Jackson's thriller trial

2005-01-31 13:54

Santa Maria, California - The child molestation case against Michael Jackson is finally ready for a trial that promises to be like no other.

Jury selection begins on Monday, with Jackson expected to appear, in a case that has become a symbol of the American obsession with celebrity. Early on Sunday, Jackson issued a court-approved video statement on his website, calling recent media leaks in the case "disgusting and false" and predicting he would be acquitted.

"Please keep an open mind and let me have my day in court," Jackson said, looking directly into the camera. "I deserve a fair trial like every other American citizen. I will be acquitted and vindicated when the truth is told."

The uphill task of finding jurors who haven't prejudged the case is a mere prelude to a courtroom contest that will include testimony from the boy who accuses the pop icon of molesting him.

More than a thousand news representatives have applied for credentials, including reporters from Japan, the United Kingdom, Australia, Switzerland, Germany, Canada and Mexico.

Hordes of news media gathered on Sunday to pick up credentials. A line of reporters and technicians snaked around the building.

On the defence side of court sits a glittering superstar who appears in makeup and theatrical outfits and has millions of fans worldwide who don't believe he could be a paedophile. Jackson, 46, is charged with molesting a cancer patient - then age 13, now 15 - after plying him with alcohol.

On the prosecution side is Jackson's long-time nemesis, a balding, moustachioed Santa Barbara County district attorney. For more than a decade Tom Sneddon has pursued Jackson and what happens at his Neverland Ranch. Jackson has derided him in song as a "cold man" with a vendetta and likened the case to persecution.

Sneddon, 61, recently asked the judge to stop attacks on his motives. If the defence continues to call the case a crude attempt to "take down a major celebrity," the prosecution wrote, Sneddon will reveal "everything he knows about this defendant."

Prosecutors have complained that defence lawyer Thomas Mesereau uses courtroom invective not only to hammer his opponents but also to brand the child witnesses - the accuser and his brother - as liars manipulated by their greedy mother.

The referee is Superior Court Judge Rodney Melville, 63, a veteran of the bench.

At the final pre-trial hearing on Friday, Melville made it clear that a gag order stands and he won't abide lawyers attacking each other.

"I expect and know that you will, all, on both sides, carry the burden of showing the world what a fine system we have," Melville said.

The challenge facing the court is not to find jurors ignorant of the case. It is to find those who say they can put aside everything they have heard and look at what the evidence proves beyond a reasonable doubt.

Another challenge is finding jurors who can serve on a case that could last up to half a year.

- AP