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Content Warning: This article includes references to sexual abuse
R. Kelly’s sexual-abuse charges will be dropped, informed a Chicago prosecutor on Monday, January 30. Cook County state’s attorney Kim Foxx made the announcement a day prior to a court hearing relating to charges that accuse him of sexually abusing four people, three of whom were minors. Foxx informed that she would request the judge to drop the charges on Tuesday.
Why will the sexual-abuse charges against R. Kelly be dropped?
As per The Guardian, Kim Foxx acknowledged and accepted that the decision to drop the charges against the disgraced R&B singer will be disheartening for many women who came forward and accused R. Kelly of his crimes. She explained the reason behind the decision stating that Kelly is already facing decades in prison after federal convictions in two courts.
“Mr Kelly is looking at the possibility of never walking out of prison again…We believe justice has been served,” the Chicago prosecutor said.
What are the charges against R. Kelly?
Kelly was first indicted in Cook County in 2019. Since then, the singer-songwriter has been convicted of several crimes like child pornography, racketeering, enticement, and sex trafficking.
Robert Sylvester Kelly will be serving 30 years in prison according to the judgment in the New York Case regarding sexually abusing many young women using his fame – a systemic scheme that reportedly continued for decades on end. The US District Judge Ann Donnelly handed down the sentence in New York after several of Kelly’s victims addressed him at the hearing as they presented their accounts. The trial centred on the allegations of six people during which prosecutors said Kelly was a serial sexual predator who abused young women, as well as underage girls and boys, for more than two decades. Based on this verdict alone, the now 56-year-old Grammy-award-winning disgraced singer will be close to 80 until he is eligible for bail. He is currently awaiting another sentencing on February 23rd in the Chicago federal court on counts of child pornography and enticing a minor.
Kelly has yet another sexual-misconduct case with solicitation charges against him. This case is currently pending in Hennepin county, Minnesota. It is yet to be known if the Minnesota prosecutors will take Kelly to trial.
Allegations about Kelly’s sexual abuse of young girls started circulating back in the 1990s itself. However, he continued to make music and sell millions of albums. In 2008, a jury acquitted him in child pornography charges in Chicago.
Outrage against his crimes only began after the MeToo movement started gaining momentum and the Lifetime docuseries titled Surviving R.Kelly was released.
(If you know someone who is struggling with abuse, please reach out and report about it. There are several helplines available for the same.)
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