Cheering Fans Greet Jackson as Attorneys Spar
By Dan Whitcomb
SANTA MARIA (Reuters) - A white-suited Michael Jackson waved and smiled to cheering fans as he and his family went to court on Monday to watch his attorney spar with the prosecutor who has twice charged the self-proclaimed king of pop with child molestation.
Jackson lawyer Tom Mesereau and Santa Barbara County District Attorney Tom Sneddon verbally battled it out in a contentious hearing over whether evidence prosecutors seized from a private investigator should be admissible in the Jackson trial.
Jackson, accompanied by his brothers, sisters and parents, arrived at the courthouse in a double-decker tour bus and was greeted by about 100 screaming fans.
He was dressed head-to-toe in white and wore a gold-colored armband. His siblings also wore white, while his parents dressed in blue.
The mostly young admirers shrieked with joy when he waved and smiled at them while they pressed up against a chain-link fence outside the courthouse.
Security guards in dark business suits held an umbrella over Jackson to shield him from the sun while entering the courtroom.
Jackson, 45, is scheduled to stand trial on Jan. 31 on a 10-count indictment that charges him with child molestation and conspiracy. He has pleaded not guilty.
His lawyers are trying to exclude from the trial evidence prosecutors seized from the office of private investigator Brad Miller, who was hired by Jackson's former attorney Mark Geragos.
They say the seizure violated the rights of attorneys and clients to privileged information.
Sneddon had to take the witness chair, and be questioned by Mesereau in a hearing before Superior Court Judge Rodney Melville. Sneddon said he did not know that Miller was hired by Geragos, who Jackson has since replaced with Mesereau.
The occasionally bitter exchanges between Sneddon and Mesereau drew a warning from Melville.
"Mr. Sneddon, I'm going to ask you not to spar with the attorney. I want to stop it right now before it starts," the judge said.
Jackson views Sneddon as a personal nemesis and appeared to stare intently at him as Sneddon sat on the witness stand.
The singer's family snickered at the prosecutor's insistence that he was not aware of a Miller-Geragos connection.
Geragos is now attorney for Scott Peterson (news - web sites), the fertilizer salesman currently on trial in Redwood City, California for the murder of his wife Laci Peterson (news - web sites) and their unborn child.
:nav Source: http://wireservice.wired.com/wired/story.a...w=wn_wire_story
By Dan Whitcomb
SANTA MARIA (Reuters) - A white-suited Michael Jackson waved and smiled to cheering fans as he and his family went to court on Monday to watch his attorney spar with the prosecutor who has twice charged the self-proclaimed king of pop with child molestation.
Jackson lawyer Tom Mesereau and Santa Barbara County District Attorney Tom Sneddon verbally battled it out in a contentious hearing over whether evidence prosecutors seized from a private investigator should be admissible in the Jackson trial.
Jackson, accompanied by his brothers, sisters and parents, arrived at the courthouse in a double-decker tour bus and was greeted by about 100 screaming fans.
He was dressed head-to-toe in white and wore a gold-colored armband. His siblings also wore white, while his parents dressed in blue.
The mostly young admirers shrieked with joy when he waved and smiled at them while they pressed up against a chain-link fence outside the courthouse.
Security guards in dark business suits held an umbrella over Jackson to shield him from the sun while entering the courtroom.
Jackson, 45, is scheduled to stand trial on Jan. 31 on a 10-count indictment that charges him with child molestation and conspiracy. He has pleaded not guilty.
His lawyers are trying to exclude from the trial evidence prosecutors seized from the office of private investigator Brad Miller, who was hired by Jackson's former attorney Mark Geragos.
They say the seizure violated the rights of attorneys and clients to privileged information.
Sneddon had to take the witness chair, and be questioned by Mesereau in a hearing before Superior Court Judge Rodney Melville. Sneddon said he did not know that Miller was hired by Geragos, who Jackson has since replaced with Mesereau.
The occasionally bitter exchanges between Sneddon and Mesereau drew a warning from Melville.
"Mr. Sneddon, I'm going to ask you not to spar with the attorney. I want to stop it right now before it starts," the judge said.
Jackson views Sneddon as a personal nemesis and appeared to stare intently at him as Sneddon sat on the witness stand.
The singer's family snickered at the prosecutor's insistence that he was not aware of a Miller-Geragos connection.
Geragos is now attorney for Scott Peterson (news - web sites), the fertilizer salesman currently on trial in Redwood City, California for the murder of his wife Laci Peterson (news - web sites) and their unborn child.
:nav Source: http://wireservice.wired.com/wired/story.a...w=wn_wire_story
