- LOS ANGELES -- Michael
Jackson's latest lawyer is a great believer in charitable causes. He has
done heroic pro bono work on behalf of death-penalty defendants in the
Deep South, and volunteers once a week to dispense free legal advice at
one of Los Angeles' most prominent black churches.
-
- Bur it remains to be seen whether Thomas Mesereau Jr
chose to take on the case of the most eccentric man in showbusiness out
of pity, or because he is guaranteed months of free publicity and hefty
earnings as a result.
-
- Mr Jackson, who is nothing if not unpredictable, turned
to Mr Mesereau over the weekend just days before he is due to be indicted
and sent to trial on nine counts of alleged child molestation. His previous
high-profile lawyers, Mark Geragos and Benjamin Brafman, are high profile
no more, at least not on Mr Jackson's behalf.
-
- All parties have remained tight-lipped about the reasons
for the sudden change, and all say they continue to wish Mr Jackson well.
That, in turn, has stymied the horde of media pundits who would love to
tell the world that the case for the defence is in trouble, or that the
hottest showbiz lawyers are at each other's throats, or even that Mr Jackson
is losing it. As it is, they can't say any of those things because the
reason for the change could be as innocent as a trial scheduling clash
or an honest disagreement about courtroom strategy.
-
- What one can say is that the change casts light on the
rarefied world of celebrity lawyers, an elite group who often stumble into
the limelight by accident but have a sure ability to keep themselves there.
-
- All are modelled on the members of the defence team in
the seminal celebrity trial of the 24-hour news era - the OJ Simpson case.
Of Jackson's former team, Benjamin Brafman is a friend and sometime colleague
of Johnnie Cochran, the lead lawyer in the Simpson case.
-
- Mr Brafman used to defend white-collar criminals on Wall
Street, but got his first taste of the celebrity world when he was invited
to represent Sean Combs, the rapper also known as P Diddy, on bribery and
weapons charges in 2001.
-
- Mr Geragos, meanwhile, first came to national attention
through his successful defence of Susan MacDougal, a key player in the
Clinton-era Whitewater scandal. From her he moved on to the president's
wayward brother, Roger Clinton, and the Democratic Party congressman Gary
Condit, suspected but never formally accused of involvement in the disappearance
of an intern with whom he was having an affair.
-
- Mr Geragos was less successful in his defence of the
actress Winona Ryder on shoplifting charges, and faces an uphill battle
in the defence of murder suspect Scott Peterson, who has generated headlines
and expressions of moral outrage after the murder of his photogenic young
wife and their unborn baby.
-
- Mr Mesereau's most recent client was Robert Blake, a
washed out actor accused of killing his wife. Mr Blake burned his way through
two lawyers who were appalled by his refusal to listen to their instructions.
But Mr Mesereau finally threw in the towel, too - citing "irreconcilable
differences" with his client.
-
- © 2004 Independent Digital (UK) Ltd http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=515683
|
