Santa Maria- The audio feed from the court room wass fucked up, but a verdict was finally given in the Michael Jackson case. Doves were let loose and Jackson moonwalked.
A jury acquitted Michael Jackson on Monday of molesting a 13-year-old cancer survivor at his Neverland ranch, vindicating the pop star who insisted he was the victim of mother-and-son con artists and a prosecutor with a vendetta.
Jurors also acquitted Jackson of getting the boy drunk and of conspiring to imprison his accuser and the boy's family at the storybook estate - a total legal victory but one that may do little to improve his bizarre image.
Jackson looked straight ahead as the verdicts were read and showed no visible reaction as he was repeatedly found not guilty.
The verdict - reached after about 30 hours of deliberations over seven days - ended a star-studded, four-month trial that offered a global audience a lurid look into the weird world of Michael Jackson and presented jurors with vastly different portraits of him: a creepy pervert who preyed on little boys, or the victim of a frame-up by mother-and-son shakedown artists.
Screams of joy rang out among a throng of fans outside the courthouse. Fans jumped up and down, hugged each other and threw confetti in celebration of the news. A woman in the throng released one white dove each time an acquittal was read.
In count one, Jackson was found not guilty of conspiracy. Jackson was found not guilty of a lewd act upon a minor child as charged in count two of the indictment.
Jackson was found not guilty of a lewd act upon a minor child as charged in count three of the indictment . Jackson was found not guilty of lewd acts upon a minor child as charged in Count Four. Jackson was found not guilty in Counts Five as well as Count Six. Jackson was found not guilty, as well, in Count Seven of administering an intoxicating agent to assist in the commission of a felony. Jackson was also not guilty in the Count Seven lesser offense of providing alcoholic beverages to persons under the age of 21. Count Eight of the indictment found Jackson not guilty of administering an intoxicating agent to assist in the commission of a felony. In the Count Eight lesser offense, Jackson was also found not guilty of providing alcoholic beverages to persons under the age of 21.
Jackson was found not guilty of administering an intoxicating agent to assist in the commission of a felony as charged in Count Nine of the indictment. And Jackson was also found not guilty in the lesser offense of Count Nine. The jury then found Jackson not guilty of administering an intoxicating agent to assist in the commission of a felony as charged in Count Ten.
