Media frenzy as Michael Jackson jurors deliberate

SANTA MARIA, California - Jurors in Michael Jackson's sex-abuse trial resumed deliberations today, while the movements of the waiting pop star and his family created another media and fan frenzy.

Jackson, 46, who spent five hours in a hospital yesterday for treatment to a bad back, appeared to have left his Neverland Valley Ranch in a motorcade early in the morning for an unknown destination, witnesses said.

The pop star's father, Joe Jackson, then lost track of his son and turned up at the courthouse in Santa Maria demanding to know the singer's whereabouts.

"Where's my son? I want to see my son," an agitated Joe Jackson demanded of a courthouse sheriff's deputy.

His sudden appearance caused a media scrum of cameras and reporters while waiting fans weighed in yelling and screaming before Joe Jackson was escorted by police into the courthouse.

Rumours ran rife that Jackson was back in the hospital, but his spokeswoman, Raymone Bain, said later that the pop star was in fact waiting at Neverland with his family and friends.

"He's at home. His sisters came yesterday, and he had a really good evening despite his back problem," Bain told Reuters.

Bain could shed no light on the Joe Jackson courthouse incident. "I don't know. I really don't know. I think there was probably some miscommunication," she said.

Dozens of Jackson supporters held a vigil outside court as the jury of eight woman and four men deliberated inside. One sign said, "The so-called evidence in this case stinks." Another read, "Keep Michael Free."

During their morning deliberations, jurors sent a question to the judge, who conferred with lawyers before sending back his answer, court sources said. The nature of the query was not made public.

Jurors were handed the case by Superior Court Judge Rodney Melville on Friday afternoon and spent about two hours behind closed doors before quitting for the weekend.

They must consider the testimony of 140 witnesses and sift through about 600 items of evidence in reaching a verdict on the 10 counts against Jackson.

Jackson is charged with molesting a boy, then 13, at Neverland in February or March of 2003, plying the young cancer patient with alcohol in order to abuse him and conspiring to commit child abduction, extortion and false imprisonment.

Jackson faces more than two decades in prison if he is convicted on all 10 counts.

Jackson, who in recent days has appeared shaky and frail, triggered a media scramble on Sunday when he made his fourth trip to the hospital since the trial began four months ago and his second in the past week.

Civil rights leader Rev. Jesse Jackson, who has given spiritual support to the entertainer during the trial, told CNN that the singer was suffering from "excruciating" pain but remained resolute and convinced of his own innocence.

The singer was dealing with "physical pain on the one hand, and anxiety about the outcome of this trial," Jesse Jackson said.

- REUTERS