The Chicago Sun-Times reporter, whose reporting kicked off the R. Kelly scandals nearly eight years ago, gives his impression in the paper:

The 41-year-old artist proudly described himself as “the World’s Greatest,” a “Sexual Super Freak” and “the Pied Piper of R&B”—perhaps oblivious to the fact that the Pied Piper of medieval legend led 130 boys and girls from a German village to their doom. Yet despite his acquittal Friday on 14 counts of making child pornography, it remains difficult to dismiss his lyrics and his boasting in the media as mere hyperbole.The prosecution chose to pursue a very narrow case against the superstar, solely concentrating on a 26-minute, 39-second tape anonymously sent to the Chicago Sun-Times in February 2002. But as the paper first reported in December 2000, for more than a decade, public records and lawsuits allege that Kelly abused his staggering wealth and fame to pursue sexual relationships with underage girls, many of whom were left deeply wounded by those encounters.

The voices of those girls were never heard in Judge Vincent Gaughan’s courtroom. But they include:

• The late Aaliyah D. Haughton, Kelly’s celebrated 15-year-old protege, whom he illegally married in 1994 shortly after producing the debut album he titled “Age Ain’t Nothing But a Number.” (The marriage was annulled, and Kelly paid Aaliyah a token sum in a settlement.)

• Tiffany H[.]*, who sued Kelly claiming that he began having sex with her when she was 15 after he picked her while visiting her choir class at his alma mater, Kenwood Academy. (Kelly settled the lawsuit for an undisclosed sum.)

• Tracy S[.], a former intern at Epic Records who sued Kelly claiming that she lost her virginity to him at age 17. (Kelly settled the lawsuit for an undisclosed sum.)

• Patrice J[.], a Chicago woman who sued Kelly alleging that they began having sex after he met her at the Rock ‘n’ Roll McDonald’s following her high school’s senior prom. (Kelly settled the lawsuit for an undisclosed sum.)

• And Montina W[.], a legal-age dancer who sued Kelly claiming that he videotaped her without her knowledge while they were having sex. (Kelly settled the lawsuit for an undisclosed sum.)

And these are just the main on-the-record, names-attached cases we know about. (There is photographic evidence of two more, but the girls in them have never been identified.)

DeRogatis’s piece is a reminder of the second-saddest thing about the verdict. (The first is that Kelly’s back on the streets a smarter and wiser sexual predator, presumably with the minor object lesson learned that he merely probably shouldn’t film himself urinating on under-aged girls.)

The second saddest is that he’s now an acquitted sexual predator and will be referred to that way by a press that has already spent nearly eight years downplaying the acts he’s been accused of. A year before the tape came to light DeRogatis and his reporting partner, Abdon Pallasch, had crafted a convincing portrait of Kelly’s activities in that realm.

The acts in that story will now fade as Kelly takes a what will certainly be a victory lap of media interviews, no doubt with pliable folks who won’t press Kelly for explanations.

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* Hitsville sees no reason to print the women’s full names.