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No Big Easy for Jackson
It wasn't clear where Michael Jackson was Wednesday. It was only clear where he wasn't: in a New Orleans courtroom.
Jackson's absence at a hearing for a sexual-assault lawsuit might not have been a big deal had his lawyers been present, but they weren't. The judge in the case scheduled an Aug. 17 hearing to give the pop star's camp one more chance to show up or face a judgment without the benefit of a trial.
The once ubiquitous entertainer has been out of the public eye since being acquitted June 13 of all charges in his nearly six-month-long child-molestation trial. A few weeks ago, he was said to be enjoying a royal vacation at a palace in Bahrain.
Jackson's father, Joe Jackson, told reporters his famed offspring might move to Berlin, and said he hoped the son would join him in the German capital this weekend for his three-day-long birthday celebration. But in a statement Wednesday on the dutiful son's official Website, MJJSource.com, Jackson expressed "sincere regrets" that he would be unable to attend the festivities, also intended to mark his recent courtroom victory. Nonetheless, Jackson, who didn't reveal his current whereabouts, said he wished his father a "very heartfelt," if virtual, "Happy Birthday." Joe Jackson turns 76 next Tuesday; Michael Jackson marks his 47th next month. (The younger Jackson didn't respond to comments his father made in Germany's Bild newspaper about the pop star possibly relocating in Berlin.)
Meanwhile, back in Louisiana, Joseph Thomas Bartucci Jr. is alleging that the then 25-year-old Michael Jackson did very bad things.
In a lawsuit filed last November amid the run-up to Jackson's California criminal trial, Bartucci claimed that when he was 18 in 1984 the singer sexually abused him and cut him with a razor blade and a steel wire. Now middle-aged, the New Orleans man says he repressed the assault until a 2003 Court TV special on Jackson's molestation case brought it all back.
Last fall, Jackson's criminal defense attorney Thomas Mesereau Jr. promised the lawsuit would be fully litigated in court. On Wednesday, Jackson family attorney Brian Oxman told the Associated Press he wasn't sure why the singer wasn't represented at the hearing. According to the AP, Jackson is being sued for $50,000 by local New Orleans lawyers who were hired to represent him in the case but apparently were not paid in full.
Bartucci is seeking unspecified damages for a host of ailments he claims were caused by the alleged assault.
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