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Start Date Discussed in Michael Jackson Trial

Aired February 13, 2004 - 15:05   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


CAROL LIN CNN ANCHOR: And now the Michael Jackson case. Gone today was the carnival atmosphere that reigned last month when the singer actually appeared in court. In its place, some news from the courtroom itself.
CNN's Miguel Marquez standing by in Santa Maria, California, to tell us about that.

Michael Jackson actually didn't have to appear today, right?

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: He did not. The last time he was in court, he signed a waiver that allowed him to not be here and to be represented by his attorneys. And he exercised that waiver today.

The hearing took about three hours here. The judge started off that hearing by opening up sort of this broad-range question of the expectations of all sides, says that he wants to see this case tried by the end of this year. He then quickly said, I realize that's going to be difficult to do, probably not very possible. They set an April 2 hearing date to set the preliminary hearing. They had hoped to get that date set today. Did not happen. They're going to set it on April 2.

By then, they should have all the evidence shared between the prosecution and the defense, so they can move on to a preliminary hearing. There's a possibility, a slight possibility, that Mr. Jackson will actually be here on the 5th of March, if he has to resign that waiver that he signed the first time he was here. But it looks like he will probably not have to be here. And so, the next time that we'll all be up here in Santa Maria will be the 2nd of April.

The expectation that this thing starts by the end of this year, whether or not it finishes, probably isn't likely by the end of this year. But even Mr. Geragos, Mr. Jackson's attorney, said they were thinking to start by the end of this year as well.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARK GERAGOS, ATTORNEY FOR MICHAEL JACKSON: The one thing that was indicated, the court had said that he was looking towards the end of the year. We had stated on the record that Mr. Brafman and I both discussed that that was kind of our rough estimate of when we thought we would like this to go to trial as well. Obviously, the client wants to get this done as quickly as possible.

(END VIDEO CLIP) MARQUEZ: So Michael Jackson wants to get this done as quickly as possible.

One other thing that the judge did today was seal the search warrants. He will release redacted versions sometime next week -- back to you.

LIN: Miguel, though, isn't the rush, it's not so much about checking calendars. Is there serious concern that this boy -- I think he's still 14 years old, with cancer -- that he's going to survive trial?

MARQUEZ: Well, the question of the boy's health has been raised all along. We understand, CNN understands that his health is actually quite good right now, so it's not clear if that is pushing it.

But the judge, he's a pretty tough judge, and he -- he usually does civil cases up here. He's the No. 2 judge in this system. It seemed to me he wanted to get this thing off his docket. He wanted to know how long it was going to be on his docket before he could get this thing out the door.

LIN: Gotcha.

MARQUEZ: Carol.

LIN: All right, thanks so much, Miguel Marquez, live in Santa Maria.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired February 13, 2004 - 15:05   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN CNN ANCHOR: And now the Michael Jackson case. Gone today was the carnival atmosphere that reigned last month when the singer actually appeared in court. In its place, some news from the courtroom itself.
CNN's Miguel Marquez standing by in Santa Maria, California, to tell us about that.

Michael Jackson actually didn't have to appear today, right?

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: He did not. The last time he was in court, he signed a waiver that allowed him to not be here and to be represented by his attorneys. And he exercised that waiver today.

The hearing took about three hours here. The judge started off that hearing by opening up sort of this broad-range question of the expectations of all sides, says that he wants to see this case tried by the end of this year. He then quickly said, I realize that's going to be difficult to do, probably not very possible. They set an April 2 hearing date to set the preliminary hearing. They had hoped to get that date set today. Did not happen. They're going to set it on April 2.

By then, they should have all the evidence shared between the prosecution and the defense, so they can move on to a preliminary hearing. There's a possibility, a slight possibility, that Mr. Jackson will actually be here on the 5th of March, if he has to resign that waiver that he signed the first time he was here. But it looks like he will probably not have to be here. And so, the next time that we'll all be up here in Santa Maria will be the 2nd of April.

The expectation that this thing starts by the end of this year, whether or not it finishes, probably isn't likely by the end of this year. But even Mr. Geragos, Mr. Jackson's attorney, said they were thinking to start by the end of this year as well.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARK GERAGOS, ATTORNEY FOR MICHAEL JACKSON: The one thing that was indicated, the court had said that he was looking towards the end of the year. We had stated on the record that Mr. Brafman and I both discussed that that was kind of our rough estimate of when we thought we would like this to go to trial as well. Obviously, the client wants to get this done as quickly as possible.

(END VIDEO CLIP) MARQUEZ: So Michael Jackson wants to get this done as quickly as possible.

One other thing that the judge did today was seal the search warrants. He will release redacted versions sometime next week -- back to you.

LIN: Miguel, though, isn't the rush, it's not so much about checking calendars. Is there serious concern that this boy -- I think he's still 14 years old, with cancer -- that he's going to survive trial?

MARQUEZ: Well, the question of the boy's health has been raised all along. We understand, CNN understands that his health is actually quite good right now, so it's not clear if that is pushing it.

But the judge, he's a pretty tough judge, and he -- he usually does civil cases up here. He's the No. 2 judge in this system. It seemed to me he wanted to get this thing off his docket. He wanted to know how long it was going to be on his docket before he could get this thing out the door.

LIN: Gotcha.

MARQUEZ: Carol.

LIN: All right, thanks so much, Miguel Marquez, live in Santa Maria.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com