Judge Melville ruled yesterday that the defense will not be allowed to delve into the issue of alleged extramarital affairs by the accuser’s mother.

The defense said it wasn’t interested in her sex life but wanted to show that during the time she was allegedly held captive by Jackson she was in contact with a Los Angeles police officer and an Army officer who she eventually married. The defense claims that shows she could have asked for help if she had been a captive.

Source: Associated Press

Michael Jackson faces 5-month trial and 18-years in Protective Custody.

In what could be the King of Pop’s last public performance, the stage is set and the auditorium filled for the much-awaited courtroom drama between Santa Barbara prosecutors and Michael Jackson. Expected to last 5-months, it will be a show to equal the long-running O.J. Simpson trial of 1995.

Jackson, 46, has pleaded not guilty to 10 charges that include felony conspiracy with 28 overt acts involving child abduction, false imprisonment and extortion.

If convicted of all the charges, he faces up to 18-years in the top-security California State Prison – Corcoran (CSP-C), where, because of his high-profile status, he will be held in the 4A Facility which currently houses inmates that require protective housing within the Protective Housing Unit (PHU).

Charles Manson will be a close neighbour, as will be validated prison gang members, i.e., Nuestra Familia (NF), Nazi Low Riders (NLR), Aryan Brotherhood (AB), Mexican Mafia (EME), Black Guerrilla Family (BGF), Texas Syndicate (TS), and the Northern Structure (NS).

Jackson is accused of molesting a now-15-year-old boy who spent time at his Neverland ranch. The boy, who was 13 at the time of the alleged molestation, is believed to be the cancer survivor who appeared with the singer in the 2003 British documentary “Living With Michael Jackson,” which was put together by investigative TV journalist, Martin Bashir.

For Jackson, the trial is his chance to gain vindication through an acquittal and perhaps put behind him the cloud of suspicion that has followed him since a 12-year-old boy made similar allegations against him in 1993. For Santa Barbara County prosecutors, the trial is a chance to convict and imprison Jackson.

Although O.J.Simpson was found not guilty of the murder of Nicole Brown, the case left him almost a social pariah, and as Jackson walks into court, at Santa Barbara, California, in the morning, he will no doubt be considering his own fate.

Source: New Criminologist

With opening statements set to begin Monday in a trial that could put Jackson in prison and destroy a career he has worked his entire life to build, the pop superstar’s courtroom demeanor betrays no signs of panic.

He has his nervous tics - he meticulously folded tissue paper as his attorneys questioned prospective jurors, and at one point picked roughly at a thumbnail under the defense table.

But even in his most animated whispered discussions with his attorneys, Jackson appeared calm. His occasional finger-pointing and hand gestures were emphatic but graceful, like his famously fluid dance moves.

“The more relaxed he looks, the less scared he looks. If he looks scared, it looks like he has something to be scared about,” said Laurie Levenson, a Loyola Law School professor. “He’s a great communicator, that’s part of what makes him a superstar. But if the jurors see it as insincere, he’ll be in trouble.”

In jurors’ presence, Jackson was quick to nod and laugh, but quiet and polite. There were no signs of the larger-than-life man who, after one of his first court appearances, climbed on top of an SUV and danced to the cheers of hundreds of fans gathered outside the courthouse.

Source: Washington Post

Just hours before selection of a jury to decide his molestation case, Michael Jackson was relaxed enough to ask about buying some sketches of himself from a courtroom artist.

In an encounter Wednesday morning with Bill Robles, a courtroom artist whose work appears in newspapers and on television, Jackson asked for a business card. Robles, like many artists, features one of his illustrations on his card - and in this case it was a drawing of Jackson.

The singer, apparently pleased, had attorney Brian Oxman approach Robles to negotiate for some of his artwork. Oxman proposed trading art for some Jackson autographs.

Robles said Friday he hasn’t had any discussions about it since, but that the singer has turned and smiled at him - “giving me good viewpoints.”

Source: Washington Post

After months of delays and false starts, the trial of Michael Jackson will finally get under way in Santa Maria, California, on Monday.

Opening statements are scheduled to take place in what has become the most closely watched celebrity case ever.

“He is one of the most interesting people that has ever been on this earth,” said Steve Cron, Los Angeles-based defence lawyer and media pundit on the Jackson trial.

“People are going to want to know: What did he do? Who did he do it to and why?”

The singer has denied molesting a 13-year old boy and plying him with alcohol.

There is a palpable tension around the courthouse.

Everyone has a job to do and the world will be watching. Over the weekend more makeshift TV studios were erected on the grounds of the court complex.

Reporters from around the world have once again descended on this quiet California town. Everyone is eager to get their hands on one of the 40 passes for a seat in the main courtroom.

Source: BBC

The judge in the Michael Jackson child molestation ruled that during opening statements lawyers may not show the jury the entire “Living with Michael Jackson” documentary but may use a clip. The prosecution plans to use a two-minute segment.

The first prosecution witness is expected to be the documentary’s maker, Martin Bashir.

Source: Associated Press

Jurors in Michael Jackson’s child molestation trial will be allowed to hear evidence that the accuser’s mother had made allegations of improper touching against store security guards, a judge ruled Friday.

Attorney Thomas Mesereau Jr. made the allegations during motions on whether evidence could be admitted about the family’s lawsuit against J.C. Penney.

The family claimed in a lawsuit that they were beaten by guards and held against their will and that the mother was groped, after Jackson’s young accuser left the store with clothes that had not been paid for.

Superior Court Judge Rodney S. Melville said he will allow testimony about the case, especially as it pertains to the mother’s credibility. But he said the defense would not be allowed to refer to the boy as a shoplifter.

Mesereau said that after the mother received a $150,000 settlement from J.C. Penney and Tower Records, another defendant in the case, she immediately accused her husband of abusing her and filed for divorce.

The woman then accused her ex-husband of inappropriately touching her daughter, Mesereau said.

The attorney also said the woman testified in the J.C. Penney case that her husband had never hit her, but alleged in her divorce that he had beaten his family for years. That was perjury, Mesereau said.

Mesereau also said the mother had her son ask celebrities for money and spent some of the funds on cosmetic surgery.

Senior Deputy District Attorney Ron Zonen argued that the issue was how the mother acquired the money, not what she spent it on and that the issue was largely irrelevant.

“The question is whether a man who admits to sleeping with children was sleeping with this child, and what he did with this child. That’s what this case is about,” Zonen said.

Source: Associated Press

An ABC News report that aired on Good Morning America today made the absurd implication that Michael Jackson’s hospital stay was ‘disruptive’ and thereby in some way related to the passing of a 74 year-old woman. This woman had previously suffered a major heart attack and happened to be in the same hospital as Mr. Jackson last week. Mr. Jackson’s publicist, Raymone Bain issues the following statement:

“Michael Jackson sends his condolences to the family of the deceased. However, it is outrageous that Michael Jackson’s name would be invoked into a situation of which he had no authority or control. He was a patient himself.”

Raymone Bain

During the jury-selection phase of his child molestation trial, Jackson wore three-piece suits but added his own unconventional touches — red shirts, military medals, armbands, baubles. He repeated some outfits during the five days of jury selection that began Jan. 31.

The makeover is no coincidence, Details magazine editor Dan Peres and jury consultant Richard Gabriel say.

“From a defense perspective, the more Michael Jackson keeps a low profile and disappears in the courtroom, the better,” Gabriel says. But “Michael Jackson has to be Michael Jackson. If he were to wear a Brooks Brothers suit, jurors would be immensely suspicious.”

What’s the verdict on Jackson’s apparel? USA TODAY asks Peres and Gabriel:

Jan. 31: All-white suit with gold armband

Peres: “Wearing white on the first day of jury selection was actually a very good call. He really needs to try to appear as clean and pure and innocent as possible as white would suggest. But the gold armband detracts from that. It suggests military police. ”

Feb. 1: Black suit, red shirt, white vest

Peres: “I like the idea of a three-piece suit. It’s a very classic courtroom look. It suggests trust, earnestness. But he needs to simplify. He should really not suggest flamboyance, and that’s what he does with his clothes.”

Gabriel: “Some of the jewelry, some of the stuff he normally wears as accoutrements, needsto be toned down. ”

Feb. 14: Black suit, red shirt, patterned vest

Peres: “When you are as (pale) as this guy is, you don’t want to wear red. It’s not good for his face. I think he’s trying to match the shirt to his lipstick. His vest looks like very bad, ornate wallpaper.”

Feb. 22: Black suit, white shirt, snakeskin vest

Peres: “He’s wearing a white shirt, and that’s a step in the right direction. He obviously can’t resist bringing his own flair with the butterfly collar.”

Gabriel: “If this was any other criminal defendant wearing lipstick to court, I think people would go, ‘What the heck?’ But it’s Michael Jackson. In the jury-selection process, the defense looks at people who have a negative reaction to Michael Jackson’s eccentricities, to see if they equate those eccentricities to pedophilia or an indicator of abnormal sexual behavior.”

Feb. 23: Black suit, red shirt, red checked vest

Peres: “He’s making a mistake regarding repetition. He needs to vary more than just the vest. It’s as if he only has access to limited clothing, like a prisoner in a holding cell.”

Gabriel: “Red seems to be one of his favorite color choices. As long as it’s not so outrageous that it looks like he’s dressing for the MTV awards, his color choices reinforce the idea that he’s not changing (his style) to try to persuade the jury.”

Source: USA Today

Defense Attorney Gary Dunlap has now joined the Michael Jackson defense team, thanks to LS for the following information:

“In November 2003, Santa Barbara defense attorney Gary Dunlap filed a $10 million lawsuit against Tom Sneddon, accusing him of racketeering, witness tampering, conspiracy and malicious prosecution. Earlier that year, Sneddon had charged Dunlap with perjury, witness intimidation, filing false documents and preparing false documents in a case that Dunlap had handled. Dunlap was acquitted on all charges but claims his reputation has been irreparably harmed as a result of the proceedings. In an interview with Online Legal Review’s Ron Sweet, Dunlap claimed that Sneddon stacked the charges against him in order to get a conviction on at least one count; apparently, this is a common occurrence in Sneddon’s office. Dunlap also discussed Sneddon’s frequent abuse of power and claimed that there are other lawyers who have seen this. A judge recently upheld most of Dunlap’s lawsuit and the case will soon go to trial unless a civil settlement is reached.

In related news, Dunlap’s lawyer Joe Freeman recently sent a complaint asking that federal, state and county officials investigate Tom Sneddon and members of the Santa Barbara Police Department for misconduct. “In my opinion, the matters to be investigated are the possible criminal violations of several felony and misdemeanour statutes, including conspiracy, illegal taping, deceiving a court and a prosecutor illegally assisting the defense of a case,” Freeman said in his complaint. “I respectfully request that the U.S. Attorney, the California Attorney General, the Santa Barbara County Grand Jury and the State Bar open investigations and seek whatever sanctions are found to be warranted against Sneddon and his staff.” In response to the allegations, the SBPD’s attorney Jake Stoddard said that Sneddon and his employees are immune from legal action because they are prosecutors.”

Source: MJStar