Jackson jury is out
The jury is out in the child molestation case against Michael Jackson today after 14 weeks of testimony.
The defence portrayed him as a victim of those trying to pull “the biggest con of their careers”.
“Ladies and gentlemen this has been a nightmare for Mr Jackson,” defence attorney Thomas Mesereau Jr pleaded in a forceful closing argument calling for acquittal on all charges.
The prosecutor countered by telling jurors they would probably ask themselves why Jackson would molest his Gavin Arvizo, his accuser.
“Because he could,” said Senior Deputy District Attorney Ron Zonen. “This child was in love with him. This child would do anything he said.”
The jury got the case 14 weeks after the Judge Rodney S. Melville first explained to them that Jackson was accused of molesting Gavin Arvizo, a 13-year-old cancer survivor in 2003, plying him with alcohol and conspiring to hold the boy’s family captive to get them to rebut a damaging documentary.
The panel of eight women and four men was ordered to begin deliberations on the 10-count indictment against the “King of Pop” and were given 98 pages of instructions to guide them.
More than 130 witnesses were brought before them, including the boy, now 15, who told of being molested by Jackson, and three young men including actor Macaulay Culkin, who said as boys they spent time with Jackson and were never molested or inappropriately touched.
