Anybody surprised?

Not hardly:


The Sunday Times - World
June 12, 2005
Jackson jurors offered $1m for book of the trial
John Harlow, Los Angeles

JURORS in the Michael Jackson child abuse trial are being offered book and film deals that could be worth as much as $1m (£550,000) each.
After debating the complex case for 28 hours over six days they have gone home for the weekend and it could be days or even weeks before their verdicts are announced. Literary agents are already in contact with the jurors through their relatives.

A 79-year-old grandmother, so far known only as Juror Five, spoke of a desire to write about her experiences in the jury room almost as soon as she was selected four months ago. “She talked about going on the Oprah Winfrey Show,” said her granddaughter Traci Montgomery, a schoolteacher.

One Los Angeles literary agent said the families of at least four others had been offered a combined book, audio tape and TV movie deal.
“The first to produce the book could make $1m, especially if they convict Jackson,” he said. “And even if they clear him, the public will want to know why.”

The singer has been tried on 10 charges, including abusing a child, plying him with alcohol and plotting to hold his family captive.

Laurie Levenson, a law professor at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, said such offers were a sign of things to come. “We do not know if any jurors have engaged in misconduct by discussing the case with anybody outside the jury room, only that it’s a celebrity case and people will try to make money out of it,” he said.

In Britain, jurors are barred from revealing details of their deliberations. But in California they are obliged to remain silent for only 90 days after the verdict, and even that rule is not always enforced.

There has been speculation that prospective book deals could give some jurors an interest in dragging out proceedings: “One wonders whether this jury is pondering the evidence or their own book advances,” said one of more than 2,000 journalists and cameramen waiting near the courthouse.

OJ Simpson, the American football player, was cleared in less than four hours at his murder trial a decade ago. In a more recent high-profile case, Scott Peterson, a fertiliser salesman, was convicted of killing his wife and unborn child after three days and was sentenced to death.
The authorities are concerned about the reactions of hardcore Jackson fans if he is found guilty. Some supporters blame the media for their idol’s plight, although others have slipped away following evidence of Jackson’s fondness for pornography and secret drinking.

Police have confiscated sacks of stones and rocks stacked in nearby streets. “Some had attached cute little messages for the media,” said Danny R Macagni, the Santa Maria police chief.
Jackson, who spent the weekend at his Neverland ranch, 40 minutes from Santa Maria, is said by a spokesman to be confident of being cleared, although his financial woes continue to attract attention.

On Friday his lease on storage hangars at a Los Angeles airport expired and workers began moving out cars and furniture stored there for up to 20 years.

The vehicles included five Rolls-Royces and a white Chevrolet Blazer 4x4, which acquired notoriety after he lent it to the family of Gavin Arvizo, his current accuser.
The immediate fate of the vehicle remains unknown but, whether Jackson is found guilty or innocent, it is expected to be part of gigantic “house clearing sale” reportedly planned to repair his battered finances.
Wrap...