Good afternoon. Here’s the latest news you need to know in Chicago. It’s about a 5-minute read that will brief you on today’s biggest stories.

This afternoon will be mostly sunny with a high near 85 degrees. Tonight will be partly cloudy with a low around 60. Tomorrow will be mostly sunny with a high near 76.

Top story

How a Chicago murder suspect was charged, then uncharged, in an extraordinary behind-the-scenes battle among law enforcement

When Cook County prosecutors rejected charging a suspect in the shooting that left 7-year-old Serenity Broughton dead and wounded her younger sister, it set off an extraordinary chain of events earlier this month that veteran court observers believe is unprecedented in recent history.

A high-ranking Chicago police commander, frustrated by another recent case rejection by Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx’s office and confident in his detective’s work, went to a judge to have the suspect held in custody for longer and circumvent prosecutors to charge the man with murder and attempted murder.

But hours later, top police brass reversed course — and persuaded another judge to essentially “uncharge” the suspect, as a source familiar with the case described the move.

The court proceedings were so hush-hush — done without an attorney for the suspect or a prosecutor present — that no record of any of the actions were ever officially filed within the court system.

While previous news accounts highlighted the disagreement between police and prosecutors, the new revelations include documentation of the extent cops went to pursue the case without Foxx’s involvement — and also show how it ended up driving a wedge between police leaders and their subordinates.

The case has had lasting reverberations in the Chicago Police Department, with some saying it has decimated morale among an already beleaguered police detective division.

What’s more, the family of the victims have been left without justice and unsure if there is a clear path to getting it. While law enforcement authorities were feuding, the suspect was released from custody and now can’t be found, according to a law enforcement source.

“We don’t know where to go,” said Regina Broughton, the sisters’ grandmother. “It’s not seeming like the justice system is working for us. And that’s disheartening, it’s just angering.”

Tom Schuba and Matthew Hendrickson have the full story.

More news you need

R&B superstar R. Kelly was convicted by a jury today in his federal sex trafficking case in Brooklyn after decades of allegations. On the second day of deliberations, the jury of seven men and five women found Kelly guilty of racketeering.

An 18-year-old shot and killed over the weekend in West Elsdon had just returned home Saturday evening after spending the day with their mother. David Struett has more on one of the at least nine people killed in Chicago gun violence over the weekend.

Former Chicago Ald. Ricardo Munoz pleaded guilty today to wire fraud and money laundering in his federal corruption case. Munoz, who served the city’s 22nd Ward, admitted to stealing caucus money to pay for personal expenses like skydiving.

Though Chicago’s population grew over the last decade, the number of people living in Englewood dropped by more than 20%, according to census data. Housing stock in the area also dropped significantly, which has been devastating for the community, Manny Ramos reports.

Sarah Sherman, a boundary-pushing Chicago comedian also known as “Sarah Squirm,” will be part of the cast for the upcoming season of “Saturday Night Live.” Sherman joins the “SNL” cast as New Trier grad Beck Bennett says goodbye after eight seasons, NBC announced today.

A bright one

50 couples tie the knot outside Wrigley building

Wedding bells were ringing under the Wrigley building bridge on the Magnificent Mile yesterday.

Fifty couples were chosen for the opportunity to get married outside of the building, which is celebrating its 100th year anniversary.

“I wanted to get 100 couples, or 100 people, to represent the 100 years,” said Bradley Borowiec, vice president of Zeller, the real estate group that manages the building.

In the building’s plaza, four aisles were set up beneath the bridge. White carpets, flanked with floral arrangements, led each couple to a Cook County judge. Every 10 minutes, a new group of couples made their way down the aisles with two witnesses of their choosing in tow.

David Gombert and Shaun Airey stand at the altar outside the Wrigley Building on N Michigan Ave during the Meet Me on The Mile Sunday Spectacle Sunday, Sept. 26, 2021. 50 couples were married outside the Wrigley Building during The Mile.Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times

Family members and onlookers cheered as couples said “I do” and a four-person orchestra performed.

Perla and Edgar Bernal were part of the first group to make their way down the aisle. After seven years of being together, and postponing their wedding twice due to COVID, the couple was happy to finally tie the knot.

“This is where we met, so it means a lot to us, and this is where we started our family,” Edgar Bernal, 37, said. “Chicago born and raised.”

Katie Anthony has the full story.

From the press box

Your daily question ?

Who is your favorite “Saturday Night Live” cast member of all time? Why?

Send us an email at [email protected] and we might feature your answer in the next Afternoon Edition.

On Friday, we asked you: What is one iconic, but long-gone Chicago business you would bring back if you could? Tell us why. Here’s what some of you said…

“Marshall Fields … worked there for 10 years. Started downtown then opened Woodfield. Have so many childhood memories getting dressed up and having lunch at the Walnut Room. Really miss that store.” — Linda Bergstrom

“Father and Son pizza, Woolworth, Marshall Fields, Zayre. Memories of decent customer service and quality merchandise. Seems like that is lacking lately. Miss the old days.” — Tracy L. Lopez

“Marshall Field & Co., Chas. A. Stevens, and Carson Pirie Scott. Also, Treasure Island groceries and Kroch’s & Brentano’s.” — Lynne Victorine

“The Velvet Lounge… no experience quite like listening to the best of Chicago jazz, watching jazz legend himself and owner Fred Anderson chopping it up with folks at the bar, and getting some rib tips from Fitzee’s during intermission and bringing them back in to eat and wash down with some cold beer and sizzling jazz.” — Matt Ginsberg-Jaeckle

“U.S. 30 Drag Strip. Thousands of people went there every year and thousands of kids learned mechanical skills being inspired by what they saw.” — Jeffrey Hart

“The Busy Bee. Great breakfast served cheaply by friendly Polish waitresses. Damen and North, under the El tracks.” — Eric Herman

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SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly said quarterback Jack Coan’s availability for the ninth-ranked Fighting Irish’s showdown with No. 7 Cincinnati this weekend won’t be known until Tuesday.

Coan suffered a severe sprain to his left ankle in the third quarter of Saturday’s 41-13 victory over Wisconsin at Soldier Field. He was replaced by redshirt freshman Drew Pyne because true freshman Tyler Buchner was unavailable because of hamstring issues.

“If Jack is healthy, Jack would be our starter,” Kelly said Monday. “Tyler felt really good (Sunday) at treatment so that’s good for us. I think (Tuesday) we’ll make a decision on how (Coan) feels and how he looks.”

If Coan can’t go, Pyne would be the starter and Buchner would be the backup against the Bearcats (3-0) who are coming off a bye week, Kelly said.

“It’s a two-quarterback situation — it just depends on what two from that standpoint,” Kelly said.

Pyne completed six of eight passes for 81 yards, including a 16-yard TD pass to Kevin Austin during a 31-point fourth quarter. The Fighting Irish (4-0) roared back without Coan, who had thrown for 158 yards and was sacked five times by his former Badgers teammates.

In four games, Coan has thrown for 986 yards and nine touchdowns, but he has been sacked 19 times playing behind an inexperienced offensive line.

“The offensive line is under scrutiny right now and, look, they have to play better,” Kelly said. “But not all that is on the offensive line. The ball has got to come out on time. There are certain situations where the ball needed to get out in a timely fashion, and it didn’t.”

Kelly attributed part of the 6-foot-3, 223-pound Coan’s sack issues with the fact that he’s now playing out of the shotgun after taking mostly direct snaps from under center at Wisconsin.

“He wasn’t brought up in a shotgun offense, so there’s a bit of a transition,” Kelly said.

The 5-foot-11, 200-pound Pyne showed poise in the pocket on his TD pass, looking left to create room in the Wisconsin secondary to his right which Austin was able to exploit to find an opening. Pyne, who was sacked once, made quick decisions.

“When you recruit somebody that’s standing on the yellow pages to be 6-foot-1,” Kelly joked, “you’ve got to see it and the ball’s got to come out, and (Pyne’s) really good at that stuff.”

Better play from the offensive line, which saw a fourth player take snaps this season at left tackle in true freshman Joe Alt, would help the quarterbacks but also the anemic running game.

Cincinnati is 13th nationally in scoring defense per game (15 points allowed) and 28th in total defense (298.7 yards).

“We got to be a little more consistent on the left side certainly,” Kelly said. “They’re a little bit inexperienced. But this isn’t let’s throw the o-line under the bus. Everybody has to pitch in here — coaches, players — we all got to get better.”

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A long-running legal battle stemming from the 2017 passenger-dragging fiasco aboard United Airlines Flight 3411 has ended in the city’s favor, finally clarifying the role aviation security officers play in the layers of security that protect O’Hare and Midway airports.

In a 12-page ruling, U.S. District Judge Robert W. Gettleman dismissed a federal lawsuit filed by aviation security officers who had accused the city of depriving them of their status as law enforcement officers and stripping them of their law enforcement work histories.

Gettleman’s ruling noted it was the Illinois Law Enforcement Training and Standards Board — not the city — that de-activated the Chicago Department of Aviation as a law enforcement agency and, as a result, deprived the aviation security officers of their status as law enforcement officers. That action was upheld by the Illinois Labor Relations Board.

“Plaintiffs cannot relitigate here issues that have already been decided by the ILRB,” Gettleman wrote in his ruling, issued Saturday.

On April 5, 2017, the law enforcement board concluded it “could not trace law enforcement authority from the Illinois statutes” for the city’s aviation security officers “in the manner that we can for CPD officers and we can no longer find them to be law enforcement officers.”

Four days later, three aviation security dragged a bloodied and flailing Dr. David Dao down the aisle for refusing to give up his seat for a United crew member who needed to get to Louisville.

Three Chicago Department of Aviation security officers remove Dr. David Dao from United Airlines Flight 3411 on April 9, 2017.Provided photo

The judge concluded the Chicago Department of Aviation “should never have been certified” as a law enforcement agency and aviation security officers “should never have been certified” as law enforcement officers. But it is “undisputed” that the state law enforcement board did both when asked to do so during the 1990s.

“ASO’s were listed with the [state board] as having work histories as [law enforcement officers] even though they should have not been,” the ruling states, noting that those work histories were not destroyed.

“It is doubtful that plaintiffs can have a constitutionally-protected property right in something to which they were never entitled.”

Former Aviation Commissioner Ginger Evans, who gave a deposition in the case, said Monday it was “extremely important for Chicago to get this behind them.”

“The huge efforts that we took to clarify some of the very dated procedures and the lines of authority were clearly worth it,” she said.

“Aviation security officers are a very important part of the security network. But this struggle of them kind of fighting their duties has been, quite frankly, a distraction and, as the Dr. Dao incident showed, detrimental. [Dragging] a passenger. That’s the opposite of what’s supposed to happen.”

Evans said she fought hard — over objections from Ald. Edward Burke (14th) and others — to carve out a role for aviation security officers “separate and distinct” from Chicago Police because “you can’t have police everywhere” at O’Hare and Midway.

“You don’t want a bunch of people wandering around after the checkpoint with guns in their hands. … There are not supposed to be any guns post-security. So the armed police stay near the checkpoints for obvious reasons. And they’re required by the TSA to respond to the checkpoint within a certain number of minutes,” she said.

“The ASO’s are all over the place — checking gates, checking door alarms, around the terminal, kind of eyes and ears. Making sure that no one goes through a door they’re not supposed it. If something gets out of control, they call the police and the police respond. … With Dr. Dao, had they just waited a minute or two, Chicago police came to the scene, realized it was not a criminal matter. It was an airline policy matter that really shouldn’t have had any intervention from anyone at the city.”

The aviation security officers are represented by SEIU Local 73, whose president, Dian Palmer, could not be reached for comment. Nor could the law firm of Sweeney, Scharkey & Blanchard, which filed the lawsuit.

Summoned by United, three aviation security officers boarded Flight 3411 and dragged Dao down the aisle, leaving the doctor with injuries that his attorneys described as a broken nose, two chipped teeth and a sinus problem that will require surgery.

Attorney Thomas Demetrio addresses a packed news conference at the Union League Club in April 2017 about the incident earlier that month involving the removal of Dr. David Dao from a United Airlines flight at O’Hare International Airport. Among those appearing with Demetrio at the news conference was Dao’s daughter, Crystal Dao (seated at end of table, right foreground).Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times

Dao and United subsequently settled that lawsuit for an undisclosed amount. The settlement included an agreement not to seek damages from Chicago taxpayers.

Viral video of the incident fast became an international symbol of passenger discontent and a civic embarrassment that damaged Chicago’s reputation as an international tourist destination.

Two aviation security officers were fired — and a suspended officer resigned — for their roles in the incident.

In an emailed statement, Law Department spokesperson Kristen Cabanban said the city is “pleased with the court’s decision to dispose of this class-action lawsuit.”

“Aviation Security Officers … are a crucial element in our multilayered security approach and will remain a valuable workforce in the airports going forward, especially as we continue making modern security investments in our airport improvements,” she wrote.

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Jan. 8, 1967

Robert Sylvester Kelly is born in Chicago.

January 1992

R. Kelly releases his debut album, “Born Into the ’90s,” with the group Public Announcement.

Aug. 31, 1994

Kelly marries his 15-year-old protege, Aaliyah Haughton, who is identified as Jane Doe # 1 in Kelly’s federal indictment in New York. It alleges that, around the time of the marriage, Kelly had someone pay a bribe in exchange for a fake ID for Haughton.

February 1998

Kelly wins three Grammys for his hit from the “Space Jam” soundtrack, “I Believe I Can Fly.”

May-October 1999

This is when Kelly is accused of illegal conduct with Jane Doe #2, who met Kelly when she was 16 after a member of his entourage approached her at a fast-food restaurant. Prosecutors say Kelly filmed their sexual intercourse multiple times, creating child pornography.

Dec. 21, 2000

The Chicago Sun-Times publishes the first in a series of articles about Kelly written by Jim DeRogatis and Abdon M. Pallasch. The pair reported in their first article that, “Chicago singer and songwriter R. Kelly used his position of fame and influence as a pop superstar to meet girls as young as 15 and have sex with them, according to court records and interviews.”

Aug. 25, 2001

Aaliyah Haughton dies in a plane crash.

Feb. 1, 2002

The Chicago Sun-Times anonymously receives a copy of a videotape that appears to depict sex acts between Kelly and a girl who is believed to be 14 years old. The newspaper turns the video over to police.

Feb. 8, 2002

The Chicago Sun-Times reports on the videotape it received one week earlier. The report appears the same day Kelly performs at the opening ceremonies for the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.

June 5, 2002

A Cook County grand jury indicts Kelly on 21 counts of child pornography based on the video received by the Sun-Times earlier in 2002.

2003-2004

This is when Kelly allegedly kidnapped and sexually assaulted a woman identified in the federal indictment in New York as Jane Doe #3. The conduct would have occurred while Kelly was free on bond while awaiting trial in Cook County.

Prosecutors say Jane Doe #3 met Kelly at a mall outside of Illinois while she was working as a radio station intern in her early 20s. Kelly allegedly invited the woman to travel to Chicago for an interview. Once in town, she was directed to a room in a recording studio.

She was told to sign a nondisclosure agreement, not to talk to anyone and to keep her head down, prosecutors say. She spent three days in the locked room without sustenance, according to the feds. Then, when a member of Kelly’s entourage gave her food and drink, she became tired and dizzy.

Prosecutors say she woke up with Kelly in the room “in circumstances that made clear he had sexually assaulted her while she was unconscious.”

May 20, 2008

Testimony begins in Kelly’s trial on child pornography charges in Cook County, and defense lawyers insist Kelly is not the man who appeared on the tape that depicts sex acts involving an underage girl.

June 4, 2008

Chicago Sun-Times pop music critic Jim DeRogatis takes the stand during Kelly’s trial and invokes the First and Fifth amendments as he declines to testify about the videotape at the center of the case, which he received anonymously in 2002.

June 13, 2008

A Cook County jury acquits Kelly in his child pornography case after the alleged victim on the central video refuses to testify.

May 2009

This is when Kelly allegedly began a months-long sexual relationship with the victim known as Jane Doe #4, who was 16 at the time. Kelly allegedly made photos and videos of Jane Doe #4 engaging in sexual intercourse with Kelly and others.

He also allegedly led her to believe that she or members of her family would suffer serious harm if she did not perform sex acts on him and others. Kelly allegedly engaged in physical and psychological abuse when she disobeyed him by slapping and choking her, and isolating her in rooms for days at a time with no food.

Prosecutors say Jane Doe #4 appeared in the Lifetime documentary series “Surviving R. Kelly,” and her circumstances are similar to those of Jerhonda Pace, who was featured prominently in the show.

2015

Kelly allegedly had sex in April, May, September and October of 2015 with Jane Doe #5, while she was under the age of 18. Jane Doe #5 has been publicly identified as Azriel Clary, Kelly’s former girlfriend.

May 18, 2017

Kelly allegedly has unprotected sex with the woman known as Jane Doe #6, failing to tell her he had herpes. The feds say Jane Doe #6 appeared in the Lifetime documentary series “Surviving R. Kelly,” and her circumstances are similar to those of Faith Rodgers, who appeared in the show and filed a lawsuit against Kelly.

Feb. 2, 2018

Kelly allegedly again has unprotected sex with Jane Doe #6 without telling her he had herpes.

Jan. 3, 2019

“Surviving R. Kelly,” a documentary series, premieres on Lifetime.

Feb. 22, 2019

Cook County prosecutors again file charges against Kelly, this time accusing him of 10 counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse that took place between 1998 and 2010.

July 11, 2019

Federal prosecutors reveal indictments against Kelly in Chicago and Brooklyn; authorities arrest the singer while he is walking his dog outside Trump Tower in Chicago.

July 16, 2019

Federal prosecutors tell a judge in Chicago the alleged victim in Kelly’s 2008 child pornography trial is cooperating with the government. “She has now gone on record,” a prosecutor says.

2020

Attempts to put Kelly on trial are repeatedly thwarted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Judges in Chicago and Brooklyn also reject multiple requests by Kelly to be released from jail, where he is attacked by a fellow inmate.

June 9, 2021

Kelly tells the judge presiding over his case in New York he wants to move forward without his Chicago-based attorneys, Steve Greenberg and Mike Leonard. He opts to be represented instead by Thomas Farinella of New York and Nicole Blank Becker of Michigan.

June 22, 2021

After a nearly two-year stay in Chicago’s downtown Metropolitan Correctional Center, Kelly is moved to a detention center in Brooklyn to await trial.

Aug. 11, 2021

R. Kelly’s Brooklyn trial begins. A prosecutor described Kelly to jurors as a predator who lured girls, boys and young women with his fame and dominated them physically, sexually and psychologically while a defense lawyer warned that they’ll have to sift through lies from accusers with agendas to find the truth. The trial, coming after several delays due mostly to the COVID-19 pandemic, unfolds under coronavirus precautions restricting the press and the public to overflow courtrooms with video feeds.

Sept. 27, 2021

A Brooklyn jury finds R. Kelly guilty of racketeering on their second day of deliberations. The charges were based on an argument that the entourage of managers and aides who helped the singer meet girls — and keep them obedient and quiet — amounted to a criminal enterprise.

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The time for contract talk will come.

It certainly won’t be in a public forum, and definitely wasn’t going to play out during Monday’s media day, with training camp less than 24 hours away from tipping off.

For now, the only talk Zach LaVine was interested in had to do with “hardhats” and getting to know his new teammates.

“My plan is to [Tuesday] get ready for training camp, get ready for the season, and try and help these guys win just like everybody else,” LaVine said, when asked about his pending free agency after the 2021-22 season. “I’m not worried about my contract right now. That will be a point and time in the future, and my agent I will sit down and discuss it, go from there, but right now it’s about the Bulls and getting better tomorrow.”

A much different sounding LaVine than the one from the end of a disappointing 2020-21 season, where LaVine’s contract “plan” then involved getting “what I deserve, and whatever that is I’ll have it coming to me.”

Why the softer stance now?

He can thank his front office for that.

Not only did they give him better pieces this offseason, but they kept him in the loop about those pieces, listened to his opinion on those pieces, and then reiterated how they also feel about LaVine in their long-term future plans.

“The one thing we know is that we’re committed to Zach,” Bulls executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas said. “We want him to be in Chicago for a very long time. I think the trade deadline and free agency moves kind of proved that.”

It proved something.

Karnisovas & Co. added Nikola Vucevic at the deadline last season, and then this offseason added Lonzo Ball, Alex Caruso and DeMar DeRozan.

That’s two All-Stars, an elite ball-handler/play-maker with Ball, and a guard in Caruso who thrives on doing the dirty work that LaVine hasn’t always wanted to get involved with.

But that also comes with expectations.

Bowing out when the postseason arrives like the Bulls have done for four straight seasons isn’t really an option. Especially if they are invested in LaVine as a max player, and a scenario in which they could have to pay him $201.3 million over the next five years.

LaVine, who has never reached the playoffs, is well aware of that, but also aware that his skillset does come with a hefty price tag. If he focuses on winning basketball games rather than winning the PR battle about his contract, someone will pay him.

Although he did like hearing Karnisovas insist that the organization was committed to LaVine.

“It means a lot hearing that from them,” LaVine said. “I think you guys know I’m a team-first guy, I’m excited with all the moves that were made, and really looking forward to getting into camp and getting to know these guys and getting the season started because we all have a lot to prove.

“This is the most excited I’ve been, especially with the talent of the team that we have here, the support [the front office has] given me, I’m extremely happy about that, and I’m ready to hit the ground running and go out there and just get it going. There’s an excitement around the city, but there’s a bigger excitement around the team as well because we know we can do something.”

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NEW YORK — R. Kelly, the R&B superstar known for his anthem “I Believe I Can Fly,” was convicted Monday in a sex trafficking trial after decades of avoiding criminal responsibility for numerous allegations of misconduct with young women and children.

A jury of seven men and five women found Kelly guilty of racketeering on their second day of deliberations.

The charges were based on an argument that the entourage of managers and aides who helped the singer meet girls — and keep them obedient and quiet — amounted to a criminal enterprise.

Several accusers testified in lurid detail during the trial, alleging that Kelly subjected them to perverse and sadistic whims when they were underage.

For years, the public and news media seemed to be more amused than horrified by allegations of inappropriate relationships with minors, starting with Kelly’s illegal marriage to the R&B phenom Aaliyah in 1994 when she was just 15.

His records and concert tickets kept selling. Other artists continued to record his songs, even after he was arrested in 2002 and accused of making a recording of himself sexually abusing and urinating on a 14-year-old girl.

Widespread public condemnation didn’t come until a widely watched docuseries “Surviving R. Kelly” helped make his case a signifier of the #MeToo era, and gave voice to alleged victims who wondered if their stories were previously ignored because they were Black women.

At the trial, several of Kelly’s accusers testified without using their real names to protect their privacy and prevent possible harassment by the singer’s fans. Jurors were shown homemade videos of Kelly engaging in sex acts that prosecutors said were not consensual.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Maria Cruz Melendez argued that Kelly was a serial abuser who “maintained control over these victims using every trick in the predator handbook.”

The defense labeled the accusers “groupies” and “stalkers.”

Defense attorney Deveraux Cannick questioned why the alleged victims stayed in relationships with Kelly if they thought they were being exploited.

“You made a choice,” Cannick told one woman who testified, adding, “You participated of your own will.”

Kelly, born Robert Sylvester Kelly, has been jailed without bail since in 2019. The trial was delayed by the coronavirus pandemic and Kelly’s last-minute shakeup of his legal team.

When it finally started on Aug. 18, prosecutors painted the 54-year-old singer as a pampered man-child and control freak. His accusers said they were under orders to call him “Daddy,” expected to jump and kiss him anytime he walked into a room, and to cheer only for him when he played pickup basketball games in which they said he was a ball hog.

The accusers alleged that they also were ordered to sign nondisclosure forms and were subjected to threats and punishments such as violent spankings if they broke what one referred to as “Rob’s rules.” Some said they believed the videotapes he shot of them having sex would be used against them if they exposed what was happening.

Among the other more troubling tableaus: Kelly keeping a gun by his side while he berated one of his accusers as a prelude to forcing her to give him oral sex in a Los Angeles music studio; Kelly giving several alleged victims herpes without disclosing he had an STD; Kelly coercing a teen boy to join him for sex with a naked girl who emerged from underneath a boxing ring in his garage; and Kelly shooting a shaming video of one alleged victim showing her smearing feces on her face as punishment for breaking his rules.

Some of the most harrowing testimony came from a woman who said Kelly took advantage of her in 2003 when she was an unsuspecting radio station intern. She testified he whisked her to his Chicago recording studio, where she was kept locked up and was drugged before he sexually assaulted her while she was passed out.

When she realized she was trapped, “I was scared. I was ashamed. I was embarrassed,” she said.

She said one of R. Kelly’s employees warned her to keep her mouth shut about what had happened.

Other testimony focused on Kelly’s relationship with Aaliyah. One of the final witnesses described seeing him sexually abusing her around 1993, when Aaliyah was only 13 or 14.

Jurors also heard testimony about a fraudulent marriage scheme hatched to protect Kelly after he feared he had impregnated Aaliyah. Witnesses said they were married in matching jogging suits using a license falsely listing her age as 18; he was 27 at the time.

Aaliyah, whose full name was Aaliyah Dana Haughton, worked with Kelly, who wrote and produced her 1994 debut album, “Age Ain’t Nothing But A Number.” She died in a plane crash in 2001 at age 22.

In at least one instance, Kelly was accused of abusing a victim around the time he was under investigation in a child pornography case in Chicago. He was acquitted at trial in 2008.

For the Brooklyn trial, U.S. District Judge Ann Donnelly barred people not directly involved in the case from the courtroom in what she called a coronavirus precaution. Reporters and other spectators had to watch on a video feed from another room in the same building.

The New York case is only part of the legal peril facing the singer. He also has pleaded not guilty to sex-related charges in Illinois and Minnesota. Trial dates in those cases have yet to be set.

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For 43 years, Tom Heineman has lived on Eastlake Terrace in Rogers Park, a three-block-long street that runs past three beaches: Juneway, Rogers, and Howard. Every summer, he walked out the front door of his building, crossed the street to Rogers Beach Park, and dipped into the water.

Then came the winter of 2019–20. The lake rose to near record high levels. Violent waves coursed up the sand and overran the breakwalls. To save the parks — and the street — the Chicago Department of Transportation spent $1 million to cover Eastlake Terrace’s beaches with tons of white riprap — loose stone intended to prevent erosion. Now the beaches are gone, and so is Eastlake Terrace’s intimate relationship with Lake Michigan.

“We used to have lifeguards, we used to have sand,” Heineman said. “In the morning, people would come out of the woodwork to swim and do paddleboarding. My grandkids used to come over and visit, and they’d go to the beach. Now they go to Loyola.”

Down at the other end of the lakefront, in South Shore, the lake destroyed the private beach behind Jera Slaughter’s building at 7321 S. South Shore Drive.

“The waves shot up to the top of our 12-story building,” Slaughter said. “Water came into the building and uprooted our trees and our patio. We’re still structurally sound, but we no longer have a beach. We have Jersey barriers, bricks, and concrete blocks.”

Earlier this year, to protect Arthur Ashe Beach Park, the city piled riprap at the foot of 74th Street, cutting off access to the water. In Rogers Park and South Shore, the riprap is “temporary emergency work,” according to a CDOT spokesman. Residents in both neighborhoods are hoping for permanent protection from rising lake levels that scientists say are the result of climate change. Slaughter, a member of the South Side Lake Front Erosion Task Force, wants a breakwall between 71st and 75th Streets.

“We do not expect them to repair our property,” she said. “We expect them to slow the force of the water to protect our property.”

It could be a long wait. Next year, the Army Corps of Engineers is slated to receive $500,000 in funding for the Chicago Shoreline General Reevaluation Report, a three-year study that will identify stretches of the lakefront damaged by the high waters of the last few years.

The length of the study, plus the need to obtain funding for its recommendations, means that new work won’t begin until 2028, said David Bucaro, chief of project management for the Army Corps of Engineers Chicago District.

The corps’s last such study, which was completed in 1994, resulted in the Chicago Shoreline Protection Project, two dozen improvements between Montrose Pier and the South Water Purification Plant, at a total cost of $536 million. One of the still-unrepaired sections is Morgan Shoal, between 47th and 51st Streets, where the breakwall is cracked and battered; black trapezoidal sandbags have been installed to protect the lakefront path. CDOT hopes to begin design this fall on a $71 million repair.

“There are many other reaches of the shoreline that were not included, and it’s been 25 years,” Bucaro said. “In that time, the shoreline has further degraded, and conditions have changed.”

The new study will take a close look at six areas the city has identified as priorities for lakefront improvements: Juneway Terrace to Osterman Beach; Montrose Hook Pier; North Avenue Beach to Oak Street Beach; LaRabida Children’s Hospital; 71st Street to 75th Street; and Rainbow Beach to the South Water Purification Plant.

Joel Brammeier, CEO of the Alliance for the Great Lakes, hopes the solution isn’t simply pouring concrete to wall off the city from the lake. He’s a fan of the Friends of the Parks’ Last Four Miles Plan, which proposes building out the beaches both north and south of DuSable Lake Shore Drive, fulfilling Daniel Burnham’s plan to achieve the long-standing goal of a “forever open, clear, and free” lakefront.

“Riprap and giant sandbags are short-term fixes,” Brammeier said. “They don’t make the shoreline more resilient. The most resilient form of shoreline is things like beaches.”

In the past, the Last Four Miles Plan has been opposed by lakefront homeowners who didn’t want to lose their private beaches. However, Ald. Maria Hadden says she’s been hearing less opposition recently in her 49th Ward, which encompasses Rogers Park, since buildings have suffered expensive damage from attacking waves.

“It would be really nice to have a continuous connection to Evanston and the rest of the city,” Hadden said. “The general idea sounds excellent to me.”

Downtown, 2nd Ward Ald. Brian Hopkins has proposed using landfill to expand Oak Street Beach and add 70 acres of parkland east of DuSable Lake Shore Drive to protect the highway.

Expanding beaches is “a measure we would evaluate,” the Corps of Engineers’ Bucaro said.

In the meantime, lakefront dwellers are literally battening down the hatches to defend their buildings from the lake. Todd Rosenthal, who lives on the shoreline side of Eastlake, installed a rolling metal gate over his glass patio door after “the waves were hitting my window.”

“We want experts to not just manage us in a crisis, but come up with a comprehensive plan,” Hadden said.

That plan is coming, but will it come soon enough for the lakefront’s most threatened beaches and buildings?

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