SANTA MARIA, June 6: Jurors in Michael Jackson’s trial resumed deliberations on Monday as the pop star waited at his Neverland Valley ranch for a verdict that could free him or send him to prison as a convicted child molester.
In a bizarre incident, the pop star’s father, Joe Jackson, turned up at the courthouse in Santa Maria, California, on Monday and demanded that sheriff’s deputies tell him where his son was.
“Where’s my son, I want to see my son,” Joe Jackson asked a sheriff’s deputy.
The police official told the elder Jackson that Michael Jackson was awaiting the verdict at Neverland and then escorted him into court as fans grew unruly.
Dozens of Jackson supporters held a vigil outside court as the jury of eight woman and four men deliberated inside. One sign said: “The so-called evidence in this case stinks.” Another read: “Keep Michael free.”
Jurors were shuttled into the central California court in white vans accompanied by police and kept clear of the protesters in front of the court.
Jackson, treated at a hospital on Sunday for a bad back, intended to wait out the verdict at Neverland, surrounded by friends and family members, Jackson’s spokeswoman Raymone Bain said.
“He’s going to probably be wanting to pull his hair out,” Mr Bain said, alluding to the stress of waiting for the verdict.
MEDIA FRENZY: While the jury took the weekend off, Jackson triggered a media frenzy on Sunday when he made his fourth trip to the hospital since the trial began four months ago and his second in the past week.
The 46-year-old singer, who in recent days has appeared shaky and frail as he left court, was driven from Neverland to a nearby hospital and spent about five hours being treated for what a spokeswoman described as a recurring back problem.
Jackson’s security detail went to great lengths to hide him as he left the hospital in the evening, parking a black sports utility vehicle with tinted windows on a sidewalk just feet from the front doors and smashing into a small bench in the process.
Hospital staff erected a screen and draped bed sheets to keep reporters and Jackson fans from catching even a glimpse of the entertainer.—Reuters
