SANTA MARIA, Calif. -- Michael Jackson, the pop superstar who is one of the best-selling recording artists of all time, was acquitted of all 10 felony charges of conspiracy, plying a minor with alcohol, attempted child molestation and molesting a then-13-year-old cancer patient from Los Angeles.

Jackson dabbed his eyes after his defense team won a clean sweep on all charges. The verdicts were greeted by joyous whoops and shouts from hundreds of fans keeping vigil outside the courtroom.

After the verdict, Superior Court Judge Rodney S. Melville read a statement from the eight women and four men who were the jury:

"We the jury feeling the weight of the world's eyes upon us all, thoroughly and meticulously studied the rules of evidence….We competently came to our result. It is our hope that this case is the testament to integrity and fairness of the judicial system.

"We request that the world allow us to return to our private lives as anonymously as we came."

The verdict, reached after more than 32 hours of work in Santa Barbara County Superior Court, brought to the close a more than four-month trial that featured 140 witnesses — including defense testimony from celebrities Macaulay Culkin, Chris Tucker and Jay Leno.

From the start, the case was marked by odd moments. Jackson danced on the roof of his SUV after his arraignment, cheered on by fans who had come from as far away as Europe and Japan. Then he invited everyone to picnic at his Neverland ranch, the sprawling 2,700-acre compound in the Santa Ynez Valley where the abuse allegedly took place.

On another occasion, six of Jackson's siblings — including Janet — showed up in court in bright white outfits that matched their famous brother's. Nation of Islam members were briefly a visible part of his entourage.

In March, on the day his accuser testified, Jackson rushed to court wearing blue pajama bottoms after the judge issued a warrant for his arrest. Jackson had failed to show up on time after he sought treatment at a hospital for what his spokesmen said was back pain.

The case against Jackson hinged on irreconcilable portrayals of his character and behavior: Prosecutors described a cunning sexual predator who targeted young boys from troubled backgrounds; the defense depicted a childlike innocent who was an easy mark for a family of liars and con artists.

As they made their closing arguments, both Santa Barbara County Senior Deputy Dist. Atty. Ronald J. Zonen and Jackson's defense lawyer, Thomas A. Mesereau Jr., asked jurors to use their common sense to decide which portrait was accurate.

Prosecutors argued that Jackson had honed his seduction and molestation of teen or preteen boys into a well-defined pattern. Two previous times, Jackson had paid settlements to boys after allegations of molestation — more than $20.million in one case and roughly $2.million in the other, although jurors were not allowed the hear the amounts.

California law allowed the prosecutors to present witnesses regarding those cases and other alleged sexual abuse by Jackson. In all, prosecutors alleged that Jackson molested five other boys in the 1990s before abusing his current accuser in 2003.

Prosecutors said the alleged victim in this case, who was being treated for cancer when he met Jackson, shared characteristics with several of those boys. He looked like them. He came from a broken home. His mother grew to trust Jackson after he had befriended her family, showering them with attention and gifts.

The reality, prosecutors said, was that Jackson was sharing his bed with the boy, showing him pornography, giving him alcohol, telling him that boys who don't masturbate grow up to rape women or have sex with animals.

On four occasions, prosecutors charged, Jackson sexually molested the boy. On another, he allegedly tried but the boy stopped him.

Jackson's attorneys depicted the accusers as a family of liars trying to pull off "the biggest con of their careers." In particular, they sought to shift jurors' attention away from Jackson and onto the accuser's mother. They stressed that she had committed welfare fraud and, according to one defense witness, had fabricated evidence to win a settlement in an unrelated case.

"Greed begets greed," Mesereau said. In the past, he said, Jackson had been the victim of bad advice, settling other cases of false accusations. Failing to fight those allegations had made Jackson vulnerable to extortion, he said.

Mesereau insisted the prosecution's timeline was nonsensical. Prosecutors said the fondling took place weeks after the airing of a British documentary about Jackson. The documentary — a rare look at the reclusive star's lifestyle — triggered widespread outrage after Jackson unrepentantly admitted that he often shared his bed with boys in what he described as nonsexual sleepovers.

Why, Mesereau asked, would Jackson have molested his accuser at the same time that Los Angeles social workers were investigating his activities with children — a direct result of the broadcast?

[此贴子已经被作者于2005-6-13 16:48:27编辑过]