Serial predator R. Kelly won't face state charges in Illinois: 'We believe justice has been served'

An Illinois district attorney has decided to drop all state charges against Grammy Award-winning R&B singer R. Kelly.

On Monday, State's Attorney Kim Foxx, the district attorney for Cook County, announced that she would no longer pursue charges against Kelly because of the "extensive sentences" Kelly has already received at the federal level. Last June, U.S. District Court Judge Ann Donnelly sentenced Kelly, whose full name is Robert Sylvester Kelly, to 30 years in federal prison after he was convicted of nine sex-related crimes, including racketeering and sex trafficking, CNN reported. In a separate federal trial in September, Kelly was also convicted of six counts of child pornography. He will be sentenced for those crimes next month.

Foxx told reporters that, in light of the lengthy sentence that Kelly has already been given and the additional lengthy sentence he will likely receive in a few weeks, she could not justify devoting more time and resources to Kelly with other sexual predators also in her community.

"Mr. Kelly is looking at the possibility of never walking out of prison again," Foxx stated, later adding, "We believe justice has been served."

Foxx claimed she made the decision in consultation with Kelly's four accusers, three of whom were minors when he allegedly sexually assaulted them.

"[The decision] is not an indication that we don’t see them," Foxx asserted. "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.

"For [the accusers], the process of going through this process was very difficult," she continued, "and they are pleased with the outcome of the sentence and judgment against Mr. Kelly."

Kelly rose to fame in the 1990s with mega-hits like "Bump and Grind" and "I Believe I Can Fly," but allegations of sexual abuse, especially against minors, quickly tarnished his popularity. Kelly infamously married late singer Aaliyah in 1994, when she was just 15 years old, because she became pregnant with his child. Kelly, now 55, was 27 years old at the time. A recent documentary, "Surviving R. Kelly," and the MeToo movement brought the accusations against Kelly back into the national spotlight in the last few years.

In 2008, Kelly was acquitted of child porn charges, though prosecutors in Kelly's 2022 child porn trial alleged that Kelly and his associates had somehow rigged that jury. The jury that convicted Kelly on child porn charges in 2022 acquitted him of rigging the 2008 trial.

There is also a pending state case against Kelly in Minnesota, where Kelly is believed to have solicited a minor for sexual purposes and engaged in prostitution with a minor. Prosecutors there have not stated whether they will proceed to trial, though, as the Associated Press noted in its reporting on Kelly, prosecutors at the state level often try cases even after a federal conviction has been secured to guard against freeing a dangerous suspect whose conviction might be overturned on appeal.

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