[ R. Kelly convicted on child pornography charges at federal trial in Chicago; acquitted of obstructing justice ]

In September 2021, Kelly was convicted by a federal jury in New York of racketeering conspiracy alleging he headed a criminal enterprise that employed agents, runners, bodyguards and others to lure and trap girls and young women to satisfy his sexually predatory desires. The jury, which heard from 50 witnesses over the six-week trial, reached its verdict after deliberating for about nine hours over two days.

Here is a brief history of the singer’s rise and troubles:

Born in Chicago on the South Side, Robert Sylvester Kelly is one of five children who grew up in the Ida B. Wells housing complex.

He attends Kenwood Academy in Hyde Park for a time and sings in a Baptist church choir but never graduates. As a teen he brings a portable keyboard to CTA train stops and sings for tips.

Signs a contract with Jive Records and releases “Born into the 90′s.”

Releases album “12 Play” along with No. 1 single “Bump N’ Grind.” The album sells 8 million copies.

Kelly helps launch the career of teen R&B singer Aaliyah, who releases the album “Age Ain’t Nothing But a Number.” The pair secretly marry though the marriage certificate falsely claims that Aaliyah is 18. Kelly is 27. Reports say the marriage is annulled within a few years.

Kelly marries dancer Andrea Lee. The couple has three children. He also releases his third album, “R. Kelly” and incorporates Rockland Records. His song “I Believe I Can Fly,” from the “Space Jam” soundtrack, peaks at No. 2 on the Billboard pop chart.

Tiffany Hawkins sues R. Kelly in civil court. She says she met the singer in 1991 when she was a Chicago high school sophomore and he was 24 years old. She said their sexual relationship began several months later.

Kelly seems to address his turmoil on stage during another artist’s UIC Pavilion concert: “It amazes me when I look back eight months ago — cars, women, money, the media. I had everyone’s attention. Some may think it’s a gimmick, but I tell you, here stands a broken man. Every day I seem to be falling in love with the Lord. I’ve come to find out that whatever it is you want, it’s in the Lord. I used to be flying in sin — now I’m flying in Jesus.”

Wins three Grammy awards. “I Believe I Can Fly” appears on “Space Jam” soundtrack and Kelly gains a huge mainstream audience.

Also, in 1998 according to later reports, Kelly settles a lawsuit with Hawkins, who accused him of engaging in a sexual relationship with a minor.

Kelly is cited for playing his car stereo too loud on Clark Street downtown. The charges are later dropped.

His album “R.” hits stores. It has since sold 6 million copies.

Kelly, releases “TP-2.Com,” which goes triple-platinum.

Tracy Sampson files a lawsuit against Kelly, alleging their sex was illegal under Illinois law because he was in “a position of authority” over her. The case was reportedly settled out of court for an undisclosed amount.

The Chicago Sun-Times receives a videotape, sent anonymously, that allegedly shows Kelly having sex with a minor.

The same day the news breaks, Kelly performs at the opening ceremonies for the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.

Kelly’s album with Jay-Z, “The Best of Both Worlds,” is released. It sells only 1 million copies by June, a low number for Kelly.

Kelly settles out of court with a former Epic Records intern Tracy Sampson, who alleges Kelly induced her into a sexual relationship while she was a minor. In another April 2002 suit, a woman claims she was coerced by Kelly into having an abortion.

Kelly is charged with 21 counts of child pornography connected with the videotape received by the Sun-Times. He is released on $750,000 bail.

“Ignition,” Kelly’s sexually explicit first single from “Chocolate Factory,” spends many weeks on various Billboard singles charts.

During a court-approved visit to Miami to shoot a music video, Kelly is arrested and charged with 12 additional counts of child pornography. He is released the same day on $12,000 bail.

Kelly’s sixth album, “Chocolate Factory,” debuts at No. 1 on the Billboard album chart, selling more than 532,000 copies in its first week. It eventually goes double-platinum.

A Florida judge throws out photographs that were the basis of the child pornography charges, saying they were illegally seized from Kelly’s home. Florida prosecutors drop all charges.

Kelly wins the BET award for best male R&B artist.

Kelly takes home four top prizes at the Billboard Awards, including Hot 100 producer, R&B producer, Hot 100 songwriter and R&B songwriter.

Kelly nominated for an NAACP Image Award, sparking criticism considering the charges against him.

Cook County prosecutors drop seven of 21 child pornography charges.

Kelly allowed by judge to go on two-month tour while he awaits trial.

Kelly’s seventh solo album, “TP.3 Reloaded,” hits No. 1 spot on the Billboard chart.

The case is delayed after judge Vincent Gaughan falls off a ladder and breaks bones in his back.

Trial is delayed again as Kelly undergoes emergency surgery for a burst appendix.

Kelly releases his album “Double Up,” which peaks at No. 1 on the Billboard albums chart.

The trial is postponed yet again after the prosecutor gives birth.

Jury selection begins, with the trial starting on May 20. In opening statements, prosecutors show the controversial videotape.

The trial comes to a close with the prosecution again showing the videotape.

After 7 1/2 hours of deliberating, the jury acquits Kelly. He bows his head and weeps, “Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus,” Kelly said softly as the clerk read off each not guilty.

Kelly and his former wife, Andrea, confirm they divorced after 11 years of marriage.

The singer has emergency throat surgery for an abscess on one of his tonsils.

Tax liens filed in Cook County say Kelly owes the Internal Revenue Service nearly $5 million in unpaid taxes dating as far back as 2005.

Kelly’s mansion, once valued at more than $5 million, sells for $950,000 in a foreclosure auction.

Kelly headlines the final night of the Pitchfork Music Festival in Union Park and encores with “I Believe I Can Fly,” while white-dove balloons fill the sky.

Kelly says he won’t perform at President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration. “Despite the rumors circulating online, R. Kelly will not be performing at this year’s inauguration ceremony. Any reports stating otherwise are simply untrue,” Kelly said in a Twitter post.

Three sets of parents claim Kelly is holding their daughters in an abusive “cult,” according to a BuzzFeed News report. Parents claim Kelly “brainwashed” their daughters and some were living with him at his Chicago recording studio.

Kelly is evicted from two Atlanta-area homes over more than $31,000 owed in unpaid rent.

Following protests, Kelly is removed from the lineup of a concert at the University of Illinois at Chicago. After the concert is officially canceled, the singer invited Chicago fans to party with him at the Ocean Gentlemen’s Club, a strip club in Bedford Park.

Spotify removes R. Kelly’s music from its playlists, citing its new policy on hate content and hateful conduct. Shortly after, Apple and Pandora also stop promoting his music.

Angelo Clary flies to Chicago with his wife from Florida after receiving a report that their daughter was at Kelly’s Near West Side studio, the Chicago location at the center the BuzzFeed report. Clary told the Tribune police near the studio threatened to arrest them and appeared to be friendly with the bodyguards.

The Chicago Police Department said there was no record of reports or in-car camera footage of the incident and denied a Tribune request for body camera video.

After not showing in court, Kelly loses a federal lawsuit against Comcast Spectacor, which runs the Macon Coliseum in Georgia, alleging the venue failed to pay him $100,000 for his concert there.

Pitchfork announces it “was wrong to book R. Kelly to perform at our festival in 2013 and we regret doing so,” and says it is partnering with the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network to “to raise awareness and funds to support the fight against sexual violence.”

Faith Rodgers files a lawsuit in New York against Kelly, accusing the singer of sexual battery, knowingly infecting her with herpes and locking her in rooms for punishment.

Kelly releases a 19-minute song called “I Admit,” addressing accusations of sexual misconduct against him.

“How they gon’ say I don’t respect these women, when all I’ve done is represent (30 years)/ Take my career and turn it upside down, ‘cause you mad I’ve got some girlfriends (girlfriends),” he sings. He also addressed accusations that he held women in a “sex cult.”

“Said I’m abusing these women, what the f--- that’s some absurd sh--/ They’re brainwashed, really?/ Kidnapped, really?/ Can’t eat, really?/ Real talk, that sh- sound silly.” And he had some words for Chicago journalist Jim DeRogatis, who has reported on Kelly’s alleged misconduct for years.

“To Jim DeRogatis, whatever your name is (whatever your name is)/ You been tryna destroy me for 25 whole years/ Writin’ the same stories over and over against/ Off my name, you done went and made yourself a career/ But guess what? I pray for you and family, and all my other enemies/ I’m not gonna let y’all steal my joy, I’m just gonna keep on doing me.”

A screening of Lifetime’s “Surviving R. Kelly” evacuated in New York City over a gun threat. A number of accusers were in attendance, along with families who had accused Kelly of holding their daughters.

Lifetime debuts six-hour series “Surviving R. Kelly.” The documentary traces Kelly’s rise as the “Pied Piper of R&B” and the accusations of sexual abuse that have dogged Kelly for years.

Stephanie “Sparkle” Edwards, who identified a female relative and Kelly as the teenage girl and man engaging in sex acts on a videotape at the center of Kelly’s Chicago child pornography trial, told the Tribune she believes she did the right thing by testifying against the R&B superstar.

Chance the Rapper, who didn’t participate in the documentary but was quoted, tweets an apology for working with Kelly: “The quote was taken out of context, but the truth is any of us who ever ignored the R. Kelly stories, or ever believed he was being setup/attacked by the system (as black men often are) were doing so at the detriment of black women and girls.”

State’s Attorney Kim Foxx, citing “deeply, deeply disturbing” allegations in the Lifetime documentary calls on any accusers to come forward. Foxx said her office cannot launch an effective prosecution without the cooperation of victims and witnesses.

Chicago Department of Buildings inspectors try to gain access to Kelly’s Near West Side recording studio because the city had received a 311 complaint about people living at the property, which is zoned commercial, a city spokesman said.

The same day, protesters gather outside the studio.

Hours after the rally, Kelly was spotted at a South Side club, crooning “Bump N’ Grind.”

Organizers of the Spring Break Jam concert, set to take place in April at the Illinois State Fairgrounds with Kelly as “host,” have their application denied because of security concerns, according to officials.

The same day, Chicago-based radio station 95.1 FM announces a ban of Kelly’s music. CEO Lamont Watts said: “As a leader of a team where women contribute unselfishly, in a business where the majority of our audience is women; as a son, a brother and a husband of a devoted family; and to hear and see the pain and suffering that is real for so many, effective immediately, we will no longer play the music of R. Kelly.”

Lady Gaga apologizes for working with R. Kelly on the 2013 song “Do What U Want.” “I’m sorry, both for my poor judgment when I was young, and for not speaking out sooner,” she wrote on Twitter.

Kelly’s estranged daughter, Joann Kelly, who goes by Buku Abi, posted a long statement on her Instagram story on Thursday: “I do apologize if my silence to all that is happening comes off as careless. That is my last intention. I pray for all the families & women who have been affected by my father’s actions. Trust, I have been deeply affected by all of this. However, it has been very difficult to process it all. Let alone gather all the right words to express everything I feel.”

Separately, on Jan. 11, a Cook County Circuit Court judge allows the city to access his Near West Side recording studio after reports that people were living there, in violation of city codes.

Faith Rodgers, one of the women who accused Kelly of sexual misconduct in “Surviving R. Kelly” said at a news conference that she received threats and retaliation from the singer.

Kelly is dropped by Sony music. “No external announcement of the move is planned in the immediate future, says a source, who added that the company took its time to wade through the issues ‘responsibly’ and avoid legal ramifications,” according to Variety.

On the same day, Variety reports that Kelly’s former manager Henry James Mason turned himself in to Georgia authorities on a charge of threatening a man who alleges that Kelly has indoctrinated his daughter into a sex cult.

A few songs into her show at the Aragon Ballroom in the Uptown neighborhood, Erykah Badu says she is praying for Kelly. Like millions of other people, concertgoer Venessa Gonzalez, 35, said she watched “Surviving R. Kelly” and was surprised Badu would talk about Kelly in Chicago. “Midshow, she decided to bring up R. Kelly and how Chicago feels about R. Kelly and everybody started booing.”

Judge orders Kelly to only use his Near West Side studio during business hours and ordered the second-floor living quarters to be shut down until further notice as city inspectors allege a laundry list of building code violations, including fire hazards, dangerous staircases, an illegal steam room and sauna as well as evidence that people were living in the warehouse space despite it being zoned for commercial use.

Attorney Michael Avenatti says he gave Chicago prosecutors new video evidence of Kelly having sex with an underage girl, and that it is not the same evidence used in Kelly’s 2008 trial.

Kelly is indicted on 10 counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse, court records show. A county judge issued a warrant for Kelly’s arrest Friday morning, according to the records. Kelly surrendered to Chicago police shortly after 8 p.m. and spent the night in lockup. The following day he is ordered held on $1 million bail.

Kelly pleads not guilty on the 10 counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse, charges he sexually abused four victims, three of them underage, over a span of a dozen years.

In his first TV interview since being charged with sexual abuse, Kelly denies having sex with underage girls and holding women against their will.

“I didn’t do this stuff! This is not me! I’m fighting for my (expletive) life!” Kelly told Gayle King during the interview.

Kelly walks out of Cook County Jail for the second time in two weeks — this time after coming up with more than $160,000 in overdue child support.

Kelly attends a closed-door hearing at the Daley Center with his ex-wife over child support.

Cook County Judge Lawrence Flood rules cameras will be allowed in a courtroom for hearings in the sex abuse charges facing Kelly.

Kelly gives a 28-second performance at a club in Springfield.

After failing to show up in Cook County Circuit Court to answer allegations he sexually abused an underage girl in the late 1990s, Kelly loses a civil lawsuit by default. The next week, Kelly says he wants the decision reversed, saying he was never properly notified of the lawsuit’s existence.

Kelly is charged with 11 new counts of sexual assault and sexual abuse, Cook County court records show. Four of the new counts charge Kelly with aggravated criminal sexual assault — a Class X felony that carries six to 30 years in prison on conviction.

Kelly pleads not guilty to a slew of new charges alleging he sexually assaulted a teenage fan who met him at his child pornography trial a decade earlier. The 11-count indictment, unveiled the previous week, replaced charges filed in February centering on an alleged victim identified as J.P. “Surviving R. Kelly” participant Jerhonda Pace, who said she began a sexual relationship with Kelly when she was a minor, says the new charges are related to her claims.

Kelly is arrested in Chicago on new federal charges alleging child pornography and obstruction of justice, including bombshell allegations that he paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to recover child-sex tapes and pressured witnesses to change their stories before his pornography trial that ended in acquittal a decade ago.

A federal judge orders Kelly held in jail without bond after a prosecutor warned he would pose an extreme danger to young girls if set free.

Kelly pleads not guilty to federal charges accusing him of sexually abusing women and girls who attended his concerts, as his lawyers continue to label the alleged victims disgruntled “groupies.”

Minnesota authorities charge Kelly with two counts of prostitution and solicitation involving a girl under the age of 18 over an alleged 2001 incident.

A federal judge in Chicago sets an April 27, 2020, trial date for Kelly, who is accused of sexually abusing minors and conspiring with two associates to pay off and intimidate witnesses against him.

A federal judge in New York sets a trial date of May 18, 2020, for Kelly, who is charged with racketeering, kidnapping and sexual exploitation of a child.

A Cook County judge orders Kelly to stand trial on Sept. 14, 2020, on criminal sexual abuse charges.

Kelly is charged by federal prosecutors with paying a bribe in exchange for a “fraudulent identification document” for an unidentified female a day before he married R&B singer Aaliyah. He later pleads not guilty.

Kelly pleads not guilty in a Chicago federal courtroom to a new indictment brought in New York alleging he bribed an Illinois official to get a fake ID for 15-year-old singer Aaliyah Haughton a day before he married her in 1994.

“Surviving R. Kelly Part II: The Reckoning” premieres on the Lifetime network with more women accusing Kelly of abuse.

A superseding indictment alleges Kelly sexually abused a girl identified in new federal charges only as “Minor 6.”

Kelly’s trial in Chicago’s federal court is postponed until October after prosecutors reveal that investigators “very recently” executed a search warrant in the case and seized at least 100 electronic devices.

A New York federal judge rules the threat of COVID-19 behind bars is not enough to release Kelly from federal custody to await trial.

Kelly pleads not guilty to a superseding indictment brought in New York, marking the seventh time the embattled singer has been arraigned on sexual abuse-related charges in a little more than a year.

A federal judge in New York once again rejects Kelly’s request for release pending trial, stating that his diagnosis of prediabetes is not enough to put him at high rigk of contracting COVID-19 behind bars.

Three men are charged in federal court in New York with attempting to “intimidate, threaten or corruptly influence” alleged victims in the racketeering case against Kelly.

Kelly’s manager is arrested in California on charges that he threatened a shooting at a Manhattan theater two years ago, forcing an evacuation and the cancellation of the screening of a documentary addressing allegations that the singer had sexually abused women and girls.

A federal trial for Kelly, who had been scheduled to face a jury in U.S. District Court in Chicago in October on charges related to the alleged sexual abuse of underage girls, is postponed due to the coronavirus.

A federal detainee with “f--- the feds” tattooed on his face gets into Kelly’s cell while the singer is sleeping and stomps on his head repeatedly, according to a court filing from Kelly’s attorneys that once again argues for his release.

Kelly’s legal team undergoes an abrupt shake up just weeks before the trial in New York is set to begin when the singer stops communicating with Chicago attorneys Steven Greenberg and Michael Leonard. They later withdraw from the case.

Federal prosecutors in New York reveal for the first time that an alleged male victim was expected to testify that Kelly sexually abused him after they met at a Chicago McDonald’s in 2006.

Kelly’s racketeering trial begins in U.S. District Court in New York. The first witness confronts the singer and testifies she had sex with him at 16 after they met at a Cook County courthouse.

Kelly is convicted by a federal jury in New York of racketeering conspiracy alleging he headed a criminal enterprise that employed agents, runners, bodyguards and others to lure and trap girls and young women to satisfy his sexually predatory desires. The jury, which heard from 50 witnesses over the six-week trial, reached its verdict after deliberating for about nine hours over two days.

Judge sets an Aug. 1 jury trial for Kelly and his two co-defendants, longtime associates Derrel McDavid and Milton “June” Brown. The trial at the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse is expected to last three or four weeks.

A jury finds Kelly guilty of three of the first four counts of the indictment, which charged the singer with the sexual exploitation of “Jane” for the purpose of producing child pornography. He was acquitted on a fourth count.

Each child pornography count carries a mandatory-minimum 10-year prison sentence, with the possibility that they would have to be served consecutively.

Sources: Chicago Tribune archives, AP, Biography.com, Brittanica.com, IMBD.com news reports and court documents