The foreman of the Cook County jury that acquitted R. Kelly back in 2008 said he was “happy that justice was served” for Kelly’s victims after news broke of Kelly’s conviction Monday in New York.
“I’m happy that there won’t be future victims, and so I think justice was served and I’m glad that there was that kind of evidence where they could easily reach a guilty verdict,” Jamon Mytty told the Chicago Sun-Times.
Still, Mytty said he believed he and his fellow jurors made the right decision in 2008 “based on the evidence and the job we were given to do” in a trial famously missing the testimony of a victim.
“If the victim or her parents had testified in that trial, my guess is the jury would have reached a much different outcome,” Mytty said.
Kelly went to trial in Cook County on child pornography charges in 2008. The trial revolved around a 26-minute, 39-second videotape sent anonymously to the Sun-Times early in 2002. It allegedly showed Kelly performing sex acts with an underage girl.
However, the girl who purportedly appeared in the tape refused to testify. And members of the jury pointed to that refusal as key to their decision to acquit Kelly.
“There wasn’t that level of proof or evidence that you could render a guilty verdict,” Mytty said.
Meanwhile, the trial that just ended in Brooklyn featured graphic testimony from multiple victims.
Mytty said he wished that kind of testimony would have been available in the trial in 2008. He said he watched the Lifetime documentary series “Surviving R. Kelly” and casually followed the New York trial.
He also used words like “frustrating,” “disappointing” and “regretful” to describe his feelings about a situation that could have been resolved many years ago.
“My heart goes out to the victims prior to our trial and since that trial,” Mytty said.
