Sunday rumblings: Jackson jurors decided on 6 counts? Michael MIA? Live 8 to be Live 9?

Peeking behind the curtain into the jury room...

Best unconfirmed report of the day: Jurors in Michael Jackson’s trial have decided on 6 of the 10 counts. Best guess on the counts they have agreed on: conspiracy, alcohol and one count of an attempted lewd act upon a child. That leaves four molestation charges, the heart of the case. I’ll explain in a moment.

Jurors have also reportedly been asking questions too, says our reputable source, though it’s impossible to get verification ’cause Judge Rodney Melville is sticking to his media blackout decision, refusing to alert the media when questions and readbacks come, refusing to even discuss motions to reveal such key jury indicators until Thursday when a verdict may well have come in.

Playback Time
On Friday, jurors are said to have asked for a read-back of the testimony of Jackson’s teenage accuser from back in March, and the process reportedly will continue on Monday.

If the entire two days’ worth of the boy’s questioning is read out loud to jurors, it will probably take most of Monday, too. I’m sticking by the prediction I’ve made all along, for what’s it’s worth: the verdict comes Wednesday.

Where’s Michael?
Fox’s Roger Friedman, who’s well plugged in to the Jackson organization, reports today…

Sources tell me that he and his children and their nanny did not spend last night at Neverland. One source told me that Jackson expressed fears that the ranch was “bugged” with listening devices — ironic since during the trial the prosecution claimed Jackson was capable of eavesdropping on all phone calls made into or out of the ranch.

If Jackson is not at the ranch and still within an hour’s driving distance of Neverland, the odds are at he’s at a local hotel. The choices are few, with the Santa Ynez Resort and Alisal Ranch the primary candidates. A woman who answered the phone at the former said she couldn’t comment on whether or not Jackson was in residence.

“Hey, I wanna play!”
We many not know where Michael Jackson is, but we know where he wants to be: performing at next month’s Live 8 concert series. The Sunday Telegraph reports, “Michael’s right hand man, Frank Tyson, has written half a dozen letters to the organizers urging them to allow him to take part. The letters stress all the work that Michael has done to alleviate poverty in Africa.”

Bono, Robbie Williams, Annie Lennox, Texas and Sugababes performances will be staged simultaneously in London, Paris, Berlin, Rome and Philadelphia. Four days later, another performance in Edinburgh Scotland, same day, same location as the G8 Summit meeting of the world’s richest nations.

“Every single day, 30,000 children die, needlessly, of extreme poverty,” says the Live 8 web site www.live8live.com, “That’s why we’re staging Live 8. Five concerts, 100 artists, a million spectators, 2 billion viewers, and one message... To get those 8 men, in that one room, to stop 30,000 children dying every single day of extreme poverty.” But no Michael Jackson.

After all, Jackson co-authored “We Are The World” with Lionel Ritchie and raised over $90 million for famine relief. It’s probably breaking MJ's l’il heart that he's not being asked to sing along at Live 8.

Is Jackson so convinced of his innocence that he’s ready to rock next month? Can he — with those back spasms? Sure, it’d be a great comeback move, but MJ’s probably beyond understanding that right here, right now, he would be a greater liability than a help to the concert’s cred.

The Scotsman has a great take on the possibilities for a Jackson comeback.

Most scathing long-view of the Jackson trial today
Check out the commentary by Mary Ridell in The Observer in which she writes…

According to Professor Toby Miller of the University of California, the world is witnessing “the tragedy of a psyche and the tragedy of an empire.”

Excessive? Not if you buy the idea that Jackson is the emblem of his nation. The SUV, the plastic surgery and the pet food bill that would sustain large tracts of Africa all reflect a U.S. everyman. When Jackson gazes into a mirror, the face of consumerist America stares back.

Gratuitious self-promotion
KNX walked away with five major honors last night at the 47th Annual Southern California Journalism Awards sponsored by the Los Angeles Press Club.

• Best Radio Newscast over 15 Minutes: KNX, Southern California’s Morning News with anchors Dave Williams and Vicky Moore with Randy Kerdoon on sports
• Best Radio Feature: Chris Stanley, for his series on Ronald Reagan
• Best Radio Sports News: Steve Grad (photo above)
• Best Radio Investigation/Business/Series, Michael Linder
• Radio Journalist of the Year, Michael Linder

   

Comments

[Kitty]

Way to go Mr. Linder! Congratulations on your award.

Does it make you feel better sitting next to porta-potties for the last four months? ;-)

Kitty

[Ray]

Mr. Lander I hope you are not dissappointed in the verdicts. All Counts Mike, were thrown out. "Can you believe that"

[Mark]

Hooray! Congratulations on your well-deserved awards. You have the best voice on the air. Radio Journalist of the Year... that is cool!

[Michael Linder]

Thanks everyone! And Ray... Yeah, I was surprised. And so were most of the journalists covering this trial. A group of us talked this over the other night at dinner in Santa Maria.

Early on, most of us thought this case would end up with acquittal on all counts, but as it got closer to the end, we all began to believe there would be at least two child molestation convictions.

I guess we all began to double-think ourselves rather than following our gut instincts like the jury did. In the end, the accuser and his brother simply wasn't credible and his mother hurt his case badly through her testimony.

Tom Sneddon says the accuser is somewhat anguished over the issue of why people didn't believe him. He was his own worst enemy on the stand. You had to be there, see and hear him to fully understand.

I just wonder what's going to happen to this kid who -- at 15 -- has been through more than most people have though their entire lives. A cancer that was miraculously stopped, the Jackson case, the J.C. Penney case.

I'll bet we haven't heard the last of this boy.