PB&Js, Passports and Jackson

Michael Jackson is "eating sandwiches."

The singer's child-molestation trial might be over, but the news from Neverland never stops. And, in a way, neither does the trial.

On Wednesday night, it was Jermaine Jackson reporting to CNN that his recently frail-looking superstar brother was "recovering" from the courtroom ordeal, which ended in his acquittal on all charges, and was "eating sandwiches" of an unspecified variety.

On Thursday, it was the judge in the case clearing the way for the release of loads of previously off-limit documents. The move will unearth so many search warrants, motions and possible videos that Superior Court Judge Rodney S. Melville warned it might take up to a month to prepare the bounty for press and public consumption.

Trial buffs got a preview of the DVD-esque extras in store with the release of the jury's official request forms. Used during deliberations, one form asks Judge Melville to clarify which child Jackson is accused of attempting to molest in count six of the indictment. (The answer: The same boy he was accused of molesting in all the other counts.) Another form, from last Friday, asks that the accuser's testimony be read back.

On Monday, the documents show, the jury foreman sent a note to the judge at 9:45 a.m., saying "we cannot agree on the lesser [misdemeanor] counts" of whether Jackson plied his accuser with alcohol. Less than an hour later, at 10:35 a.m., the foreman sent word to "please disregard" the previous note. About two hours later, verdicts were announced.

Also released was a draft of the statement that jurors asked to be read in court after the verdicts, a statement expressing the hope that "this case is a testiment [sic] to the belief in our justice system, integrity and truth."

Soon to be released, if it hasn't been already: Jackson's passport. The entertainer surrendered the document to authorities following his November 2003 arrest. In Thursday's post-trial hearing in Santa Maria, California, which was not attended by Jackson, Melville ruled the singer be given back his get-out-of-the-country pass.

According to FoxNews.com, out of the country is exactly where Jackson, out of sight since the acquittal, is headed--perhaps Switzerland or South Africa, perhaps as soon as Sunday. Jermaine Jackson said he would not be surprised if his brother relocated overseas, seeing as how the family has "always had a love for other places outside the U.S."

"I do know that he needs to go and get some rest somewhere," Jermaine Jackson said on CNN's Larry King Live.

The United States might not be the ideal place for that rest, Jermaine Jackson said, because it was the home of his brother's "modern-day lynching."

"The U.S. should be proud that he's been just a positive representation from America, for the world," Jermaine Jackson told CNN. "And instead, they're the ones who's trying to put him under."

Jackson, though, still does have his lawyers looking out for him. Defense attorney Robert M. Sanger went before Melville's bench Thursday asking for the return of everything that was taken from the singer during the police probe and run-up to the trial--not just the passport.

"Mr. Jackson wants his stuff," Sanger told Reuters outside the court.

The "stuff" presumably includes Jackson's back issues of Plumpers and Barely Legal, as well as decade-old photos of the singer's penis. Authorities visually documented Jackson's genitalia during the 1993-94 molestation investigation. Prosecutors sought to introduce the revealing snapshots at the trial but were denied.

Melville put off a decision on Jackson's "stuff," passport excluded, until the Santa Barbara County District Attorney's Office decides if there'll be any further use as it as evidence, Reuters reported.

Jackson's lead defense attorney, meanwhile, has broached the possibility of a malicious prosecution lawsuit against the Santa Barbara authorities who pursued the criminal case against his client. On Tuesday's Larry King Live, Thomas Mesereau Jr. said such a complaint hadn't been discussed but that it would be "warranted."

Budding media star Mesereau, meanwhile, is scheduled to cap off a week of talk-show gigs Friday night with an appearance on NBC's Tonight Show.

Mesereau and host Jay Leno go way back--to May 24, when the comic was a defense witness at Jackson's trial.