Meeting of Michael’s defense lawyers in court

Michael Jackson’s defense lawyers appeared to review proposals regarding the proceedings of the charges against Michael in court. On July 13, a twenty-two-page proposal form signed by Steve Ketchran was submitted to the court, in which the reasons were explained as to why the trial should be postponed for four months. In these forms, the allegations against Jackson were described as an attempt to destroy an important and famous person. With the defense lawyers’ efforts to reject the sentence requested by members of the jury, Judge Rodney Melville postponed the trial date—originally set for September—to January 31, 2005. During the hearing, Glenn Ackinkles, the representative of the Santa Barbara district attorney’s office, said in relation to pursuing the case: “In the documentary Life with Michael Jackson, which aired in February 2003, the complainant speaks under the influence of Michael Jackson.” He said that Neverland was designed to lure and attract children in this way. He also claimed that the complainant’s family had been kidnapped and kept at Neverland against their will. The district attorney’s representative’s remarks enraged Thomas Mezrow, Michael’s defense attorney. He angrily dismissed the representative’s statements, which interpreted the stay at Neverland as kidnapping, as meaningless and illogical, and claimed that the district attorney’s representative has little evidence to support these allegations. The district attorney’s representative also claimed that after the documentary “Life with Michael Jackson” aired, Michael and his associates had forced the complainant and his family to spend their holidays at luxury residences. Mezrow completely denied these claims and said that the belief that the complainant’s family had been imprisoned at Neverland and then forced to go to Florida by private jets to spend their holidays with celebrities such as Chris Tucker would be fundamentally illogical and would be rejected by the jury. In this session, Thomas Mezrow also announced that the complainant’s mother had had a fourth child. Source: Associated Press / Reuters