Jackson Juror Queries Stun Experts

The judge in the Michael Jackson child-molestation case on Wednesday released an eight-page jury questionnaire that stunned some legal experts with its bare-bones approach to ferreting out attitudes about complex issues in the pop star’s trial.

The form asks potential jurors 41 questions, with most requiring simple yes-no or multiple-choice responses.

Only about a dozen of the questions appear to directly address issues in the case. The rest are mostly generic queries about employment, residence, marital status and education.

“I was surprised that it wasn’t more detailed and didn’t really press jurors for their attitudes,” said Laurie Levenson, a former federal prosecutor who teaches at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles. “It’s not unusual in high-profile cases to see questionnaires that run 50 or 75 pages.”

Attorneys for both sides are poring over responses from about 250 prospective jurors who this week indicated a willingness to serve for as long as six months. Monday, the lawyers will start to interview the candidates in court using the completed questionnaires as a guide.

The questions were crafted by Santa Barbara County Superior Court Judge Rodney S. Melville after receiving a more extensive list compiled by prosecutors and defense lawyers.

Some of the questions clearly are tailored to the case, in which Jackson, 46, is charged with molesting a 13-year-old cancer patient.

Prospective jurors are asked, for instance, whether they or any relatives or close friends have been accused of or victimized by “inappropriate sexual behavior.” They also are asked whether they or people close to them have done any work for children’s advocacy groups.

Melville has yet to decide whether earlier accusations against Jackson will be explored in his trial, which began in Santa Maria, Calif., on Monday. One question asks whether prospective jurors know about “the 1993-94 investigation of Michael Jackson,” without disclosing any details about the probe.

In that investigation, two grand juries looked into allegations that Jackson had molested a 13-year-old Los Angeles boy. The case collapsed after a legal settlement, reportedly in the millions of dollars, was reached with the boy’s family.

One question asks whether prospective jurors or their loved ones have been diagnosed with cancer. Jackson’s accuser, now 15, has suffered from leukemia and was introduced to Jackson after the singer was told about a benefit for the boy’s family.

The questionnaire also addresses racial issues, asking whether “your feelings about or experiences with people from different races might affect your ability to serve as a fair and impartial juror in this case.”

Beth Bonora, a San Francisco jury consultant, said the questionnaire may frustrate attorneys on both sides.

“We basically know nothing about the nature of a person’s opinions or experiences,” she said. “We just know that yes, they might have had one -- or no, they didn’t.”

Bonora said the brevity of the questionnaire should be of particular concern to Jackson’s attorneys, who need candid statements from the jurors to gauge any possible bias against their client. The singer faces more than 20 years in prison if convicted on all 10 felony counts.

“The information you get from jurors in open court is often not as good as what people are willing to write down on a questionnaire,” she said. “If it’s important to learn about people’s experiences and have them be candid, you’re less likely to do that with a questionnaire that’s brief and superficial, like this one.”

Also on Wednesday, Melville loosened restrictions he had placed on reporters, lifting a ban on interviews with prospective jurors who are excused.