Jackson juror contests book deal

A juror in Michael Jackson's child abuse trial is taking legal action to get out of writing a book on the case. Ray Hultman, 62, claims he was talked into signing a book deal with California publisher Larry Garrison. Mr. Hultman wants to end his contract and is seeking unspecified damages for mental and emotional stress. Mr. Jackson was unanimously found not guilty of 10 abuse charges in June. Mr Hultman has since said he believed the singer was not innocent. 'Plagiarised material' Last month he and fellow juror Eleanor Cook said in a US TV interview they had agreed to go along with the other jurors when it became apparent that they would never convict the pop star. In the lawsuit, Mr. Hultman reportedly claims he was due to co-write a book about the case entitled The Deliberator with writer Stacy Brown. However, in his legal submission at Santa Maria, California, Mr. Hultman said he was shocked by reports that his book proposal contained material plagiarised from a Vanity Fair magazine article. He said this damaged his reputation and the book deal. "(Mr. Hultman) was caused to expend substantial time in writing portions of a book proposal which turned out to be valueless give the aforementioned plagiary," his legal submission stated. Author Mr. Brown told the BBC News website he had never met Mr. Hultman. He confirmed he had been approached by Mr. Garrison to write the book but refused after reading some excerpts. "I had no intention of writing their book nor did I believe what was in their book," he told the BBC News website. Publisher Larry Garrison declined to comment, saying he had not reviewed the legal action. Source: BBC/AP/eMJey