| Michael Jackson gets new court summons - serving as juror
BEIJING, Oct. 24 -- Michael Jackson has received a jury summons for jury duty in the court but he will be excused as he has abandoned his Neverland Ranch home, court officials said on Thursday.
Jackson, who spent four months of this year in a central California courtroom before winning an acquittal on child sex abuse charges, was randomly called for jury duty as a resident of Santa Barbara County, court spokesman Gary Blair said.
"It's just one of those ironies of life that he'd be called as a juror," said Laurie Levenson, a professor at Loyola School of Law who monitored Jackson's trial.
It's unlikely that Jackson will show up for jury selection. His lawyers have filed paperwork for a deferment based on the fact that he now lives in Bahrain.
"He is permanently living outside of the United States," Thomas Mesereau, who defended Jackson against the child molestation charges, said Wednesday.
"Our jury services supervisor spoke with (Sanger) a couple of days ago and he notified her that Mr. Jackson was in Bahrain and that he would be changing his permanent address to somewhere other than the ranch," Blair said.
"We have given him a routine deferral for 90 days to get more information about the change of a address and, if that is correct, we will exempt him because he would no longer be eligible if he is no longer a resident of Santa Barbara County," Blair added.
Blair said he summoned Ronald Reagan when he was president but granted him a deferment until he was out of office.
- Xinhua | |