Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx to issue update in R. Kelly cases

CHICAGO — Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx is expected to provide an update Monday afternoon on her office’s efforts to prosecute disgraced R&B singer R. Kelly.

In February 2019, a Cook County grand jury handed up four indictments against Kelly, now 56. He was charged with 10 counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse involving four alleged victims, three of whom were under the age of consent. The alleged incidents all occurred between 1998 and 2010.

The charges were brought just weeks after the docu-series “Surving R. Kelly” aired and prompted renewed scrutiny of Kelly, who was charged in 2002 with 21 counts of child pornography.

Later in 2019, Kelly was charged by federal prosecutors in both New York and Chicago. The New York case went to trial first, and Kelly was convicted in 2021 of sexual exploitation of a child, racketeering, bribery and sex trafficking. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison, though he is appealing.

Last September, a federal jury in Chicago found Kelly guilty of three counts of child pornography and three counts of enticement of a child. The child pornography counts stemmed directly from the same video that was at the heart of his 2002 case. His sentencing in that case is scheduled for next month.

Kelly also faces charges of engaging in prostitution with a minor and soliciting a minor for sexual purposes in Hennepin County, Minnesota. Those charges were also announced in 2019, but, like the Cook County charges, they were largely paused while the federal cases proceeded.