Jackson Trial Begins, as Does the Spectacle

After more than a decade battling police allegations and tabloid gossip, pop star Michael Jackson arrived at the opening of his trial Monday on charges that he molested a 12-year-old boy.

Several hundred fans cheered as Jackson strode into the Santa Maria courthouse for the first day of jury selection wearing a dazzling white suit, bejeweled vest and sunglasses. His wave was captured by media outlets and broadcast live around the globe.

In the coming months, the world expects to get a glimpse into Jackson’s bizarre life -- a life of celebrity and wealth during which he has fathered three children and undergone a number of plastic surgeries. He lives mostly at a mansion in the coastal mountains near Santa Maria that includes a zoo and carnival rides. For years, he has invited children over to play at the ranch, the site of the alleged abuse in February and March 2003 for which he now stands trial.

Although authorities investigated Jackson in 1993 for allegedly molesting a 13-year-old boy, this is the first time he has been charged with a crime. On Monday, the 46-year-old singer began facing those who will decide his fate. Among the prospective jurors: a man who is under house arrest.

Santa Barbara County Superior Court Judge Rodney S. Melville has battled the prosecution and the defense, as well as the media, to keep the proceedings from becoming a carnival. What happens outside the courthouse, though, is another matter.

Fans poured into this town of 72,000, filling all hotels and motels. They came from Los Angeles and San Francisco, Germany, Japan and Norway.

“I have one God, and that is the man upstairs, but Michael Jackson is my biggest influence beyond my Lord and Savior,” said Joseph Gultry, 20, who had traveled from Los Angeles in hopes of seeing his idol outside the courthouse in this rural town roughly 170 miles northwest of Los Angeles. “And hopefully, one day, I can follow in his footsteps as a singer.”

Former Santa Barbara County Sheriff Jim Thomas predicted: “There’s absolutely no doubt that it’s going to be a circus outside the courthouse.” But, he said, “Inside the courtroom, Judge Melville is going to be in total control.”

“I think the only wild card, frankly, is how Michael Jackson reacts to being inside a courtroom every day listening to people accuse him. He’s not used to people telling him what to do.”

Melville has ruled that no cameras would be allowed in the courtroom. Even so, more than 1,100 members of the media have applied for credentials, and hundreds were in place to battle for a seat in the courtroom. Nearly every major U.S. television outlet has rented rooftops and yards around the courthouse and taken up whole wings of local hotels. Many cable shows led their news broadcasts with team coverage from Santa Maria.

Inside the courthouse, Jackson appeared composed, chatting quietly with his attorneys as they awaited the first group of prospective jurors. When the first group in the 750-member jury pool filed somberly into the chambers, Jackson smiled, as did his lead attorney, Thomas A. Mesereau Jr.

The 144 potential jurors remained silent. Several tried to steal glimpses of the star and his defense team without getting caught.

The judge told them that the trial could take six months, and asked for a show of hands from people who wanted to be released because of hardship. About half raised their hands.

One jury candidate said he worked at nearby Vandenberg Air Force Base and had to perform the countdowns for upcoming missile launches. Another man told Melville that he wanted to serve on the jury but happened to be under house arrest for two more weeks and currently wears an electronic monitoring bracelet. Melville told him he could be part of the pool and the court would figure out something to do about his bracelet.

Another prospective juror said his boss wouldn’t pay him during jury duty

“Your employer doesn’t pay for jury service?” a taken-aback Melville asked.

“No, sir,” the man answered. “He’s an attorney.”

Almost everyone in the courtroom burst into laughter, including, it appeared from the gallery, Jackson.

Jackson is charged with four counts of child molestation, four counts of administering an intoxicating agent, one count of attempted child molestation and one count of conspiracy to commit child abduction, false imprisonment and extortion. He has pleaded not guilty.

The judge told the pool that he had no plans to sequester the jury. Still, a middle-aged woman pleaded that she had to be home every night to help her elderly mother.

When the judge told her that the jurors’ days would end at 2:30 p.m. during the trial, she asked incredulously: “Don’t they lock jurors up?”

“Not anymore,” Melville quipped.

“You can guarantee that I’ll be going home every night?” she pressed him.

“Well, I’ll be going home every night,” he reassured her.

The woman said she would serve if called.

Those who hadn’t raised their hands were led to fill out a seven-page questionnaire. The prospective jurors will be questioned in court beginning next week.

It has been 14 months since Santa Barbara County sheriff’s deputies first raided Jackson’s sprawling Neverland ranch in the Santa Ynez Valley, seeking evidence that he had molested the boy.

Facing more than 20 years in prison if convicted on all counts, Jackson and his attorneys have fought the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department, and especially the district attorney’s office, at nearly every turn in the case.

Jackson’s attorneys and supporters have accused Dist. Atty. Thomas Sneddon, who attempted to prosecute Jackson in 1993, of seeking to avenge his loss of that case after the singer agreed to a multimillion-dollar settlement.

Melville has imposed a gag order that has left the prosecution and defense cases largely unknown to the public. The gaps in knowledge about the case, however, have worked to build the mystery surrounding Jackson and the trial that is now beginning to unfold.

Melville has handed some pretrial victories to the prosecution, some to the defense. He has ruled that prosecutors may show as evidence sexually explicit books and magazines and a small pair of boy’s underwear taken from Jackson’s bedroom and notes written by Jackson to his accuser, who is now 15.

In his most recent ruling, however, Melville on Friday allowed Jackson to publicly refute allegations leaked to ABC News from the grand jury testimony that led to the charges -- details that included testimony that Jackson had provided the boy with wine in a soda can.

Investigators already have spoken with some Jackson acquaintances who say he liked to drink wine hidden in soda cans himself.

Over the weekend, Jackson aired a court-approved video on his website in which he called the testimony leaked to ABC “disgusting and false.”

Also over the weekend, television and radio networks around the globe broadcast hours of videos and songs by Jackson.

A VH1 special promoted Jackson as a dancer so talented that he came to rival his idols, Fred Astaire and James Brown. It covered his introduction of the “moonwalk” to the world, his reshaped nose and face, his fantastic estate and his love of children.

During a more than 40-year career, Jackson made the top-selling album of all time, “Thriller,” which has sold about 50 million copies. He has loyal fans in almost every country.

When he was a child, the Jackson Five was the first band to record four consecutive No. 1 singles. As an adult, he had two No. 1 albums besides “Thriller” and has the most No. 1 singles by any male singer in history.

His career has faded, beginning with the 1993 investigation, and Jackson’s court costs, the maintenance of the 2,700-acre Neverland ranch and other expenses are expected to total in the tens or even hundreds of millions of dollars in the near future.

Still, Jackson is one of the wealthiest entertainers in the world, and owns not only most of his own songs and receives royalties from the Jackson Five, but also a Beatles catalog of songs in partnership with Sony that is worth an estimated $400 million.

Jackson’s representatives and family members continued their media blitz Monday, repeating what they have been saying on television specials and in news broadcasts for months: that he’s not guilty, that he’s odd, even in his adoration of young children, but that he’s not a pedophile.

The district attorney’s office never considered offering Jackson a plea bargain, said Thomas, the former sheriff, who not only investigated Jackson during the early 1990s but is still close friends with Sneddon, the district attorney.

“The judge would never give him a no-jail deal, and Michael would never do jail,” Thomas said.

“Was there frustration around here in 1993” when Jackson settled with the previous alleged victim out of court? “Yes,” said Thomas, who now serves as a Jackson trial analyst for NBC News.

With opening statements expected to start in March, this growing town of chain restaurants surrounded by farm fields and mountains is likely to quiet down considerably over the next few days. The fact that Santa Maria is a more than three-hour drive from Los Angeles may eventually aid Melville in his attempt to wrestle the trial toward dignity.

But the man on trial is, after all, Michael Jackson.

Harry O. Henry, 59, of South Los Angeles pushed around what he called a Jackson “mirror collage” outside the courthouse Monday morning, a multicolored collection of memorabilia and mirrors supported on a mover’s dolly.

“I saw Michael Jackson when he first started his career, at the Apollo Theater in New York,” Henry said.

“We’re not here to destroy this child-accuser,” he added in the language of fans who do not want to term the boy an alleged “victim.”

“They are taking an innocent man who likes to throw pajama parties and turning it into something sexual. I’m just not going for it.”

Times special correspondent Sally Ann Connell contributed to this report.