U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber, who presided over singer R.
Kelly’s trial on child sex abuse charges, has died. He was 87. Leinenweber died Tuesday evening, the eastern division of the U.
S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois said in a statement. The Chicago Sun-Times reported that Leinenweber had been diagnosed with lung cancer earlier this year and died at the Florida home he shared with his wife.
“Judge Harry D. Leinenweber was a friend, mentor and model jurist,” Northern District of Illinois Chief Judge Rebecca R. Pallmeyer said in the statement.
“My colleagues and I are deeply saddened by Judge Leinenweber's passing. We hope for comfort and peace for his family. We thank his family for sharing him with us for over 39 years.
” President Ronald Reagan nominated Leinenweber, a former state lawmaker, to the bench in 1985. He took senior status, a form of semi-retirement, in 2002 but continued to work. He presided over Kelly’s trial in 2022.
Prosecutors accused of producing sexually explicit videos of children and enticing girls for sex. The trial went on for a month before jurors ultimately of six of 13 counts against him. The verdict came months after a federal judge in New York sentenced for racketeering and sex trafficking.
Leinenweber sentenced the singer to 20 years in prison in the Illinois case. Kelly attorney Jennifer Bonojean wrote in an email that she loved trying cases in front of Leinenweber. “He allowed attorneys to do their .