'Jacko's Wackos' keep vigil as Jackson trial continues

Michael Jackson

SANTA MARIA - Jenni Delsescaux wears a picture of Michael Jackson in the shape of a heart. Diana Enola says the pop superstar, on trial for child sex abuse, is "a role model for the children to look up to."

And Happiness Jackson, wearing a beige nightgown under a pink robe, says she knows the "King of Pop" is innocent -- and a virgin -- because she is his wife, even though her two-page statement misspells his first name.

Jenni, Diana and Happiness are some of the small -- and dwindling -- group of fans dubbed Jacko's Wackos keeping vigil at the courthouse in the central California town of Santa Maria while their idol fights to clear his name.

Jackson may be the most famous pop star ever to be charged with such heinous crimes, but the legions of fans that once rocked to record-setting albums like Thriller appear to have beat it.

Gone are the hundreds of screaming, moon-walking fans and Jackson impersonators who mobbed the Santa Maria courthouse when the singer was first charged over a year ago.

As the trial got underway this week, the 50 or so hard-core fans were outnumbered by reporters from around the world. Journalists and camera crews had to line up to interview them and officials hardly needed to hold a lottery for public seating inside the courthouse on Tuesday since all those who turned up got in.

"I don't understand this. It's crazy, especially when so many people said they would be here," said a shocked Caroline Ledgin, 27, who flew out to California from New York expressly to make a documentary about the fans based on the raucous pretrial scenes.

Lee Simpson, 22, from nearby Los Olivos in California, figured that many fans had been taken by surprise at the speed in choosing a jury, which moved up the full-scale start of the trial by several weeks.

"Everyone's coming later this month based on Judge Melville's saying it would take a long time to choose the jury. He threw a monkey wrench in everyone's plans," Simpson said.

BJ Hickman, 18, came out from Tennessee for the trial and said other fans from the state were joining him later in March.

The official Michael Jackson fan club said it was organizing a four-day "Many Nations ... One Voice" rally in Santa Maria in early April, and urged fans from around the world to wear white to symbolize Jackson's innocence.

In the meantime, Happiness Jackson and friends hold the fort come rain or shine, handing out leaflets, resting in collapsible chairs and chastising child crusader Diane Hansen.

Hansen, who has come to protest child abuse, says the fans she stands next to sometimes give her a hard time.

"They say: 'We don't want you here,"' she said, adding that the fans have torn up her signs and once cut her lip by hitting her megaphone, which bears the words: "Those Are My Private Parts."

Jenni Delsescaux, 23, of Los Angeles, wears a homemade black T-shirt. On the front are pictures of Jackson in his commercial heyday 20 years ago. The back of the shirt says: "Michael Will Defeat It, so the DA (District Attorney) Needs to Beat It."

"We're here to support the truth and let people know Michael Jackson didn't do anything bad," she said.

- REUTERS