LOS ANGELES, Feb 4 (AFP) - The planned grilling of potential jurors in pop legend Michael Jackson's child molestation trial has been delayed because of illness in his lawyer's family, the court announced Friday.
The court in the California town of Santa Maria said that neither the "King of Pop" nor his chief lawyer, Thomas Mesereau, would be in court as scheduled on Monday, when the trial had been due to move into its next phase.
"Due to the grave illness of Mr. Mesereau's sister neither he nor the defendant will be in court on Monday," the court said, announcing that the second week of Jackson's trial would be a start-stop affair.
But prospective jurors must still turn up as scheduled Monday morning for the launch of the second phase of the crucial process of selecting the "Jackson 12," the jurors who will judge the entertainment icon, the court said.
However, instead of facing detailed individual questioning from both prosecutors and defence lawyers, the potential panellists will on Monday simply be assigned random jury numbers before being sent home.
The court said that there would be no hearings in the case on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday next week, leaving Thursday as the only other possible court day. But no hearing has yet been confirmed for Thursday.
The most closely-watched trial on Earth officially got underway last Monday with the start of first phase of jury selection, which ended ahead of time Tuesday when 250 prospective jurors were picked from a pool of 750.
Judge Rodney Melville adjourned the case until Monday to allow the rival lawyers time to pore through the seven-page questionnaire that the potential panellists filled out before being sent home earlier this week.
But the second week in the celebrity trial appeared headed for a less-than-flying start, with Monday shaping up as the only guaranteed court day next week.
It was unclear whether the delay would drag out the trial. Jury selection had been expected to take about one month, while the trial is expected to last five months after opening remarks.
Jackson, 46, has denied 10 charges, including molesting a 13-year-old boy in February and March of 2003, plying him with alcohol and allegedly conspiring to kidnap, falsely imprison and extort the boy and his family.
02/05/2005 05:08 GMT - AFP