Jacko jury to see documentary
2005-01-29 21:41
Santa Maria, California - Jurors in Michael Jackson's child molestation trial will be shown the explosive television documentary which set in motion the events that led to his arrest, a judge ruled on Friday.
Judge Rodney Melville ruled that prosecutors can screen the BBC's version of Martin Bashir's programme Living With Michael Jackson for the jury, despite objections from Jackson's lawyers.
"I'm going to limit it to the documentary aired on the BBC, not the 20/20 (US) version containing commentary by journalists," Melville said.
In the show, which sparked a media firestorm that attracted authorities' attention, Jackson is seen holding hands with his accuser and also admits to sharing his bedroom with children.
The decision came at the last pre-trial hearing ahead of Monday's official start of one of the biggest celebrity trials of modern times, which kicks off with jury selection.
Prosecutor Tom Sneddon alleged that the US broadcast of an extended version of the programme, which included commentary by Bashir, had been a public relations disaster for Jackson's career, finances and public image.
The show prompted Jackson and five alleged unnamed conspirators to kidnap the boy and his family and hold them prisoner at Neverland Ranch until they made a video exonerating Jackson of any wrongdoing involving the then 13-year-old boy, Sneddon claimed.
"This was a catastrophe. They were desperate and they needed to do something about it," Sneddon told the judge.
Jackson's lawyer, Thomas Mesereau, countered that the documentary was an inflammatory distortion edited in "Hollywood" fashion in order to make it sensational and therefore profitable.
"They couldn't have come up with something more inflammatory if in their dreams they were permitted to do so," he said. "The documentary is a highly edited, dramatised, provocative piece of material."
Mesereau urged the judge to also show jurors a rival video made simultaneously with the Bashir programme in which the journalist is seen interviewing the "King of Pop."
In the rival video, Jackson qualified or explained his responses, Mesereau said, claiming that those responses were edited out by Bashir, who "insidiously coaxed" Jackson into saying sensational things in order to sell the show.
Jackson has pleaded innocent to 10 charges, including child molestation and an alleged plot to kidnap and falsely imprison the boy and his family. His trial starts with jury selection on Monday.
- AFP