American hip-hop star R. Kelly avoids yet another abuse trial in his home state of Illinois.
Controversial Cook County prosecutor Kim Foxx announced Monday that she would drop charges against the 56-year-old Grammy winner for sexually abusing four women and youth, three of them minors.
Prosecutor Foxx justified the decision with the costs of criminal proceedings.
In addition, the singer, whose real name is Robert Sylvester Kelly, has already been sentenced to 30 years in prison by a federal court in New York.
After another guilty verdict in a federal court in Chicago for child pornography and assault on minors, he is also threatened with another prison sentence there when the sentence is scheduled for the end of February.
R. Kelly had filed an appeal following both convictions.
The allegations against the singer were fueled by the six-part documentary "Surviving R. Kelly" in early 2019.
Lisa Van Allen was among the alleged victims who told filmmaker Dream Hampton about the abuse, humiliation and beatings at the time.
The dancer recalled a sexual encounter with R. Kelly and a 14-year-old, which the musician captured on a 27-minute video.
The fact that a jury acquitted R. Kelly at the time was attributed by many to his popularity.
With titles like "I Wish" and "I Believe I Can Fly", the singer was one of the big earners in the American music industry.
A former resident of the Ida B. Wells council housing estate on Chicago's notorious South Side, he had also become a role model for many poor young African Americans.