Jackson cleared on all counts.

[Banned_n_austin]

This is so ridiculous.

Jackson not guilty
Jurors acquit pop star of all molestation charges
Monday, June 13, 2005 Posted: 6:49 PM EDT (2249 GMT)


Programming Note: Courtroom insiders and legal experts weigh in on the verdict, "Larry King Live," 9 p.m. ET.


Michael Jackson arrives at the courthouse Monday to hear the verdict.




SANTA MARIA, California (CNN) -- A California jury found pop superstar Michael Jackson not guilty Monday of all charges in his child-molestation trial.

The jury deliberated about 32 hours before reaching its decision.

The forewoman read the verdicts in a packed courtroom while a large crowd of supporters waited outside the courthouse. Jackson fans cheered, wept and hugged upon hearing the verdicts.

Courtroom observers reported that Jackson dabbed his eyes with a tissue after his acquittal.

Santa Barbara County District Attorney Thomas Sneddon sat grim-faced during the reading of the verdict and said later that he would accept the decision.

"In 37 years (as a prosecutor), I've never quibbled with a jury's verdict, and I'm not going to start today," Sneddon said.

Asked if the acquittal ends California's prosecution of Jackson, Sneddon replied, "No comment."

A number of Jackson's family members accompanied him to the courthouse to hear the verdict and flanked him as he exited the courthouse as fans cheered.

Jackson did not address the throng before leaving the courthouse in a caravan of black sports utility vehicles.

His lead defense attorney, Thomas Mesereau Jr., told reporters on his way out of the courthouse that "justice was done.

"The man's innocent. He always was," Mesereau said.

CNN's Rusty Dornin reported that before the forewoman read the findings, silence gripped the courtroom. The only sound was that of the judge tearing open the envelope for each count.

Jackson's father, Joe Jackson, stared stiffly with hands clasped as he listened to the verdicts, Dornin said.

Jackson stared starkly at jurors with no visible signs of emotion, she said. Santa Barbara Superior Court Judge Rodney Melville previously admonished courtroom observers to restrain themselves at the reading of the verdicts, Dornin reported.

Upon hearing the findings, Jackson's family members reached out to touch one another to support Jackson's mother, Katherine Jackson, Dornin said.

The matriarch sobbed at hearing the first "not guilty."

After the verdicts, the judge read a statement from the jury, Dornin reported. It stated: "We the jury feel the weight of the world's eyes upon us." They asked to return to their "private lives as anonymously as we came."

They later held a news conference, identifying themselves by their juror numbers.

The attorney for Debbie Rowe, one of Jackson's former wives, released a statement from her. "Debbie is overjoyed that the justice system really works, regardless of which side called her to testify at the trial," it read.

Monday's verdicts capped a chain of events that began in February 2003, after the broadcast of "Living With Michael Jackson," an unflattering television documentary by British journalist Martin Bashir.

In the program, Jackson was shown holding hands with the boy now accusing him of child molestation, and he defended as "loving" his practice of letting young boys sleep in his bed.

In November of 2003, California authorities searched Jackson's Neverland Ranch, following molestation allegations against the singer. Jackson was booked on child-molestation charges that month and released on $3 million bail. Formal charges against Jackson were filed in December 2003.

A grand jury indicted the 46-year-old pop star in April 2004 on charges of molesting the boy at the center of the trial, giving him alcohol and conspiring to hold him and his family captive in 2003.

Jackson pleaded not guilty to the charges and did not testify during the trial.

Jurors had deliberated during the course of seven days. Testimony and closing arguments stretched nearly 14 weeks before the jury got the case.

Prosecutors alleged that, following the broadcast of the Bashir documentary in 2003, Jackson and five associates plotted to control and intimidate the accuser's family to get them to go along with damage-control efforts, including holding them against their will at Neverland. The molestation charges relate to alleged incidents between Jackson and the accuser after the Bashir documentary aired.

Jackson's lawyers, however, consistently portrayed the singer as a naive victim of the accuser's family, who, they claimed, were grifters -- schemers -- with a habit of wheedling money out of the rich and famous.

The Jackson trial was full of salacious testimony, dramatic moments and celebrity defense witnesses.

Among the more than 130 people who testified were former child star Macaulay Culkin. He disputed testimony from earlier witnesses who claimed they saw Jackson behaving inappropriately with him in the early 1990s.

On March 10, the first day Jackson's accuser testified, the pop star arrived late for court as the judge threatened to revoke the singer's $3 million bail. Jackson, claiming he had a back injury severe enough to require a hospital visit, finally came to court in pajamas and slippers, walking gingerly while supported by a bodyguard and his father.

The accuser, now 15, testified in graphic detail about what he claims were molestations by Jackson on two separate occasions in early 2003. During cross-examination, however, the teenager admitted he told an administrator at his school that nothing happened between him and the singer.

Prosecution witnesses included the accuser's mother, who was on the stand for three days, and a former security guard who testified that he saw Jackson engaged in oral sex with another teenage boy.

That boy received an out-of-court settlement in his family's molestation case against the pop star for an undisclosed amount. Jackson was not charged in that case and denied any wrongdoing.

Testimony in the trial closed with prosecutors showing a police videotape in which the accuser tells detectives the singer gave him wine and masturbated him as many as five times.

Members of the jury came from a pool of 200 people from Santa Barbara County, just north of Los Angeles. The eight-woman, four-man jury ranged in age from 20 to 79, including a 21-year-old male paraplegic who said he once visited Neverland Ranch, where Jackson has a mansion, zoo and small amusement park.

[Hoov]

One of the jurors had visited neverland ranch, guess Jacksons attorneys made sure he was on the jury.

Isn't that conflict of interest ?? or is the neverland ranch a public place like disney world, somehow i dont think it is.

[Cajuncowboy]

I wasn't in the court room obviously but from I heard in the news, the defense totally discredited the accusor and the DA. While personally I think Jackson is guilty as heck, I think there was just too much of a credibility issue with the DA and the accusors. Brining Leno and Caulkin in probably put the nail in the DA's coffin.

[Banned_n_austin]

My whole deal is I hate this verdict ... but I agree with it.

I am 99% sure this guy is guilty - probably even more than that. But there was 0% evidence. None of the case was based on any evidence. All of this was he said, she said testimony and by the time you get done with what's what, it's hard to figure out what is what ... but I will say that no grown up sleeps with little boys in their beds ... and no man keeps pictures of nude boys around unless you're funny.

I don't think he is innocent and I think he'll pay come judgement day ... but I agree with the verdict. You have to acquit him here as much as it sucks because if that's me that is being accused in that courtroom, I definitely want them to have some evidence to convict me on ... not just some people talking about what they think or saw or heard ... I'd want evidence.

I hate to see him walking around being a free man ... but that's what the legal system should be about. There was reasonable doubt here. Very very little reasonable doubt, but just enough to get a pervert like Micheal Jackson off - no pun.

[Cajuncowboy]

Originally Posted by Banned_n_austin

My whole deal is I hate this verdict ... but I agree with it.

I am 99% sure this guy is guilty - probably even more than that. But there was 0% evidence. None of the case was based on any evidence. All of this was he said, she said testimony and by the time you get done with what's what, it's hard to figure out what is what ... but I will say that no grown up sleeps with little boys in their beds ... and no man keeps pictures of nude boys around unless you're funny.

I don't think he is innocent and I think he'll pay come judgement day ... but I agree with the verdict. You have to acquit him here as much as it sucks because if that's me that is being accused in that courtroom. I definitely want them to have some evidence to convict me on ... not just some people talking about what they think or saw or heard ... I'd want evidence.

Can't argue with any of what you said. Like you, I think he is guilty, but unless they find that the jurors were closet Jackson fans or there was something funny with the jury pool, then we have to accept they way the legal system played this one out.

ANd yes, I think the verdict sucks.

[Banned_n_austin]

Originally Posted by cajuncowboy

Can't argue with any of what you said. Like you, I think he is guilty, but unless they find that the jurors were closet Jackson fans or there was something funny with the jury pool, then we have to accept they way the legal system played this one out.

ANd yes, I think the verdict sucks.

This is a done deal ... and the sad thing is, while I agree with the verdict, I'm sure it will only be a matter of time before he buys the rights to someone else's kids or makes friends with someone elses mother or even starts this whole cycle over with his "own" (how stupid are we?) kids. He's going to do this again and again until someone or something puts a stop to it ... it's sad, but this won't be enough.

Jackson is sick and needs help. I only hope he gets it.

[Cajuncowboy]

Originally Posted by Banned_n_austin

This is a done deal ... and the sad thing is, while I agree with the verdict, I'm sure it will only be a matter of time before he buys the rights to someone else's kids or makes friends with someone elses mother or even starts this whole cycle over with his "own" (how stupid are we?) kids. He's going to do this again and again until someone or something puts a stop to it ... it's sad, but this won't be enough.

Jackson is sick and needs help. I only hope he gets it.

I'm not to sure about the genetics of the whole thing but neither of those kids look like they could have sprung from his loins. And as for the future, I am afraid you are right. Unless this was somekind of a wake up call for him, this will probably continue because now he figures he can beat the system. In his head he is probably singing "Just Beat It". (I know...bad joke. )

[Crown Royal]

Originally Posted by Banned_n_austin

My whole deal is I hate this verdict ... but I agree with it.

I am 99% sure this guy is guilty - probably even more than that. But there was 0% evidence. None of the case was based on any evidence. All of this was he said, she said testimony and by the time you get done with what's what, it's hard to figure out what is what ... but I will say that no grown up sleeps with little boys in their beds ... and no man keeps pictures of nude boys around unless you're funny.

I don't think he is innocent and I think he'll pay come judgement day ... but I agree with the verdict. You have to acquit him here as much as it sucks because if that's me that is being accused in that courtroom, I definitely want them to have some evidence to convict me on ... not just some people talking about what they think or saw or heard ... I'd want evidence.

[View Full Quote]I hate to see him walking around being a free man ... but that's what the legal system should be about. There was reasonable doubt here. Very very little reasonable doubt, but just enough to get a pervert like Micheal Jackson off - no pun.

Couldn't agree with that post more. While I am not as sure that he is a molestor (just because I don't know all the facts), the verdict is what it should be.

[SuspectCorner]

now lets try the parents of boys allowed to "spend the night" with michael jackson.

flippin' great job mom and dad.

[WV Cowboy]

There was no physical evidence in the Scott Peterson case either, but he got convicted.

[Crown Royal]

Originally Posted by WV Cowboy

There was no physical evidence in the Scott Peterson case either, but he got convicted.

There was a body, motive, lack of alibi, etc. Totally different case.

[k19]

Originally Posted by WV Cowboy

There was no physical evidence in the Scott Peterson case either, but he got convicted.

He wasnt rich OR famous

[WV Cowboy]

Originally Posted by Crown Royal

There was a body, motive, lack of alibi, etc. Totally different case.

I know it was a different case, but there was no evidence linking him to the murder, no smoking gun, yet he was found guilty.

[Banned_n_austin]

Originally Posted by WV Cowboy

I know it was a different case, but there was no evidence linking him to the murder, no smoking gun, yet he was found guilty.

I actually disagreed with that verdict ... I think he was most likely guilty too, but there was no physical evidence ...