CHICAGO — The charges against R. Kelly came down like an avalanche: First, four indictments in Cook County. Another in Minnesota. Then a one-two punch of federal cases in Chicago and Brooklyn.
Three years later, the Chicago native, reputed sexual predator, and R&B legend received his first prison sentence: 30 years, handed down Wednesday in the New York case.
Soon enough, Kelly will be back in a federal jail in his hometown, with decisions to make about how to proceed on his other cases. The kind of hard time he got in New York could well change the calculus on how his lawyers and prosecutors in Chicago proceed.
