R. Kelly Will Face Another Case Next August in Chicago


R&B superstar R. Kelly who was convicted last month He is scheduled to be retrial in Chicago starting Aug. 1 on federal racketeering and sex trafficking charges in Brooklyn.

In this case, Mr. Kelly facing charges He said he produced child pornography, persuaded children to engage in sex acts, and that he and his two former employees conspired to fix the criminal case in Illinois in 2008 by paying witnesses and victims to change their stories.

Judge Harry Leinenweber of the US District Court has set Mr Kelly’s trial date to be three months after his death. scheduled to be sentenced In the Brooklyn case, he faced a 10-year life sentence after being found guilty by a jury on all nine charges against him, including eight violations of the anti-sex trafficking law known as Mann’s Law. The Chicago trial has been delayed several times due to the pandemic and the Brooklyn case.

The federal charges in Chicago come six months after Mr. Kelly, 54, became the focus of law enforcement scrutiny after the documentary was released. “The survivor R. Kelly” contained testimonies from several women who accused the singer of harassment dating back to the 1990s.

The Brooklyn conviction was Mr. Kelly’s first criminal conviction despite a long history of sexual misconduct allegations.

In 2008, Mr. Kelly was tried in Illinois on 14 child pornography charges and eventually acquittal. According to the federal indictment in the Chicago case, filed in July 2019, Mr. Kelly and others paid a witness in 2008 approximately $170,000 to cancel a press conference they planned to announce that Mr. Kelly had video evidence. engages in sexual intercourse with minors. The indictment also alleged that Mr. Kelly instructed his victims to deny the grand jury any sexual contact with the singer.

Mr. Kelly’s acquittal in 2008 allowed his music career to flourish, and witnesses at the trial in Brooklyn said that his escape from conviction encouraged him, describing his behavior as increasingly offensive in the years that followed.

Mr. Kelly will face later state sex crime charges in Illinois and Minnesota.



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