CHICAGO — The judge overseeing R. Kelly’s federal child pornography trial said he will rule Thursday on requests by the disgraced R&B star and his two co-defendants to acquit them of all charges before the jury even gets the case.
The motions for judgment of acquittal, filed at the conclusion of the prosecution’s case on Tuesday, are routine in criminal trials and almost always denied. At the very least, they are meant to preserve issues for a possible appeal down the road.
But U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber said before the motions were argued Wednesday that he would not rule immediately, as there were several issues that in his view “deserve consideration.”
