After being convicted of sex trafficking and racketeering in a New York court last month, R. Kelly’s local trial in Chicago has been set for August of 2022.
via: Pitchfork
R. Kelly’s trial for child pornography and obstruction charges in an Illinois federal court has been rescheduled to begin August 1, 2022, according to the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Sun-Times. The trial was originally set to start on April 27, 2020 in Chicago, but has been delayed multiple times due both to the pandemic and to Kelly’s separate trial in a Brooklyn, New York federal court. That trial ended on September 27 with Kelly being found guilty of racketeering and sex trafficking. He faces potentially decades in prison when he is sentenced, which is scheduled for May 4, 2022.
Kelly was federally indicted in Illinois in July 2019. The 13-count indictment charges Kelly with producing and receiving child pornography and enticing minors to engage in criminal sexual activity. He’s also charged with conspiring to intimidate victims and conceal evidence—including in the investigation that led to his 2008 trial on state child pornography charges (and eventual acquittal). He has pleaded not guilty of all charges. Kelly is also awaiting trial on other state-level sexual misconduct charges in Minnesota and Illinois.
R. Kelly will be defended in his second trial by his original attorneys Steve Greenberg and Michael Leonard after they abandoned the New York case before it went to trial.
Greenberg also noted during today’s scheduling hearing that the singer had been placed on suicide watch after being found guilty in New York, but was since cleared.
