SANTA MARIA, Calif., June 13 - Michael Jackson was acquitted today of all charges in connection with accusations that he molested a 13-year-old boy he had befriended as the youth was recovering from cancer in 2003.
Mr. Jackson's complete acquittal - a stinging defeat for a retiring prosecutor who had spent more than a decade pursuing the singer on pedophilia accusations - ends a nearly four-month trial that featured 140 witnesses whose testimony painted clashing portraits of the 46-year-old international pop star as either pedophile or Peter Pan.
"Mr. Jackson, your bail is exonerated and you are released," Judge Rodney S. Melville said after the verdicts were read.
Along with the verdicts, the jury gave a note for the judge to read out in court. In it, they said they felt "the weight of the world's eyes upon us all" and that they had "thoroughly and meticulously" studied all the evidence. The note concluded with a plea "we would like the public to allow us to return to our lives as anonymously as we came."
The jury of eight women and four men delivered the verdict in California Superior Court here on their seventh day of deliberations, which began June 3. The jury was not sequestered and took weekends off.
Mr. Jackson, wearing tinted aviator glasses, a dark blazer, black tie and white wing-collar shirt, looked tense and somber as he emerged from the courthouse with his family and entourage shortly after the verdict was read, and he walked quickly to a waiting sport utility vehicle. Shielded from the bright sun by an umbrella tended by an aide, Mr. Jackson held up one hand in acknowledgement of the ecstatic fans outside cheering his acquittal.
Television helicopters chronicled his caravan's departure under police escort.
When news of the verdict spread through the crowd, a huge roar erupted among his fans, while those who'd been hoping for a conviction booed. His fans, many who have maintained that the charges were part of a vast conspiracy, hugged each other, danced and threw confetti.
"Victory! Victory!" shouted Omar Reece, 25, who traveled to Santa Maria from Belleville, Ill. "He's proven himself. People have been trying to stop him for 20 years, to destroy his character, his name. And each time he's come back better, stronger, unbreakable."
But John Carlson, who has six children, said the jury may have felt sympathy for Mr. Jackson, who was taken to the hospital with various ailments several times during the trial.
"Maybe the jury thought his life was over," said Mr. Carlson. "They maybe had sympathy for him. Maybe it worked for him to have all that publicity about going to the hospital."
Earlier, after it was made public that a verdict had been reached, television helicopters quickly arrived over Mr. Jackson's Neverland ranch near here. Cable news channels broadcast a nearly constant stream of images showing Mr. Jackson's small convoy of sport utility vehicles en route to the courthouse for the reading of the verdict. At the courthouse, crowds hastily gathered outside awaiting his arrival as the police ranks swelled as well.
Mr. Jackson was accompanied to the courtroom by several members of his family, including his father and mother, Joe and Katherine Jackson, two brothers, Randy and Jermaine Jackson, and two sisters, LaToya and Rebbie Jackson. He stopped briefly as he walked toward the courthouse lobby to wave to the throngs of fans calling out to him.
Mr. Jackson was prosecuted on 10 felony counts - four of child molesting, one of attempted child molesting, four of administering alcohol to aid in the commission of a felony, and conspiracy to commit child abduction, false imprisonment and extortion. Together, the charges carried a maximum possible sentence of more than 18 years in prison.
Mr. Jackson was accused of molesting the boy in February or March 2003 at his 2,700-acre Neverland Valley ranch. Prosecutors said the singer had plied the youth with alcohol in order to abuse him and had later conspired to intimidate and restrict the freedom of the boy, who is now 15, and his mother to keep them away from the news media.
But the verdict clearly showed that the jury had found the testimony of the accuser's family - the boy, his mother and his brother - to be not credible.
WHAT DO YOU THINK PEOPLE??!?!
MICHAEL JACKSON ACQUITTED!!!
Originally Posted by bisaya70
Reply With Quote
Posting Permissions
