CPS on Friday announced that 93.4% of its 300,000-plus students were in their classrooms for the start of the new school year on Aug. 22. That’s the highest percentage since the 2019-20 school year, the district said.
Kelly told U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber on Thursday that he would not be testifying in his own defense at his second federal trial in as many years. One of his codefendants, however, is planning to take the witness stand.
Charles Freeman, who had worked for Kelly as a merchandiser in the 1990s, testified that he asked R. Kelly and his associates for $1 million to recover an illicit sex tape in the early 2000s.
The woman now 37 and identified in court only under the pseudonym “Jane” is one of the main witnesses at the center of the government’s latest case against Kelly. She was allegedly the 14-year-old girl who later appeared in child pornography videos Kelly allegedly produced.
Jury selection in R. Kelly’s trial began Monday inside a 25th-floor courtroom at the Dirksen Federal Building, where the 55-year-old Chicago native stands accused of multiple child pornography-related charges, as well as conspiracy to obstruct justice and enticing a minor to engage in criminal sexual activity.