Text size:

Fans are wild about the verdict

BY KARLA SCHUSTER | STAFF WRITER

June 14, 2005

Exultant Michael Jackson fans outside a California courthouse exploded into fist-pumping, sign-waving hysteria Monday, their vigil rewarded with a not guilty verdict for their pop star hero.

"I feel like I was reborn," Raffles Vanexel, 29, of Amsterdam, told the Associated Press. He said he "cried like a baby" at word of the verdict. "The best is yet to come for Michael."

More than 1,200 people waited outside the Santa Maria, Calif., courthouse, packed behind a chain-link fence while police in riot gear prepared for the verdict. Some cheered and wept, others clasped their hands in prayer, and one woman who had camped out for day with a box of white doves released them, one by one, for each count on which Jackson was acquitted.

Jackson waved and blew kisses to the crowd as he left the courthouse. Later, fans followed him back to his ranch, Neverland, leaving their cars along the side of the road and walking to the gates of the sprawling complex.

"He's such a dear person to me and to lots of his fans," Farida Garmani, the woman who released the doves, told CNN last night. "It is because of the kind of love he has in his heart and the beautiful personality he has."

Fans from all over the world converged on this small city in Santa Barbara County to monitor the four-month trial. Monday, two fans waved a replica of the French flag with the words "France Yes To Michael." A sign with the colors of the Irish flag read "Michael -- Ireland Believes in You" and a red-faced, weeping woman held a pink, heart-shaped sign that said "Poland Loves You Michael."

Elaine Dunn of Riverside, Calif., described herself as "more of an observer" than a fan as she stopped into a local coffee shop after the verdict. The 46-year-old mother of three and part-time school district clerk arrived at the courthouse just before 6 a.m. Monday, having told no one outside her immediate family where she was headed.

"I was just really curious and wanted to see what the trial is all about," Dunn said. "People were crying, all saying they felt Michael was innocent, that they were glad it's over. I'm glad, too, but I wasn't completely sure he was innocent."

The trial was a lucrative, entertaining spectacle for merchants and residents in the sleepy suburb between Ventura and Bakersfield.

Chelsea Young, 18, a high school senior, works part-time at her mother's home-decor store at the Santa Maria Town Centre Mall, across the street from the courthouse.

Monday, before the jury reached a verdict, she ran into a German television crew at a local deli.

"They say they were trying to do, like, man-on-the-street interviews -- they had an accent and everything, so that was sort of cool," she said.

"There's not a lot to do here, so this gave us something to check out," she said. "I wasn't a fanatic or anything, but it was history being made right in my town."

E-mail

Reprint

Get breaking news | Most popular stories | Dining and Travel deals all via e-mail!

Fans are wild about the verdict

Related links

Interactive Graphic

Related topic galleries: Santa Barbara (Santa Barbara, California), Michael Jackson, California, Riots, Santa Barbara County, Justice System, Trials

Popular stories

The fight for civil rights

NEWS QUIZ