SANTA MARIA, Calif. - The case of the State of California vs. Michael Jackson is finally ready for a trial that promises to be like no other.
Jury selection begins today, with Jackson expected to appear in a case which has become a cultural phenomenon, a symbol of the U.S. obsession with celebrity.
The uphill task of finding citizens who haven't prejudged the case is a mere prelude to a courtroom contest that will include testimony from the boy who accuses the pop icon of molesting him. The trial will test how well California's justice system functions amid a ravenous global appetite for any scrap of detail.
Jackson released a court-approved video statement on his Web site early Sunday, calling recent media leaks in the case "disgusting and false" and predicting he would be acquitted.
"Please keep an open mind and let me have my day in court," said Jackson."I deserve a fair trial like every other American citizen. I will be acquitted and vindicated when the truth is told."
The courtroom standoff promises to be intense.
On the defense side of court sits a glittering superstar with millions of fans worldwide who don't believe Jackson could be a pedophile. Jackson, 46, has pleaded not guilty to charges of molesting the boy - then age 13, now 15 - after plying him with alcohol.
On the prosecution side is Jackson's longtime nemesis, a Santa Barbara County district attorney.
For more than a decade Tom Sneddon has pursued Jackson and what happens at his Neverland Ranch. Jackson has derided him in song as a "cold man" with a vendetta.
Sneddon, 61, recently asked the judge to stop attacks on his motives. If the defense continues to call the case a crude attempt to "take down a major celebrity," the prosecution wrote, Sneddon will reveal "everything he knows about this defendant."
Prosecutors have complained that defense lawyer Thomas Mesereau Jr. uses courtroom invective not only to hammer his opponents but also to brand the child witnesses as liars manipulated by their greedy mother.
