CHICAGO — Attorneys for R. Kelly and his co-defendants will have the chance to present witnesses Thursday after federal prosecutors rested their case-in-chief against the disgraced singer earlier this week.
But first, U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber denied the defendants’ requests 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.
