For accused child molester Michael Jackson today almost became a day when he would have gotten the advice “Don’t drop the soap.”
Jackson once again held up preceedings and a fit-to-be-tied judge almost ordered Jackson fit-to-be-hancuffed:
An angry judge issued an arrest warrant for Michael Jackson on Thursday after he failed to show up for his child molestation trial on time and his attorney announced the singer was being treated for a serious back problem.
Superior Court Judge Rodney S. Melville said he would also forfeit Jackson’s $3 million bail unless he appeared in court within one hour.
The announcement came after a few minutes after court was to have begun at 8:30 a.m. Jackson’s accuser was expected to begin a second day of testimony against the singer.
The jury was not yet in the courtroom when the judge entered.
Jackson’s lawyer, Thomas Mesereau Jr., said, “Mr. Jackson is at Cottage Hospital in Santa Ynez with a serious back problem. He does plan to come in.”
The judge, obviously angry, declared, “I’m issuing a warrant for his arrest. I’m forfeiting his bail. I will hold the order for one hour.”
So Jackson arrived more than an hour after the judge’s deadlinee …dressed in pajama bottoms, reportedly paler than usual, looking distressed and heavily made up. And the circus drama continued:
Attorneys met with the judge in chambers before court resumed and Melville addressed the jurors, telling them not to draw any negative inferences from the developments.
“Mr. Jackson had a medical problem and it was necessary for me to order his appearance,” Melville said.
Jackson’s own spokeswoman, Raymone K. Bain said outside court that the singer’s back “gave out on him” after he woke up and he was rushed to an emergency room around 5:45 a.m.
“He knows the seriousness of this. He’s not play-acting,” Bain said.
Attorneys met with the judge in chambers before court resumed and Melville addressed the jurors, telling them not to draw any negative inferences from the developments. “Mr. Jackson had a medical problem and it was necessary for me to order his appearance,” Melville said.
None of this is likely to help Jackson with the jury. And if it happens again, he may be in trouble on this case.
FOONOTE: I was startled watching MSNBC’s The Abrams Report last night at how host Dan Abrams and several of the attornies on the show were all but saying that Jackson’s accuser was lying. You wanted to take a shower after watching that program, because it underscored how difficult it has become in child molestation accusation cases where the alleged victim becomes the one on trial. The only way to try the case is to make mincemeat out of the kids.
There are discrepencies in testimony that the defense is going to try to exploit, as The Smoking Gun notes here, but The Abrams Report seemed to be The Michael Jackson Defense Report last night. (We will probably give it a pass in the future and read wire reports, which are a bit more objective.)
FOOTNOTE II: A live poll on Abrams’ website finds 76 percent think Jackson is trying to delay his trial.
Photo via Drudge Report
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.