Chicago Prosecutor Dropping R. Kelly Sex Abuse Charges

Singer and songwriter R. Kelly has an unexpectant legal win.

Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx said Monday that her office will no longer prosecute the four pending criminal cases against disgraced R&B singer R. Kelly.

The prosecutor will move to drop the 10 counts at a hearing Tuesday at the Leighton Criminal Courts Building, Foxx said.

WGN 9 reports,

The decision to drop the charges was prompted by the multi-decade prison sentence that Kelly received last year after he was convicted in federal court in New York. Kelly has yet to be sentenced for his conviction in Chicago’s federal court last year.

“Mr. Kelly is potentially looking at a possibility of never walking out of prison again for the crimes that he’s committed,” Foxx said. “This office, in the pursuit of justice for the victims in our indictment as well as those across the country, worked tirelessly to get us to this point. While today’s cases are no longer being pursued, we believe that justice has been served and the sentences that have already been handed down to Mr. Kelly, as well as the sentence that will come down next month.”

In February 2019, a Cook County grand jury handed up four indictments against Kelly. He was charged with 10 counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse involving four alleged victims, three of whom were under the age of consent. The alleged incidents all occurred between 1998 and 2010.

The charges were brought just weeks after the docu-series “Surving R. Kelly” aired. He was charged in 2002 with 21 counts of child pornography.