The price of Jackson’s freedom

California: The child-abuse trial has left Michael Jackson a changed man. According to defense lawyer Thomas Mesereau, the pop star will never again share his bed with children as it makes him vulnerable to false charges.

Jackson himself did not speak to the media the morning after the acquittal. He had emerged the courtroom looking very frail and pale. It is believed he left immediately for his Neverland ranch as the stress of the over-four-month-long trial had made him very weak. His father Joe Jackson said Jackson went to bed soon after reaching Neverland.

Lawyer Mesereau said in an interview that he was convinced of Jackson’s innocence. But the man, because of his nature, would remain an easy prey for people who wanted to extract money or promote their careers. He said he never doubted that the court would find Jackson ‘not guilty’ and considered the prosecution’s case ridiculous. The prosecution had accused him on ten counts: four counts of molestation, one count of attempted molestation, one count of conspiracy and four counts of supplying alcohol to a minor.

In the meanwhile, three of the 12-member jury spoke to the media and are reported to have said that Michael Jackson may have molested boys but not necessarily the 13-year old accuser. Eleanor Cook 79, jury member, said "We had our suspicions, but we couldn't judge on that because it wasn't what we were there to do.”

When asked how the Jackson reacted to the news of his acquittal, Mesereau said the pop star thanked him and his entire team. He also thanked his family and said he was thankful to God as well and wanted to pray “for giving him the guidance and strength to move forward through this."

Mesereau also said he could understand the public’s willingness to believe all the unfounded accusations against Jackson, because he believed that the pop star was “unquestionably one of the finest human beings I've ever been privileged to know" he said. He also said that Jackson was an easy person to work with and very generous and caring about everyone in his life. “All that will have to change now,” Mesereau said, “because he has been generous to people who didn’t deserve it.”

As he left the courtroom yesterday hundreds of fans who waited outside the court were overcome with joy at the verdict. Fans even raised posters glorifying Jackson’s lawyer Mesereau as “Mr. Incredible” for his victory. Many legal experts argue that the celebrity lawyer would not have won the case had Prosecutor Tom Sneddon not decided to hinge the case on the testimony of the accuser’s mother. Mesereau had hired a private detective to dig into the background of the woman.

The private investigator had produced evidence and witnesses against the woman. Mesereau disproved her accusation that Jackson conspired to kidnap the mother and son and hold them captive at Neverland, by establishing that she had left the ranch to get her legs waxed at precisely the time that she claimed to be held there. The defense also proved that she had lied in a previous suit against J. C. Penney Co. and was a welfare cheat. Bringing in the boy’s mother who had a history of welfare fraud had undermined the case giving Mesereau the big advantage he looked for.

The pop star’s website went overboard with the acquittal and ranked the court verdict alongside the birth of Martin Luther King, the fall of the Berlin Wall and the release of Nelson Mandela.

This high-profile case is believed to have cost the supposedly ‘on-the-brink-of-bankruptcy’ pop star a whopping $ 5m as fees for Mesereau defense team. The celebrity lawyer himself is said to command fees of over $500 per hour.

More Entertainment News click here