R. Kelly sex abuse charges dropped in Chicago as he may ‘never’ leave prison
A TOP Chicago prosecutor said her office will be dropping sexual abuse charges against R. Kelly because the singer is already likely to spend the rest of his life in prison following his convictions in federal courts.
Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx said she will ask a judge on Tuesday to dismiss charges of aggravated criminal sexual assault and aggravated criminal sexual abuse that her office filed against Kelly in 2019.
Kelly, whose full name is Robert Sylvester Kelly, was convicted of sex trafficking and racketeering by a New York federal court in 2021, and later sentenced to 30 years in prison. After a separate trial in Illinois, a federal jury found Kelly guilty in September of three counts of coercing minors into sexual activity and three counts of producing sex tapes involving a minor. His sentencing in that case is expected next month, and he faces a minimum of 10 to 90 years in prison, according to prosecutors there.
Under these conditions, and facing what she described as “limited” resources, Foxx on Monday said she made the decision to drop her office’s charges against Kelly, and to instead focus on finding ‘justice for other victims of sexual abuse.’
“Mr. Kelly is potentially looking at ... never walking out of prison again for the crimes that he’s committed,” Foxx said at a news conference. “We believe that justice has been served.”
A lawyer representing Kelly, Jennifer Bonjean, told the Associated Press she was ‘pleased’ with the prosecutors’ decision. “He only has one life to give. So I don’t know how many sentences upon sentences would satisfy people,” Bonjean added.
Kelly is being held in the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Chicago, records show.
The move to drop state charges in Illinois is the latest development in a years-long legal battle to hold Kelly accountable for what prosecutors have described as his decades-long sexual and physical abuse of women and girls. Over the course of Kelly’s federal trial in New York, 11 accusers testified against him, and some 50 witnesses provided evidence. Kelly has denied the allegations and said he plans to appeal his conviction.
The Cook County prosecutors publicly called for any victims to come forward, and in building their case, relied on the testimony of three accusers — two of whom were minors when they said Kelly repeatedly had sex with them — and the testimony of a witness who gave the State’s Attorney Office a video said to have shown Kelly having sex with a 14-year-old girl.