The Dirksen Courthouse is pictured in Chicago. (Capitol News Illinois)

Harry Leinenweber, a longtime Illinois jurist who oversaw the bribery trial of four former Commonwealth Edison officials and R&B star R. Kelly’s Chicago child pornography case, has died.

Leinenweber passed away Tuesday at the age of 87 years old, according to federal court officials.

“Judge Harry D. Leinenweber was a friend, mentor, and model jurist,” Rebecca Pallmeyer, chief judge for the Northern District of Illinois, said in a statement. “My colleagues and I are deeply saddened by Judge Leinenweber’s passing.”

A native of Joliet, Leinenweber was first appointed as a judge in the Northern District of Illinois in 1985 by President Ronald Reagan. He continued in that role until 2002 when he was named a senior judge.

He previously served as a Republican member of the Illinois House of Representatives from 1973 to 1983.

Leinenweber presided over Kelly’s 2022 trial in Chicago where a jury found him guilty of multiple child pornography-related charges and found that the superstar singer had sexually abused his 14-year-old goddaughter and other minors in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

Leinenweber ultimately sentenced Kelly to 20 years in prison, but 19 of those years are set to be served concurrently with Kelly’s previous sentence from a separate New York case, meaning he’ll only serve one additional year in prison for his Chicago convictions.

In 2023, the judge presided over the monthslong “ComEd Four” trial, in which four former officials from the utility giant were convicted of conspiring to bribe ex-Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan.

Sentencing in that case has been repeatedly delayed, including in one instance earlier this year when Leinenweber cited ongoing health issues, which he said had prevented him from returning to Chicago.

“We hope for comfort and peace for his family,” Pallmeyer said. “We thank his family for sharing him with us for over 39 years.”