hJackson trial begins

hJackson trial begins
SANTA MARIA, Calif. -- Jurors were given opposing images of Michael Jackson as the pop star's trial opened Monday -- the prosecution portraying him as a perverted child molester and the defense saying he was the victim of a con artist who used her cancer-stricken son to prey on celebrities for money. District Attorney Thomas Sneddon outlined a complicated and sometimes bizarre story involving Jackson showing the boy sexually explicit material and groping him as his associates threatened to kill the boy's mother if he told anyone. Sneddon said the boy, now 15, "will describe to you his sexual experiences with Michael Jackson. He will do it here in open court, and he will do it with the whole world watching." Jackson sat still as a statue with one hand pressed against his cheek as Sneddon outlined the accusations. In the front row of the courtroom, Jackson's mother, Katharine, sat beside her son Jermaine. They were the only Jackson family members present. Jackson, 46, is charged with molesting the then-13-year-old cancer patient at his Neverland ranch in 2003, plying him with alcohol and conspiring to hold him and his family captive. After the nearly three-hour opening by the prosecutor, defense attorney Thomas Mesereau. Jr. went on the attack, saying the mother of the accuser fraudulently claimed to many people that she was destitute and that her son needed money for chemotherapy.
Fla. parents file motions
TAMPA, Fla. -- Terri Schiavo's parents asked a judge Monday to allow the severely brain-damaged woman to divorce her husband, accusing him of adultery and not acting in his wife's best interests. It was one of a flurry of 11 motions filed by Bob and Mary Schindler, who have less than three weeks to find a way to keep their daughter alive. Michael Schiavo says his wife, who has spent 15 years in what doctors call a vegetative state, once told him she would never want to be kept alive artificially. Her parents have fought his efforts but Pinellas Circuit Court Judge George Greer ruled that Schiavo can have her feeding tube removed on March 18. The Schindlers' attorney, David Gibbs, said Greer had indicated he will not hear the divorce request and five of the other motions filed Monday, but that only means the matters are now on their way to being appealed.
Father pleas for daughter
HOMOSASSA, Fla. -- The father of a missing 9-year-old girl pleaded again for her safe return Monday -- the fifth and possibly final day of a full-scale search for Jessica Marie Lunsford. "Just drop her off. I'll come get her," said Mark Lunsford, repeatedly choking back tears. "I know whoever has got Jessie, they have to have a heart." Lunsford said he remains convinced his daughter, who was last seen Wednesday night, did not leave home voluntarily, though authorities have uncovered no evidence she was abducted. "She just didn't go with strangers," Lunsford said. He also expressed gratitude for the outpouring of support: "It's been overwhelming, the people that have shown up," he said. "It makes me feel real good to know everyone's trying to help me out."
Ships fight renovations
WASHINGTON -- The cruise ship industry tried on Monday to fend off efforts to make its vessels more accessible to disabled vacationers, telling the Supreme Court that imposing requirements would hurt the billion-dollar tourist business. The real question is discrimination, countered a lawyer for three disabled U.S. passengers, two of them in wheelchairs, who sued the Norwegian Cruise Line. They want the Americans With Disabilities Act extended to foreign vessels that call on U.S. ports. "Millions of people spending billions of dollars of commerce are affected by this statute," and it should apply to foreign-flagged vessels that stop at U.S. cities, said Thomas Goldstein, the lawyer for the disabled passengers. They say they paid premiums to the Norwegian Cruise Line for handicapped-accessible cabins and the assistance of crew but the cruise line failed to configure restaurants, swimming pools, elevators and public bathrooms. The case has huge implications for cruise lines, which could be forced to pay for retrofitting ships. The worldwide industry estimates two-thirds of its passengers are Americans.
Associated Press