgraced R&B star will be locked up for decades for years.
Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx announced the decision a day before a court hearing related to state charges accusing him of sexually abusing four people, three of them minors.
Since Kelly was indicted in Cook County in 2019, federal juries in Chicago and New York have convicted him of a variety of crimes, including child pornography, solicitation, racketeering and sex trafficking related to allegations that he stalked women and girls .
Kelly, born Robert Sylvester Kelly, is serving a 30-year prison sentence in the New York case and awaits sentencing on February 23 in federal court in Chicago. It appeals to these beliefs. Based on the New York ruling alone, the 56-year-old will not be eligible for parole until he turns 80.
Another sexual misconduct case is pending in Hennepin County, Minnesota, where the Grammy Award winner faces solicitation charges. And that case was on hold while the federal cases played out. Minnesota prosecutors have not said whether they still plan to charge Kelly.
Prosecutors sometimes choose to proceed with multiple trials out of concern that convictions elsewhere could be overturned during appeals. They see an opportunity for additional convictions such as insurance.
Known for his hit song “I Believe I Can Fly” and sex-filled songs like “Bump n’ Grind,” Kelly sold millions of albums even after allegations of abusing girls began to circulate publicly in the 1990s. in Chicago in 2008, when a jury acquitted him.
Widespread outrage over Kelly’s sexual misconduct did not surface until the #MeToo calculus and the release of the Lifetime documentary series “Surviving R. Kelly.”
After the series aired in early 2019, Foxx asked the accusers to come forward so prosecutors could pursue charges. He announced the Cook County indictment months before the federal cases in New York and Chicago. Foxx’s office said he repeatedly sought out girls for sex, including one he met at his 16th birthday party and another who met the R&B star while he was on trial in 2008.
Federal prosecutors in New York told jurors at her 2021 trial that Kelly used her entourage of managers and assistants to meet young girls and keep them obedient, an operation that prosecutors said was a criminal enterprise.
Last year, prosecutors in Kelly’s federal trial in Chicago portrayed him as a master manipulator who used his fame and fortune to lure ardent fans, some of them minors, to sexually abuse them and then quit. Four accusers testified.
While prosecutors in that case won convictions on six of the 13 counts against him in that case, the government missed the mark — that Kelly and his then-business manager successfully rigged his 2008 child pornography trial.
I need help? Visit RAINN’s National Online Sexual Assault Hotline or National Sexual Violence Resource Center website.
I’m a passionate and motivated journalist with a focus on world news. My experience spans across various media outlets, including Buna Times where I serve as an author. Over the years, I have become well-versed in researching and reporting on global topics, ranging from international politics to current events.