A misdemeanor battery charge against R. Kelly’s girlfriend Joycelyn Savage has been dropped after her accuser — the R & B singer’s other girlfriend at the time — declined to proceed with the case, according to Cook County prosecutors.
Prosecutors confirmed Thursday that the domestic battery charge was dropped July 10 after 22-year-old Azriel Clary “indicated on several occasions that she did not wish to proceed with the prosecution of this case,” said Tandra Simonton, a spokeswoman for the state’s attorney’s office.
Without Clary’s testimony, prosecutors felt they were unable to move forward, Simonton said.
Savage, 25, was charged with the misdemeanor after she allegedly attacked Clary on Jan 8. at the 48th-floor condo the two women shared with Kelly at Trump Tower.
The fight was documented by Clarly in a series of videos posted to Instagram, which showed Clarly confronting Savage before the scuffle broke out.
Clary alleged that Savage hit her with her hands and phone and tried to kick her.
“She came to me and attacked me and I had to defend myself,” the Chicago Sun-Times previously reported Clary told police.
That night, Savage turned herself in to police and was released on bond the following day. She later pleaded not guilty.
At the time the two women were living in the condo, Kelly was being held without bond on numerous sex charges filed against the star the prior year by the state’s attorney’s office.
Kelly, 53, additionally faces charges brought by the U.S. attorney’s office in Chicago, as well as jurisdictions in two other states including New York, where authorities accused Kelly of bribing an Illinois official in 1994 to obtain a fake ID in order to secure a marriage license with the late singer Aaliyah, then 15 years old.
Kelly is being held at the downtown Metropolitan Correctional Center while awaiting trial.
