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A judge dismissed sex-abuse charges against R&B singer R. Kelly on Tuesday based on recommendations from Chicago prosecutors.
The hearing lasted just a few minutes and came a day after Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx said she was comfortable dropping the case because Kelly would spend decades in prison for a separate conviction in federal court.
Kelly is awaiting trial on state charges that he sexually abused four people in the Chicago area, three of whom were minors. He was not present when Judge Lawrence Flood dismissed the charges.
Federal juries in Chicago and New York have convicted Kelly of a raft of crimes, including child pornography, enticement, racketeering and sex trafficking related to allegations that he victimized women and girls.
Kelly, born Robert Sylvester Kelly, is serving a 30-year prison sentence in the New York case and is awaiting sentencing on February 23 in Chicago federal court.
Foxx acknowledged Monday that some of Kelly’s accusers will be disappointed. Lanita Carter, who said she was sexually assaulted by R. Kelly in February 2003, said justice “was denied to me.”
“I have spent almost 20 years hoping that my abuser would be brought to justice for what he did to me,” Carter said Monday.
Another sexual misconduct case is pending in Hennepin County, Minnesota, where the Grammy Award winner faces plea charges. Prosecutors have not said whether they still plan to take Kelly to trial.
Known for its smash hits I Believe I Can Fly and for songs such as Bump n’ Grind, Kelly sold millions of albums even after allegations of abuse of young girls began to spread publicly in the 1990s. He overcame child pornography charges in Chicago in 2008, when a jury acquitted him.
Outrage over Kelly’s sexual behavior didn’t emerge until the #MeToo reckoning and the release of the 2019 Lifetime docuseries. Long live R. Kelly.
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