R. Kelly’s Illinois charges dropped after receiving “extensive sentences” in federal cases | By Omnihanded Entertainmet News

The state of Illinois will drop its local charges in Cook County against R. Kelly, due to “extensive sentences” he’s already serving at a federal level in the state of New York.

News of the dropped charges was announced by Cook County’s state attorney Kim Foxx yesterday (January 30). Foxx told reporters that “justice has been served” against the disgraced singer, in reference to his 30-year prison sentence on federal charges of racketeering and sex trafficking in New York last year.

Last September, in a separate trial, Kelly was found guilty by a federal jury in Chicago on six child pornography and trafficking charges. He is due to be sentenced on February 23 and, as Foxx acknowledged, is “looking at the possibility of never walking out of prison again”.

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As such, Foxx said, the Cook County State office would not “expend our limited resources and court time with the indictments that we previously charged [against] Mr. Kelly.” The state-level charges against Kelly included 10 counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse, relating to allegations made by four women in Cook County.

Three of the women were underage at the time of the alleged crimes. Foxx said prosecutors would ask the court to dismiss the charges, a day ahead of a scheduled court hearing on them was due to begin. The charges were first brought in 2019, and related to alleged incidents between 1998 to 2010. Prior to them being dropped, Kelly would have faced three to seven years in prison for each charge if he were convicted.

Foxx said that resources needed to be used for similar charges and victims across the state. “We have a significant number of cases and survivors who are equally in need of the resources that have been expended on Mr. Kelly’s cases,” she said. Foxx insisted that the office believed the Cook County accusers, and commended their “bravery and their relentless pursuit of justice”.

“[The decision] is not an indication that we don’t see them”, Foxx added. “I want to acknowledge that when we brought these charges… we brought them because we believed the allegations to be credible and we believed that they deserved the opportunity to have the allegations heard.”

In addition to his charges in New York and Chicago, which will see Kelly behind bars for several decades, Kelly also faces state-level charges in Minnesota, where he stands accused of soliciting a minor for sexual purposes and engaging in prostitution with a minor.

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Published on Omnihanded Entertainmet News at https://bit.ly/3wILPVR.