The High Price of Celebrity 'Justice'; As Michael Jackson, Kobe Bryant, Martha Stewart and other stars head to court, public perception is that the scales of justice are imbalanced in favor of celebrities

0 Comments | Insight on the News, Jan 19, 2004

Byline: Timothy W. Maier, INSIGHT

Basketball superstar Kobe Bryant, home-craft guru Martha Stewart, one-time Beatles music producer Phil Spector and Baretta TV actor Robert Blake must be breathing a sigh of relief ever since pop star Michael Jackson got nailed with nine counts of child-molestation charges. They were bumped, at least temporarily, from the media spotlight with their respective cases being moved from the banner headlines to the back pages of the entertainment and sports sections. Even right-wing talk-show host Rush Limbaugh's ongoing doctor-shopping/prescription-drug case seems to be all but forgotten.

Legal experts who characterize Limbaugh's case as a nickel-and-dime drug probe suggest that the conservative talk-show host will receive nothing but a slap on the wrist for his illegal purchase of the painkiller OxyContin, better known on the streets as "the white man's heroin." If so, it may spark another debate on whether there is a different set of rules for celebrities when it comes to the criminal-justice system.

While legal experts suggest that Spector's case is dead in the water because of his emotional instability and Stewart could be a goner if she can't convince a jury she is ignorant of insider trading, the cases against Blake, Jackson and Bryant could result in verdicts that further add to the mystique that money buys freedom. In fact some legal experts believe the case against Blake, who is accused of killing his wife, is so weak that a judge could toss it out. Indeed, Blake may not even have to testify, leaving Jackson, Bryant and Stewart as the only high-profile celebrities who will swear to tell the truth before a jury.

Jackson likely will need to explain a documentary in which he admits sleeping with young boys, while Bryant needs to tell his side of the story and Stewart simply has to play dumb. In the Jackson trial, his weirdness may be hard to overcome, but since everyone knows he's different it may not matter, says Jackson family attorney Brian Oxman. When asked if Jackson's friends and family ever told the pop singer to cut out the weirdo stuff, Oxman says, "All the time. They tell him all the time." But Oxman adds: "Michael says, 'I am what I am. I'm not going to change my life for anyone. Because if I did, they would want to know why I changed.'"

The one thing missing in the Jackson case appears to be physical evidence of abuse, although there may be records the prosecutors have yet to reveal. "The physical evidence in both Kobe's and Martha's cases makes their cases the most difficult to defend," says Richard Southard, a former Brooklyn prosecutor who never lost a case in seven years of practice. "The physical evidence doesn't lie."

Bryant's best defense may be in attacking the credibility of the alleged victim. He may have the advantage of what prosecutors frequently call "bad-victim" trials, where the victim of the crime does not have a squeaky-clean past. That appears to be the tactic in the Bryant case, where attorneys continue to fight to open up the medical file of the woman who has accused the Los Angeles Lakers guard of rape. The file reportedly reveals an unstable and emotionally distraught woman who is suicidal.

Jackson's legal team already has uncovered depositions from the alleged accuser saying that Jackson never touched him, which may be a real problem for prosecutors to overcome.

The mere suggestion that these celebrities may buy themselves freedom from conviction naturally has set off angry responses from average citizens who have bombarded talk-radio airwaves and TV town-hall broadcasts with one question: Why is it that these megastars are treated differently from the average Joe? One word: money. They have enough of it to buy the best legal representation in the entire world. Their teams of lawyers force prosecutors to hire public-relations firms and assign additional attorneys to handle the high-profile cases because they don't want the perception that money can buy freedom.

But does it? Many big-money celebrities certainly seem to be walking free on bail that the average Joe could never post and even seem to negotiate deals about when to turn themselves into authorities or to leave the country. If the average Joe is charged with rape or murder or child molestation, does he get a time frame to turn himself in or is he rounded up by police and K-9 dogs and dragged into the booking station to be fingerprinted and jailed? Or better yet, does he get to jet to London while awaiting child-molestation charges, as in the case of bizarre pop star Jackson?

Legal experts say the public fails to realize that much of what is perceived to be special treatment goes on every day even for the average citizen. It's just that these average-Joe cases are not in the papers. "I've had many cases that were not celebrities and the suspects cooperated and made surrender arrangements with the police," says Steve Cron, a nationally renowned criminal-defense attorney and adjunct law professor at Pepperdine University in Malibu, Calif. Cron recently represented Paula Poundstone, the comic who pleaded no contest to charges of felony child endangerment and was sentenced to five years of supervised probation and alcohol rehabilitation. Cron says it saves money and resources for prosecutors when they allow suspects to surrender on their own terms.