CHICAGO (AP) — A judge on Tuesday dismissed sexual abuse charges against R&B singer R. Kelly on the recommendation of Chicago prosecutors.
The hearing lasted only a few minutes, a day after Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx said she would be happy to drop the case because Kelly would spend decades in prison on a separate conviction in federal court.
Kelly is awaiting trial on charges of sexually abusing four people, three of them minors, in the Chicago area. He was not present when Judge Lawrence Flood dismissed the charges.
Federal juries in Chicago and New York found Kelly guilty of a string of crimes, including child pornography, solicitation, racketeering and sex trafficking, in connection with allegations that he victimized women and girls.
Kelly, born Robert Sylvester Kelly, is serving a 30-year sentence in the New York case and awaits sentencing on Feb. 2. 23 in Chicago federal court.
Fox acknowledged Monday that some of Kelly’s accusers will be disappointed. In fact, Lanita Carter said justice “was denied to me”.
“I’ve 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 winner faces solicitation charges. Prosecutors have not said whether they still intend to bring Kelly to trial.
Known for his smash hit “I Believe I Can Fly” and sex-filled songs like “Bump and Grind,” Kelly sold even after allegations of his abuse of young girls began to circulate publicly in the 1990s. Millions of albums. He defeated child pornography charges in Chicago in 2008 when a jury acquitted him.
It wasn’t until the #MeToo reckoning and the release of the 2019 Lifetime documentary series “Surviving R. Kelly” that there was widespread outrage over Kelly’s sexual misconduct.
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Find more AP coverage of the R. Kelly trial at https://apnews.com/hub/r-kelly