Now that self-styled King of Pop Michael Jackson has been cleared of all child molestation and related charges, the prevailing question becomes: Will he change his lifestyle?
His lawyer, speaking on NBC’s Today Show, says yes:
“He’s not going to do that anymore,” attorney Thomas Mesereau Jr. told NBC’s Today. “He’s not going to make himself vulnerable to this anymore.”
Indeed, from the jury’s statements, there were signs that although Jackson was cleared of all charges in this case, he is also being sent a message:
Jurors may have acquitted Jackson of all charges of molesting a 13-year-old cancer survivor, but not all of them were convinced the King of Pop had never molested a child.
“He’s just not guilty of the crimes he’s been charged with,” said Ray Hultman, who told The Associated Press he was one of three people on the 12-person panel who voted to acquit only after the other nine persuaded them there was reasonable doubt about the entertainer’s guilt in this particular case.
And:
But Hultman said he believed it was likely that both boys had been molested. He said he voted to acquit Jackson in the current case because he had doubts about his current accuser’s credibility.
“That’s not to say he’s an innocent man,” Hultman, 62, said of Jackson.
Some jurors noted they were troubled by Jackson’s admission that he allowed boys into his bed for what he characterized as innocent sleepovers.
“We would hope first of all that he doesn’t sleep with children anymore and that he learns that they have to stay with their families or stay in the guest rooms or the houses or whatever they’re called down there,” jury foreman Paul Rodriguez said. “And he just has to be careful how he conducts himself around children.”
Other jurors simply didn’t believe the accuser and — most of all — his mother, described by most print and broadcast reports as (to be diplomatic about it) a “flake.”
Meanwhile, now that this is over, there are some new questions:
- Can Jackson ever rebuild his music career? Even though he was totally acquitted, is he permanently damaged goods? And, aside from the trial, is he out of sync with the musical times anyway?
- Will there be extra vigilance on the part of the news media, particularly the tabloids, to unearth any new stories, allegations or (most certainly) photos of Jackson and kids?
- Will his lawyer’s promise truly represent a shift by Michael Jackson to halt the in-the-bed sleepovers and be careful about being “vulnerable?” Would this verdict increase the chance of more allegations if you assume (a)he was innocent (and people want to shake him down to make him pay to avoid another ordeal0 ,OR (b)he escaped consequences (if you are one of those who still believe he did it)?
- If there is indeed a a future allegation, will the prosecutor take on the case or would it have to be a case that doesn’t leave even a slightly “beyond” beyond a reasonable doubt?
- Will Jackson stay in the United States or move his base abroad? His record sales have lagged terribly in the U.S. but he remains highly elsewhere.
There are many other implications and questions that are covered here.
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.