Elizabeth Taylor may be called as Jackson witness
Michael Jackson’s legal team plans to call a star-studded list of witnesses in his defence including Stevie Wonder, Diana Ross and Elizabeth Taylor, it emerged today.
As jury selection resumed in the Santa Maris courtroom, the star’s lead defence lawyer Tom Mesereau revealed his list of proposed witnesses, which includes a host of celebrities.
Among them are illusionist David Blaine, Backstreet Boy Nick Carter and relatives of actor Marlon Brando, as well as Jackson’s own children Paris and Prince Michael.
The prosecution list includes the mother of those children, Debbie Rowe, former Jackson attorney Mark Geragos and a young man who as a boy was involved in 1993 allegations against Jackson.
British journalist Martin Bashir, whose documentary Living With Michael Jackson, sparked the investigation, is also on the list. Prospective jurors were not told the relevance of the witnesses.
Some 242 prospective jurors, who have already filled out eight-page questionnaires on the trial, will be further quizzed as the court attempts to whittle out 12 people who will give the singer a fair hearing.
The answers to the questionnaires, released by the court, show one in seven knows someone who knows Jackson while almost nine in 10 were aware of the child sex abuse case.
So far only one 82-year-old man has been excused on the grounds of ill health.
Judge Rodney Melville told the potential jurors to relax and keep an open mind, adding that a defendant’s greatest fear is that a judge or juror has been “bought and paid for.”
“I’m not bought and paid for. I have not made up my mind in this case and I want to select a jury that feels exactly the same way,” he said.
Jackson, 46, waved to supporters as he arrived at court wearing a black suit and red shirt.
The trial had been delayed following the death of Mesereau’s sister.
Jackson denies molesting the 13-year-old boy, plying him with alcohol and conspiring to hold him and his family captive.
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