Third juror joins row over Jackson trial verdict

A THIRD juror in the Michael Jackson case who initially favoured a guilty verdict says she believed the entertainer was a child molester, but joined in the verdict exonerating him because of reasonable doubt.

Appearing on MSNBC, Katarina Carls said she initially agreed with Eleanor Cook and Ray Hultman that Jackson was guilty, but decided she could not convict because of jury instructions that he must be acquitted if there was reasonable doubt. She said it was possible that Jackson’s accuser was lying.

“I kept asking myself, is there any slight possibility that this boy might lie at all? And my answer was yes,” she said.

Ms Cook and Mr Hultman said on Monday, as they began publicising books, that they believed Jackson molested his 15-year-old accuser and regretted clearing him.

They said on MSNBC that they went along with the other jurors because the foreman threatened to have them removed.

The Cook and Hultman reversals have no effect on the verdict, which cannot be appealed.

Jackson’s lawyer, Thomas Mesereau, has ridiculed their accounts, saying they may be seeking fame and fortune.

Another juror appearing on MSNBC, Mike Stevens, disputed Ms Cook’s claim that she was intimidated into going along.

He said Ms Cook told another juror at one point that she could not be swayed, and that the jury foreman threatened to remove her for giving personal opinions rather than following the law and the evidence.