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Jackson Trial Starts, With Fanfare and Jury Selection
By JOHN M. BRODER and CHARLIE LeDUFF
SANTA MARIA, Calif., Jan. 31 - He arrived early at the courthouse on Monday, dressed in a crisp white outfit and gold armband but without dark glasses. He gave no impromptu dance performance and did not speak. He simply turned toward the cameras and flashed a victory sign.
But just that much from Michael Jackson was enough to produce squeals from several hundred fans behind a chain-link fence, some working themselves into a lather of hiccups on the first day of jury selection for his trial on child molesting charges. Most of the fans seemed certain that the King of Pop was not guilty of the charges of molesting a 13-year-old boy while plying him with liquor two years ago.
"I'm here to support Michael and to let the world know we stand by his side," said Janet Manbrik, a 27-year-old nurse from Sweden. "This is a conspiracy from the district attorney's side. I know details that don't fit."
As the first wave of 150 prospective jurors filed into the rear of the courthouse on Monday morning, Mr. Jackson and his four-member legal team stood silently and watched them enter, his hands clasped behind his back, as he faced the potential jurors for the first time.
When the potential jurors had taken their seats, Judge Rodney S. Melville of Santa Barbara County Superior Court delivered a brief civics lesson.
"I know you have all been selected for jury duty and are not volunteers and probably would rather be someplace else," the judge said.
He then told them that jury service was not an option and reminded them that generations of Americans had served in the military to preserve the American judicial system.
"Freedom is not free," Judge Melville said. "Jury service is part of the cost of that freedom."
He then asked how many of the potential jurors were not seeking to be excused from serving in case No. 1133603, People v. Michael Joe Jackson, which the judge estimated would last five months after a jury was seated. The selection process, he said, would take several weeks. Mr. Jackson is required to attend every day of legal proceedings.
Judge Melville sent those people willing to serve - about half the group - to fill out an extensive questionnaire written by the defense lawyers and prosecutors and approved by him. He asked the rest to remain in the courtroom to explain their reasons for seeking to avoid service.
Mr. Jackson, 46, has pleaded not guilty to four counts of engaging in lewd acts with a minor, four counts of administering alcohol to aid in the molesting, one count of attempted child molesting and one count of conspiracy.
He remains a popular local figure, a fantastically wealthy and famous eccentric who chose to build his estate near here.
The city of Santa Maria, about a three-hour drive northwest of Los Angeles in a coastal farming area, has a population of 85,000, of whom nearly 60 percent are Latino and fewer than 2 percent are black. Many of the residents work in the fields of the surrounding Santa Maria Valley. Per capita income is $13,780, and more than 15 percent of the population lives in poverty.
Mr. Jackson, people here say, would on occasion go to the local toy store for a shopping spree.
"I wouldn't leave my kids alone with him, but I know he's innocent," said Margaret Buapim, 32, a social worker, standing in front of the courthouse this morning. "He's a decent man; I just know it."
The court will have a challenge assembling a jury of Mr. Jackson's peers. It is unlikely that the county has 12 citizens who live in an amusement park - he calls his ranch Neverland - who have made and spent hundreds of millions of dollars and whose appearance has changed radically over the past 20 years. The jury will be drawn from a pool of about 4,000 residents in the Santa Maria area who were called to appear for possible duty.
Richard Gabriel, a jury consultant who is not working for either side in this case, said picking a jury for such a high-profile case could more properly be termed "deselection."
"Both sides are going to target the most damaging jurors and try to get rid of them," Mr. Gabriel said.
Mr. Gabriel worked for the defense in the O. J. Simpson case and with the prosecution in a Whitewater case against former Gov. Jim Guy Tucker of Arkansas.
He said Mr. Jackson's lawyers would try to dismiss jurors with a rigid view of the world and the family. "They're looking for people who are more open-minded about notions of parenting and displays of affection," Mr. Gabriel said.
The prosecution, on the other hand, will try to dismiss people with a jaundiced view of the police or who believe that prosecutors selectively pursue celebrities out of spite or malice.
"There are very few people who don't think he's weird or eccentric," Mr. Gabriel said of Mr. Jackson. "What the defense will want is people who accept eccentricity."
The city manager of Santa Maria, Tim Ness, said the trial would be a boon to local businesses, particularly hotels and restaurants, but would also tax the city's public safety budget. The city spent $18,000 to build a chain-link fence around the courthouse to contain the crush of reporters and to keep demonstrators from disrupting the proceedings.
The cost of police overtime could run $40,000 a month, some of which will be offset by rental of city office space to television networks that need workspace near the courthouse.
The news media, as is now the norm in celebrity trials, was the main spectacle on Monday morning, numbering about 500 print and broadcast reporters.
One foreign television crew was doing its broadcast of the Iraqi elections from the courthouse parking lot. A reporter said, "Everything in this case is special; everything is different."
But even Mr. Jackson's adoring public has its limits.
"I want to support him as long as I can," said Sean Vezina, 24, of Los Angeles, "but I've got to go back to work next week. I've got bills to pay in the real world."
Mr. Vezina works as a Michael Jackson impersonator in front of Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood.
There were several British fans in the crowd. Jordan Gibson, 16, travelled for more than 20 hours from Gateshead with her grandmother Anne Scott, 64, to wave her hand-drawn poster of Jackson and Peter Pan.
"He just represents so much good in the world," said Jordan, a fan since the age of five. "I know he's innocent and want to support him."
The trip - her first visit to America - had been expensive, she admitted, but "worth every penny".
Lidi Gyampoh, 25, from Canterbury, Kent, left her three children, aged three, 18 months and six months, with her mother to travel for 23 hours to be at the court.
"I remember seeing Michael on television when I was about five or six. I remember thinking, I really want this man to be my father. And that never really changed throughout my childhood.
"I came out here because I could not let this tragedy happen while I was at home. Michael's never hidden the fact his mission has been to bring happiness to children. I'd happily leave my children with him." |
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