SANTA MARIA, June 14: Pop megastar Michael Jackson was holed up at home on Tuesday recovering from his trial, no longer dogged by the spectre of jail and determined to revive his career following his acquittal. Friends and family said the famed entertainer needed to relax for a while at Neverland, his fantasy-filled California estate, but was certain to work on a comeback.
Jackson drove straight to the sprawling ranch on Monday after his jurors found him innocent on all 10 charges that he molested a 13-year-old cancer survivor, used alcohol to seduce him and conspired to hold the boy and his family captive two years ago (partly reported in Tuesday’s Dawn).
The frail and pale pop idol appeared exhausted after more than four months of appearances at the Santa Maria court, near Neverland.
Jermaine Jackson, one of his brothers, said he was very tired and needed to take it easy for a while but would go back to the music industry.
“Right now he’s going to rest but you know, it’s in his blood, in his bones.” Mr Jermaine told CNN’s Larry King.
Family spokeswoman Angel Howansky also indicated the ‘King of Pop’ would eventually be back on the stage.
“The world would be at a loss if Michael Jackson did not got out and sing and perform,” she said.
The 46-year-old pop idol left the Santa Maria, California, court on Monday to frenzied cheers from his fans, having scored a stunning victory over prosecutor Tom Sneddon, who has been pursuing him for the past decade.
The jury took seven days to acquit Jackson, who could have faced almost 20 years in prison if he had been convicted.
“Justice is done, the man’s innocent. He always was,” Jackson’s flamboyant lead attorney Thomas Mesereau said in a statement.
Wearing a black jacket, tie and aviator glasses, the singer made no comment as he left the courthouse but blew kisses to the hundreds of delirious fans.
Jackson showed no emotion as he listened to the jurors pronounce him innocent 10 times over, but stared straight ahead and dabbed at his face with each decision.
“Mr Jackson, your bail is exonerated and you are released,” Judge Rodney Melville said at the end of the hearing. Jackson slowly turned around to hug Mr Mesereau as the reality sunk in.
Prosecutors had sought to portray Jackson as a sexual predator of boys but his defence team had insisted that the accuser’s mother was an extortionist who had trained her children to lie.
“I think that Michael Jackson has probably molested boys,” juror number one said on CNN’s Larry King show, but he said the prosecution had failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt the case brought to trial.
The trial hinged on whether the jury believed the testimony of Jackson’s now 15-year-old accuser, who had given the jury a detailed account of the alleged molestation.
“The question came down to the credibility of the accuser,” juror one said.
DOCUMENTARY: The case against Jackson was sparked by a Feb 2003 television documentary in which the singer was shown holding hands with his accuser and defending his practice of sharing a bed with young boys.
The jury of eight women and four men deliberated for seven days before acquitting Jackson.
Jurors had to consider testimony by 140 witnesses and sift through some 600 items of evidence but they appeared to have had little difficulty reaching their unanimous decision.
“I think we all just looked at the evidence and pretty much agreed,” said a 79-year-old woman who served on the jury and was identified only by her juror number.
The prosecution case rested heavily on Jackson’s accuser — now 15 — who testified the pop icon molested him at least twice after nights of heavy drinking at Jackson’s Neverland estate in central California.
The prosecution was also allowed to bring in testimony from a number of young men who claimed they had been molested by Jackson when they were boys in cases going back 10 years.
Prosecutor Tom Sneddon, who has been vilified by Jackson’s supporters for what they see as a decade-long vendetta against the entertainer, defended the decision to charge Jackson.
“We did the right thing for the right reasons,” he told a news conference.—Reuters/AFP
