The R’n’B Star,R. Kelly skipped Wednesday’s Cook County status hearing, where prosecutors announced which of the four pending sex-crime cases against the singer will go to trial first, due to a “medical condition.”
Kelly, who is being held at the federal detention facility in Chicago, was scheduled to appear in court for the Wednesday hearing but did not, according to video footage shared to Facebook by Fox 32 Chicago. Tandra Simonton, spokeswoman for Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx, also confirmed to USA TODAY.
Kelly’s lead lawyer Steve Greenberg told the judge, “I don’t know if (Kelly) was supposed to be here today, but he had a medical procedure.”
The judge responded, “I understand he has a medical condition and can’t be here today.”
Details of the medical procedure were not discussed. In October 2019, Kelly skipped a status hearing due to a toe infection.
Simonton confirmed prosecutors are proceeding first with the case of victim L.C., who has identified herself as Lanita Carter, Kelly’s former hairdresser who accuses him of forcing oral sex.
Simonton added that the next court date is April 16.
During the second installment of Lifetime’s “Surviving R. Kelly, Part II” docuseries that aired earlier this month, Carter said she met the singer when she was 24, and recalled how Kelly gained her trust before allegedly pulling her hair and forcing her to perform oral sex on him.
Kelly, 53, has denied all allegations against him. He has already pleaded not guilty to more than a dozen sex-crime charges filed against him in two federal courts and two state courts since February 2019.
In December 2019,a tentative date of sept.14 was set for Kelly to be tried on multiple counts of sexual misconduct dating back more than a decade and involving four accusers, including three who were underage at the time.
As it now stands, Kelly is charged with multiple counts of similar sex crimes in federal courts in Illinois and in New York, and also in state court in Minnesota, which has yet to hold a hearing on its Kelly case.
Kelly is tentatively scheduled to face trial in the federal case in Chicago in April and in the federal case in New York in May. If these and the September dates hold, he would face trials in three courts in two states in a six-month period of 2020, not counting whatever happens in Minnesota.
