Federal judge who presided over R. Kelly trial dead at 87 after battling lung cancer

U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber, who presided over singer R. Kelly’s trial on child sex abuse charges, has died. He was 87. The eastern division of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois released a statement saying Leinenweber died Tuesday evening. The Chicago Sun-Times reported that Leinenweber had been diagnosed with lung cancer earlier this year and died at the home he shared with his wife in Florida. President Ronald Reagan nominated Leinenweber 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 and sentenced the Grammy Award-winning singer to 20 years in prison last year.