"Is Michael Jackson, guilty?"

Michael Jackson
Well excuse me...Michael Jackson is my idol and not just as a singer or a dancer but as a person. He gave children a place to go were they could have an imagination...Michael doesn't see anything wrong with children sleeping in his bed because he never had a child hood. He built Neverland Valley Ranch so he could experience the child hood he never had. The woman that is going against him in court is a con-artist she has done things like this before...he only has one person pressing charges on him...he gave that woman and her child everything in the world...he went on trips with them...he invited them into his home...he visited the boy when he was in the hospital...the woman started pressing charges thinking she could get some money out of michael...i have typed all of this because i know michael im only 15 years old...i am a young female girl...michael is the most wonderful man on earth if you all would just take the time to meet him and get to know who he truely is you would see...he has been a father figure to me...he remembered my birthday and my real father didn't so all of you can just stop thinking michael is guilty because hes not...all hes ever wanted to do is bring love to this world and do some good in it...and you all make it out to be that all his good is evil...he is a high believer in God...and he prays everyday before he goes to court...and he was having back pains...you all expect so much from him because hes wealthy...well if any of you had back pains you would go to visit the doctor wouldnt you? Michael is getting old time is starting to catch up with him...you all need to stop putting stress onto his shoulders...People im asking you to please understand this and pray for him...he really needs your help...praying is all that we can do at the moment...Michael has vitiligo it puts white blotches on your skin...his sister LaToya has it...please pray for michael...BELIEVE IN HIM!!!!

If that last post (edit: I mean the one before last) is for real, it kind of just confirms my impression that Michael Jackson preys (either deliberately or instinctively) on those that can be preyed on.

How can you say that it isnt real?...Michael does pray...not just to make himself look good but he actually prays...he loves god...michael is only as evil as one makes him out to be...

Good grief. He's a perv.

Not 'having a childhood' doesn't immediately compel one to sleep with little children and diddle with their hoohahs.

Have you seen the porn they took out of his house? Porno sitting by applications for adoption....?

Do you think Michael is so good he deserves to be able to rape children, whose mothers sell them to him?

Those mothers should go on trial next.

If you are so loyal, please find something or someone worthy of your loyalty. You don't want to support a man who has done to children what he has done.

It's gratifying to know at least part of the jury must think he's guilty - hence the long deliberation time over whether to convict.

Why is it so hard for some people to accept that these things do happen, and that this "king of pop" is capable of sex crimes?

Does anyone truly believe an innocent man would pay off a "lying" accuser (Jordy Chandler) to the tune of $20,000,000? And if Jackson is innocent, why is he starving, dehydrating and drugging himself into a dazed and fragile state instead of defending himself and his reputation?

Childlike, my ass. His supporters claim he's like a 10 year old. What normal 10 year old boys cuddle in bed with other 10 year old boys anyway? Michael Jackson is a spoiled, selfish, abusive 46 year old man who surrounds himself with enablers.

Uri Geller said Michael Jackson once said to him, "I am a very lonely man." Well, maybe some deep and extensive psychotherapy is in order, along with medication. Not drugs to numb his pain, but drugs that might facilitate a bit of mental health. Can you say "intervention?"

I understand that Michael Jackson feels "different" and has a hard time relating to adults. This is not an excuse to befriend and abuse young boys. [Incidentally, if he "loves" "children," where are the girls? And where are the adult male-female relationships in his life?]

I do have a little sympathy for him, but not much. At times I can relate to his feelings of isolation and aloneness (poor me, I'm so misunderstood), and at times I prefer the company of dogs and wild birds to the company of adult humans, but I'm not abusing them and then paying them off with Nylabones and suet cakes.

Synom, Everybody is capable of sex crimes - even priests.

Eloquent, Syn.

BTW, I think the jury will make the right decision after they've heard both sides make their argument. It's a tough one to be sure.

You're fabouous Syn. I sometimes get so discouraged by others mincing words about important matters. You get to the heart of the issue here. Thanks for being a voice of reason.

I'm just casually following the case, so I'd really be interested if anyone has any information on the following:

Does anyone have any information on what phychiatrists, phychologists and other mental health professions are saying.
What exactly would they put forth as MJ's mental condition/diagnosis/prognosis?

I think it would be facinating.

I'm imagining this scene, it's a few years back, MJ is having kids at neverland all the time.
My kid comes to me and says MJ wants him/her to come over to his house to play.
First I wouldn't believe a child of mine would ever be that naive or stupid. Second, as I'm typing this, I realized I had unconsciously put the look on my face that I would be giving my child.
That kid wouldn't be going anywhere because he would have been turned to stone by Mama Medusa.

It would be because it was MJ as much as "A 46 YEAR OLD MAN WANTS YOU TO COME OVER TO HIS HOUSE TO PLAY"?????
There are some really evil parents out there.

Anyway - anyone know anything from a phychiatric standpoint?

Chai Tea, Many parents do not have the common sense to evaluate the kind of situation they are put into by the offer of a singer-star offering to entertain them at Neverland. When there is no way to "supervise" the owner of such an amusement park, questions should arise in the minds of parents, but it doesn't. Can't blame all parents, but makes one wonder what they are thinking about when they let their children sleep with the owner.

Mama Medusa, wonderful title!!!

This just in, Jackson not guilty on all counts....

Imagine if everyone were able to hire lawyers of the same quality as M.J. how many fewer people there would be in jail today.

From the NYT:

June 13, 2005
Michael Jackson Is Acquitted on All Counts in Molestation Case
By JOHN M. BRODER
SANTA MARIA, Calif., June 13 - Michael Jackson was acquitted today of all charges in connection with accusations that he molested a 13-year-old boy he had befriended as the youth was recovering from cancer in 2003.

Mr. Jackson's complete acquittal - a stinging defeat for a retiring prosecutor who had spent more than a decade pursuing the singer on pedophilia accusations - ends a nearly four-month trial that featured 140 witnesses whose testimony painted clashing portraits of the 46-year-old international pop star as either pedophile or Peter Pan.

The jury of eight women and four men delivered the verdict in California Superior Court here on their seventh day of deliberations, which began June 3. The jury was not sequestered and took weekends off.

Shortly after word that a verdict had been reached was made public, television helicopters were hovering over Mr. Jackson's Neverland ranch near here. Cable news channels broadcast a nearly constant stream of images showing Mr. Jackson's small convoy of sport utility vehicles en route to the courthouse for the reading of the verdict. At the courthouse, crowds gathered outside awaiting his arrival.

Mr. Jackson, wearing tinted aviator glasses, a dark blazer, black tie and white wing-collar shirt, was accompanied by several members of his family, including his father and mother, two brothers and two sisters. He stopped briefly as he walked toward the courthouse lobby to wave to the throngs of fans calling out to him.

The not guilty verdict was sheer stupidity on the part of the jury, assisted by the prosecution's lapse of sanity (disguised as overconfidence) in putting loose cannon Mama Arviso on the stand.

Jackson (like Hebrew National kosher hot dogs) will answer to a higher authority.

I disagree the verdict by the jury was stupid... even though I strongly suspect that Michael is a pedophile.

"Not Guilty" was the verdict. To give a different verdict, the jury would have had to be convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that that particular kid was molested, served alchohol etc.

"Not Guilty" is not saying that he was innocent, just that the case wasn't proven.

The fact is, even from news accounts to which I half paid attention, it seems like there were big problems with the prosecutions case... including the credibility of the mother, and the denials of Mccauly Caulkin.

The jury system means that the jury is trusted with this decision. They, having sat through every minute of the case presented by both sides, are also in the best position to make this decision.

I have no reason to believe the jury didn't do the right thing as far as fulfilling its responsibility.

I wish it were different (assuming he did molest kids), but that is the way our system works, and the prosecution failed to prove its case.

Blaming the jury is wrong.

My opinion, for what it is worth, is that MJ definitely has some problems. I think we can all agree on that. I do believe that his problems extend to improper association with young boys. Whether he is a pedophile or not, I do not know.

I do think that if he was sued by parents who's sole motivation was justice and not the almighty dollar, there would be more credence to the charges. That said, I would also not be surprised if the members of the jury are driving around in new cars in the near future.

Any parent that lets their child 'sleep over' at the Jackson household in the future should be charged with neglect.

I agree with both Intrepid and ebrown's opinions. To opine that Jackson is guilty does not understand what our jury system is all about. The jury members sat in court and listened to both the prosecution and the defense; and the instruction from the judge. I believe the jury did the job they were supposed to. The standard they had to follow was "beyond a reasonable doubt." The prosecution failed to do that for this jury. I have personally sat in a trial for three months in a rape-murder trial. It's not easy or fun to sit in a courtroom that requires your full attention during the trial, and to make the decision when called upon to do so. Unless a crime has eye-witnesses to help convict a criminal, jurors are relegated to what is presented in the court room. Second guessing just doesn't work.

Not being an attorney, I don't understand the difference between legally innocent and not guilty. One is innocent until proven guilty, no?

I agree with intrepid that his problems extend to improper association, and I don't know that he is a pedophile, whatever my hunch.

It didn't occur to me, though, that jurors might have splendid new cars. Boy, I hope such corruption is not operating, and rather doubt it. I think the case didn't need that element to be decided the way it was.