With R. Kelly already expected to spend the rest of his life in prison, prosecutors in Chicago have decided to drop sex crime charges against the singer, some of them involving minors. Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx said Monday that her office "will no longer be pursuing these indictments," CBS Chicago reports. In 2019, Cook County prosecutors charged Kelly with 10 counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse, but since then, he has been convicted in two federal cases. The 56-year-old was sentenced to 30 years after being found guilty of racketeering in federal court in New York in 2021. He is awaiting sentencing on multiple charges he was convicted of in federal court in Chicago last year, including three counts of sexual exploitation of a child via production of child pornography.
Foxx, who announced the decision a day before a scheduled hearing in the case, acknowledged that the decision "may be disappointing" to women who came forward with allegations, the AP reports. "Mr. Kelly is looking at the possibility of never walking out of prison again," she said. "We believe justice has been served." Nine of the now-dismissed counts involve three victims whose age is given as between 13 and 16, per CBS. The charges go back as far as 1998. In the 10th charge, the age of the victim is not given, but Kelly is accused of forcing sexual contact on the victim by use of force or the threat of force. (More R. Kelly stories.)
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