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Two months later, Michael Jackson jury bickers on
Michael Jackson went into seclusion when his trial ended in June. His young accuser returned to school. The lawyers moved on to new cases, the media drifted to other stories and the fans went home.
But the jurors who set the pop star free can't seem to let go. This week two members of the Jackson jury surfaced in the media to announce that they now consider him guilty. Eleanor Cook and Ray Hultman say they were pressured by other jurors into voting for acquittal, and also plan to sell books, a TV movie and -- in Cook's case -- T-shirts. "They ought to be ashamed," said Cook, a 79-year-old grandmother, of her fellow jurors in an MSNBC interview. "They're the ones who let a pedophile go." The comments infuriated other members of the jury, who stand by the verdict and suggest that Cook and Hultman, 62, have twisted the facts to sell their stories. "I was crushed," juror Susan Derr-Drake told Reuters. "The whole thing is fracturing. It was very disheartening. Up to the point of the verdict and the (post-verdict) press conference I felt we all did a really good job and had integrity. And then, as soon as the publicity hit, people changed. They were seduced by fame and fortune." Both she and juror Susan Rentschler, 52, dismiss talk of intimidation during deliberations and say Hultman initially wanted to convict Jackson but found the evidence wanting. And both say they are disappointed by Cook and Hultman, with whom they formed a bond during the four-month trial. "I called Ray and spoke with his wife (after the trial) and she wouldn't let me speak to him," Rentschler said. "I wouldn't want to speak with them now. They should be ashamed of themselves. They are giving juries a bad name. They are not doing anything good for the legal system itself by saying things that are totally untrue." HOLLYWOOD COMES CALLING Calls to Cook and Hultman for this story were referred to Larry Garrison, a Hollywood producer who purchased the rights to their stories and has imposed a media blackout on them. "Right now I have the whole world converging on me to do interviews," Garrison said. "I have a major (TV) network that right now I'm in negotiations with. I have about four major publishers (interested) in the books. Within a day or so both deals should be done, hopefully." He said Cook's memoir would be titled "Guilty as Sin, Free as a Bird," and Hultman's "The Deliberator." "This is not about money," Garrison said. "This is about the judicial system gone awry. This is about two jurors being pressured, being told they'd be kicked off the jury. Elly Cook is 79 years old and she doesn't give a damn about money right now. She's donating the money to feed the children." Garrison said Cook is marketing T-shirts with the words "Don't Snap Your Fingers at Me, Lady -- Elly Cook, Juror Number 5" -- her quip when asked by reporters about her reaction to the mother of Jackson's accuser. Legal experts said the ongoing jury spat and attempts by Cook and Hultman to profit could damage the public perception of the justice system. "It really seems unseemly," former Santa Barbara Prosecutor Craig Smith said. "If they really believed he was guilty they should have stood their ground." Of the book and movie deals, Smith said: "It reflects poorly on the justice system, because the role of jurors is not to profit. If juror has a stake in the case that really calls into question his motives, and this a prime example of that."
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