CHICAGO — R. Kelly’s second federal trial will be delayed two weeks, a federal judge in Chicago announced Tuesday, since the ceremonial courtroom large enough to accommodate a multiple-defendant trial in the COVID era will not be available until mid-August.
Jury selection for Kelly and two of his former associates is now slated to begin Aug. 15. Federal prosecutors in the Northern District of Illinois allege that they conspired to rig Kelly’s 2008 child pornography case and hide years of alleged sexual abuse of underage girls.
The large ceremonial courtroom on the 25th Floor of the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse has been in high demand during the pandemic. The Kelly trial’s schedule change also means that the September trial for four people charged in the ComEd bribery scandal has been canceled, since both trials needed the bigger courtroom due to spacing issues. The ComEd-related trial may not begin until next year.
