Cook County State's Attorney's Office drops 4 sex abuse cases against R. Kelly, Kim Foxx says
Where is R Kelly? Embattled singer in custody at Metropolitan Correctional Center in Chicago
CHICAGO (WLS) -- On a cold night in February 2019, R. Kelly surrendered to Chicago police, answering to the first of an eventual tidal wave of charges.
Nearly three years later, Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx said her office is no longer seeking indictments against R. Kelly in four pending sexual abuse cases.
Foxx announced the decision on Monday afternoon in light of Kelly's two federal convictions, including one in Chicago, and the decades-long prison sentences that come with them, saying the action was taken after consulting alleged victims.
Kelly was indicted in 2019 on charges of aggravated criminal sexual abuse and assault involving four alleged female victims, three of whom were underage at the time of the alleged crimes between 1998 and 2010.
SEE ALSO: Lawyers move to dismiss sex abuse charges against R. Kelly in Chicago
"We do have a survivor that who is disappointed that she would not have her day in court. Some of our survivors, some of those who have been named in our petitions, have had justice in courtrooms that are not here," said Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx.
The Cook County indictment came weeks after the release of the bombshell docuseries "Surviving R. Kelly" and were the first charges brought against the singer since his 2008 acquittal on child pornography charges.
"Due to the extensive sentences that these convictions hold, our office has decided not to continue to expend our limited resources and court time with the indictments that we previously charged Mr. Kelly," Foxx said. "Mr. Kelly is looking at significant jail time. We believe that justice and accountability has been served."
But, the Cook County cases faced delays because of the pandemic, and ultimately took a back seat to two federal trials that ended in conviction. One in New York was on racketeering and sex trafficking charges, for which he received a sentence of 30 years, and another was in Chicago last fall. It could add decades to his sentence.
ABC7 Legal Analyst Gil Soffer weighed in on the announcement.
"It does make sense to say, 'He's serving a 30 year term. He's about to serve another one,'" Soffer said. "Not surprising that Kim Foxx, or any other prosecutor, would say, 'Justice has been done.'"
"It's the right thing to happen. The charges, in my opinion, never should have been brought in the first place. They were in reaction to a lot of publicity," Steven Greenberg, an attorney for R. Kelly, said of Foxx's announcement.
The 56-year-old Kelly is currently in custody at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Chicago.
Kelly is scheduled to be sentenced in about three and a half weeks for his Chicago federal conviction. He is appealing both of his federal convictions
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