Michael Jackson II

Well, two out of three ain’t bad.
I don’t know why I’ve been so fascinated with this trial because up until it really got going I didn’t know Michael Jackson from a bar of soap. I mean I knew who he was, but I knew nothing about him, couldn’t name a single song, never watched a video. I was totally disinterested in the Scott Peterson affair, but this one riveted me.
It affected me directly at the very start. MD and I were supposed to be on MSNBC giving our response to the press release from the Physician’s Committee for Responsible Medicine, a low-fat, vegetarian group that had attacked low-carb diets, when Michael Jackson presented himself for arrest. We were, of course, bumped. But that’s not what has caused my fascination.
I think the whole fiasco is an example of prosecutorial abuse. We live in Santa Barbara part of the time, and I hear the folks at the County of Santa Barbara whining constantly about lack of funds. Then they spend tens of millions of county dollars on this trial. If it hadn’t been Michael Jackson, the prosecutor wouldn’t have batted an eye at such allegations by a family of known grifters. I sense that someone wanted to make a name for himself nationally and was willing to spend unlimited amounts of someone else’s money to do it. And that’s not to mention that he could have imprisoned a human being (no matter how strange) for up to 18 years.
I’m glad it turned out the way it did, and I’m especially glad it’s over.