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.
Can you imagine being tried for something and turning up to Court and Michael Jackson is one of your jurors? I'd be laughing so much and not paying attention to the trial, t hey'd have to call it a mistrial.
They're bettter off letting him off the hook, he's never going to be a good juror. He has the mental age of an 8 year old.
Pop superstar Michael Jackson has avoided compulsory jury service in California on a technicality because he has permanently moved out of America.
The singer, who has been living in Bahrain since being acquitted of child molestation charges in June, had the court summons sent to his Neverland Ranch.
But the New York Daily News reports the singer is to be ruled out of the Santa Barbara jury because he is no longer a local resident.
Court spokesman Gary Blair says, "Our jury services supervisor spoke with (Jackson's attorney) 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.
"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."
It is unclear whether Jackson intends to sell his theme park home, which he bought in 1988 for $17 million.
10-24-2005 08:21 AM
