Michael Jackson’s lawyer said the pop star is going to be more careful from now on and not let children into his bed anymore because ”it makes him vulnerable to false charges”. Thomas Mesereau Jr said on Tuesday he is convinced that the pop star ”has never molested any child”.
A jury on Monday cleared pop star Michael Jackson of child sex abuse and other charges that could have seen him jailed for more than 18 years at the end of a sensational 14-week trial.
Someone must have been telling lies about Joseph K. For, without doing anything wrong, he was arrested one fine morning. So begins The Trial, whose lonely protagonist stumbles into a judicial nightmare orchestrated by a malign society. On United States campuses, thousands of freshmen read Kafka’s novel every year.
Michael Jackson is physically shattered but ”emotionally resolute” and confident of acquittal as he awaits a jury verdict in his child sexual-molestation case, long-time confidant Reverend Jesse Jackson said in a television interview on Monday. The United States minister said he met with the pop star at a hospital overnight on Sunday.
Prosecutors portrayed Michael Jackson as a hard-drinking, porn-collecting paedophile to ”dirty up” the pop star because they could not prove their case that he molested a child, Jackson’s lawyer said in closing arguments. Defence attorney Thomas Mesereau Jnr was to conclude his closing argument on Friday.
Michael Jackson’s lawyers are working on their final arguments in the star’s child-sex trial that could go to the jurors within days, after three months of often graphic testimony. Now that both sides have rested their case, the rival lawyers could start delivering their closing arguments as early as Wednesday.
Michael Jackson’s defence suddenly rested their case without calling any rebuttal witnesses on Friday after prosecutors in a final move showed the jury a videotape of the accuser telling investigators for the first time in 2003 that he was molested by the pop star. The tape offered little that the boy had not already testified to on the stand.
Comedian Chris Tucker and United States talk-show host Jay Leno are scheduled to take the stand for Michael Jackson this week as the defence wraps up its case in the entertainer’s child-sex trial. The two are expected to be among the last witnesses to appear for the prosecution, which appears set to conclude its case by mid-week.
In a victory for Michael Jackson’s defence, jurors in his child-molestation case were allowed to see a video tour of the singer’s Neverland ranch that a prosecutor condemned as propaganda. Jurors saw idyllic scenes of amusement-park rides, cheerful workers, zoo animals, blooming flowers and statues of boys and girls at play.
CNN’s Larry King arrived on Thursday to testify for the defence at Michael Jackson’s molestation trial. King was outside the courthouse more than a half-hour before the trial was to resume. The defence has said the talk-show host will testify that an attorney who has represented the family of Jackson’s accuser had expressed doubts about their credibility.
A social worker testified on Tuesday at Michael Jackson’s child-molestation trial that she met privately with the accuser and his family during the time they claim they were Jackson’s captives, and they praised the singer and denied any sexual abuse. She said the accuser told her that Jackson ”never touched me”.
Holding vigil at the gates of Neverland, fans wait for a glimpse of Michael Jackson, horrified at the child-sex charges against the star they say is just a boy who wouldn’t grow up. A wave from their idol out of a car window stirs a frenzy of excitement, but the hardcore supporters insist they have not come to star-gaze.
A forensic accountant has testified that Michael Jackson owed -million more than he had in assets about the time a damaging documentary was aired, bolstering prosecutors’ claims that financial distress led the superstar to panic. The accountant testified on Tuesday that he traced Jackson’s finances from 1999 to 2004.
Michael Jackson’s lawyers are bracing for another week of potentially devastating testimony, after a string of witnesses told lurid tales of alleged child sex abuse at Neverland. Court-watchers say the defence is certain to redouble its efforts to tear down the character and credibility of prosecution witnesses.
Michael Jackson’s prosecutors on Friday were set to wrap up a week of explosive testimony in which jurors heard how the star allegedly performed oral sex on a young boy and fondled others. Jackson is on trial for allegedly fondling another 13-year-old boy at his Neverland ranch two years ago, but the prosecution hopes the prior cases will show a pattern of child abuse in his past.
Michael Jackson’s legal team braced for more damaging testimony on Thursday, after a former maid recounted seeing the pop star with young boys in the shower, the bathtub and in bed. The so-called ”King of Pop” is on trial for allegedly fondling a 13-year-old cancer survivor two years ago.
Deja Halder is only seven, but says he’s been a Jackson fan for ”a lot of years”, and did a stunningly realistic imitation during a show of support for the embattled ”king of pop”. He was one of half a dozen Jackson imitators who showed off their talents at the gathering of about 200 fans in a Santa Maria, California, hotel late on Sunday.
Prosecutors in the Michael Jackson trial on Tuesday inflicted new setbacks on a defence team already reeling from a decision to allow testimony about the star’s alleged history of child abuse. The prosecution boost came after Judge Rodney Melville ruled that jurors at the child sex trial could hear about five more boys the embattled ”King of Pop” is alleged to have molested in the past.
A comedian who gave 000 to the family of Michael Jackson’s accuser testified that she believed the boy’s mother suffered from ”hostage syndrome”. Louise Palanker told jurors in the singer’s child-molestation trial that she believed the woman had felt like a hostage since the age of 16, when she married a man who allegedly abused her.
A former housekeeper for Michael Jackson testified at the entertainer’s molestation trial that she called his Neverland ranch ”Pinocchio’s Pleasure Island” because children were allowed to run wild without adult supervision. Kiki Fournier said on Thursday that on several occasions she saw children who appeared to be intoxicated.
A public-relations specialist who worked for Michael Jackson for six days told jurors the pop singer’s team planned a smear campaign against the mother of his young accuser. Ann Marie Kite testified on Wednesday that his associates hoped to portray the accuser’s mother as a ”crack whore”.