The New York Times picks up on the arguments we and other defense lawyers have been making the past two weeks about the Michael Jackson case, even suggesting the case may be too weak to support a filing.

Some hard news: The police spokesman says despite the prosecutor's call for additional victims to come forward, "no one has come forward to tell of separate acts of molesting by Mr. Jackson."

So maybe the defense has been right all along:

Mr. Jackson's defenders and relatives contend that the case is groundless, the confluence of a frustrated prosecutor and a greedy mother exploiting her son's onetime friendship with a rich entertainer.

What brings it home for us is that the mother sought out the services of Larry Feldman, the lawyer who represented and obtained a multi-million dollar settlement for the 1993 accuser, before her son changed his story from "Michael is great" to "Michael took advantage of me." The change in the story occurred after the kid met with a therapist per Feldman's recommendation.

McMartin pre-school, anyone? How about the 1692 Salem Witchcraft Trials?

In both sets of trials, people urged others to "believe the children." In practice, that generally meant, "believe the children when they are making remotely plausible accusations, but ignore the inconsistencies in their stories."

The death of the 350 pound African American man beaten by Ohio cops earlier this week was not caused by the drugs he ingested. The coroner has ruled the death a homicide--saying it was caused by the struggle with the cops.

The coroner stopped short of saying the police used excessive force. We watched the video on tv and it looked excessive to us--particularly the repeated blows with the officers' clubs which lasted several minutes. Black activists in Cincinnati feel the same way.

Capping a two year investigation, the feds raided Hells Angels motorcycle clubs across the country today, arresting 55.

Those raided were in California, Arizona, Washington state, Nevada and Alaska. Sounds like ATF was the lead agency. The Los Angeles Sheriff's Department also participated.

Bump and Update: The Judge ruled for Geragos and ordered the DA's to return Peterson's truck and $15,000 that had been seized from him. The gag order stays in place. Trial date has been set for January 26. A change of venue motion is in the works.

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12/2 9:40 pm

Cable news networks will head back to Modesto Wednesday for the latest in the saga of Scott Peterson, accused of killing his pregnant wife, Laci. Peterson will plead not guilty to the charges, and several motions will be heard.

The most salacious of the motions promises to be the state's argument as to why Scott Peterson's pickup truck should not be returned to him. The DA will argue that Scott's blood is inside it. From this, and some cement-like material found in the bed of the truck, they deduce that Scott killed Laci in the house, cut his hand during the killing, put her body in the truck, drove it to his warehouse where he weighed the body down with cement anchors, then drove the body to and dumped it in the bay.

If it were Laci's blood in the truck, we might be more impressed. Combined with the paucity of physical evidence adduced so far, and the state's failure to produce a murder weapon, crime scene or cause of death, we say this adds up to zip.

In other case news, Amber Frey is pregnant and Scott is not the father. The lucky guy is Amber's former boss - a 43 year old chiropractor.

Attorney Mark Geragos made news on his own today when a federal judge in Rhode Island ruled in his favor and against the S.E.C. in a fee dispute involving one of Geragos' clients. The S.E.C. had tried to have Geragos held in contempt of court for violating a freeze order because he accepted fees in the form of a credit card advance.

S.D. Congressman and former Governor Bill Janklow is raising a diabetes defense in his manslaughter trial.

Rep. William J. Janklow (R-S.D.) was speeding and ran a stop sign when his Cadillac struck and killed a motorcyclist in August, Janklow's attorney conceded in court Monday, but the defense argued that the congressman should not be convicted of felony manslaughter because he was suffering a diabetic reaction at the time of the crash.

On the opening day of a trial that could send the 64-year-old Janklow to prison for 10 years -- and end his storied political career -- defense lawyer Edwin Evans told a jury in this quiet prairie town that Janklow "was mixed up. He was confused. . . . This was very likely an episode of low blood sugar due to his diabetes."

Will it work? Probably...first off, he's a legend in his home town. Second, he's admitting the minor misdemeanor charges....speeding and running a stop sign, in hopes of a compromise verdict. He just needs one juror to vote that the state failed to prove a "conscious disregard" of the danger. It will be easy for someone who likes him to say they can't see inside his mind to find the "conscious" element beyond a reasonable doubt. Good strategy.

Lawyers for accused sniper defendant John Lee Malvo have subpoenaed convicted sniper John Muhammad to testify for the defense at Malvo's trial. While prosecutors are predicting Muhammad won't testify, Malvo's lawyers say they have received no notice from Muhammad's team that he will try and quash the subpoena or take the Fifth.

Opinions are split on whether Muhammad's testimony will help or hurt Malvo:

On the one hand, a jury might feel pressure to reach the same verdict. On the other, if jurors are reticent to recommend execution for a defendant who was 17 at the time of the sniper attacks, the Muhammad verdict may in a sense let them off the hook.

We think Muhammad's testimony could help Malvo in the penalty phase, if his insanity defense is rejected, particularly if Muhammad were to acknowledge being the mastermind. However, if we were Muhammad's lawyer, we would have to advise him not to testify and to invoke his 5th Amendment privilege against self-incrimination since the appeals process has not yet begun. Of course, Muhammad has not shown any predilection to following the advice of counsel, so we won't be too surprised if he does testify.

Two trials of interest are scheduled to begin Monday. The first is that of former S.D. Governor (currently a Republican Congressman) Bill Janklow on manslaughter and lesser charges arising from an accident in which he ran a stop sign and a motorcyclist died. If convicted of manslaughter, the penalty could be up to ten years in prison. He is expected to raise a "lingering medical condition" as a defense.

The second trial is that of the Cuban hijackers in Key West, see here.

The Key West trial of six Cuban hijackers begins Monday. It is expected to be a politically charged trial, with U.S. policy at issue. Many Cubans believe the U.S. is too lenient on hijackers.

The plane, escorted by U.S. fighter jets, landed safely and the suspects tossed their weapons out. None of the 31 passengers or the six crew members was hurt. The defendants face life sentences if convicted.

The Judge has all but prevented a political defense.

The judge in the case, James Lawrence King, ruled in mid-November that the men's attorneys could not use Cuba's political or economic conditions as part of their defense. The men didn't appear to be under threat of harm, he wrote, and did not try to leave Cuba legally. Moreover, he said there was no proof that Cuba's living conditions necessitated a hijacking. ''Many Cubans live under such conditions, yet few hijack planes,'' King wrote.

The ruling triggered hostile reaction from Cubans in Miami who say it "robs the trial of context." Others disagree, and say the Cubans should be treated as terrorists.

Another bone of contention in the case is the Government's reluctance to allow defense witnesses to come to the U.S. to testify. Prosecutors believe that once here, they will defect and stay here. And the Cuban Government has decided that only prosecution witnesses may leave the island to appear and testify.

More details of the case are available here, in an article that outlines the plot with information obtained from post-arrest statements of the hijackers.

What was this woman thinking when she turned down a minimum four year plea deal on charges that she participated in the kidnapping and attempted castration of her ex-boyfriend? She was convicted Wednesday and now must get a minimum sentence of 18 years. The facts are horrendous:

Melissa French, 27, was convicted Wednesday and faces at least 18 years in prison -- more than any of the attackers, all of whom accepted plea deals with prosecutors.

The men attacked Donald Hamilton at his Santa Fe home in June 2002. A Russian assault rifle was placed in Hamilton's mouth and later fired between his legs, and the word "narc" was carved into his forehead with a pocketknife. He suffered separated shoulders, stab wounds and broken bones.

French was acquitted of kidnapping Hamilton, but convicted of kidnapping his roommate, who was held down during the attack.

Her lawyer said he is shocked by the jury's verdict:

He said French's 3-year-old daughter, who suffers from cancer, will be dead and her 10-year-old son will be grown by the time French is released.

Then why didn't she take the deal? Especially with the others, including her ex-husband, testifying against her that they were doing her bidding?

Could the Michael Jackson case get any wierder?

An executive with a Santa Monica charter jet company under investigation for secretly taping Michael Jackson has served for years as an FBI informant, sources said Wednesday. Though there is no evidence that authorities knew about XtraJet's surreptitious recordings of the pop star until after they were disclosed Monday, sources inside and outside law enforcement said company executive Jeffrey Borer worked as a bureau informant in Los Angeles.

In an interview late Wednesday, the 59-year-old Marina del Rey man denied ever serving as a government informant. The claim, he said, is "absolutely not true. I don't know where that came from.... If you print that, you'll get in big trouble," he said.

The company now denies it knew the hidden cameras were recording Jackson. Borer denies he's an informant. Where did the rumor come from? Possibly this?

Long before his name surfaced in the Jackson case, documents and interviews show, Borer has had brushes with the law. Most notably, federal records show, Borer was criminally prosecuted by the U.S. attorney's office in 1988. Though the nature of the case could not be determined immediately, records also show that a Jeffrey M. Borer was listed as an inmate in the federal prison system and was released in 1991.

Borer declined to discuss his prison time other than to say, "It is a matter of public record." Asked about Borer's prison history, his attorney, Stone, said: "I believe he has served time in prison."

So, is he or isn't he?

The FBI is investigating the surreptitious taping of Michael Jackson and his lawyer aboard the rental plane that flew them to Santa Barbara for Jackson's surrender to authorities last week.

As federal authorities began investigating the taping incident aboard the charter jet, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge David Yaffe issued a restraining order prohibiting XtraJet, the airline Geragos said placed the cameras aboard the plane, from releasing the tapes until a hearing in December on a permanent injunction, according to a statement from Jackson spokesman Stuart Backerman.

Geragos has also filed a civil suit against the company. From Geragos' statement at a press conference yesterday:

"The videotaping of my client conferring with me was illegal and outrageous, as was the aircraft company's attempt to sell that tape for profit," Geragos said. "We will be absolutely relentless in our pursuit of any and all extortionists, regardless of how they try to gift wrap their lies in the cloak of justice. Michael is not going to be a piñata for every money-hungry publicity seeker to strike in the hopes of hitting it rich."

Cal Pen Code § 631 prohibits taping and disclosure of the communication unless both parties to the conversation consent. A Violation carries up to a year in the county jail and a fine. Federal law prohibits taping and disclosure of the communication unless one party consents. At least one media outlet reports viewing the video when the plane company tried to peddle it to them.

Other details emerging: Larry Feldman, the lawyer who represented Jackson's 1993 civil accuser, began representing the mother last March. It was Feldman's suggestion the boy see a therapist.

An attorney who a decade ago secured a settlement of at least $15 million for a 13-year-old boy who alleged that he was molested by the singer is involved in the current case, sources close to the investigation said.

Those sources said the mother of the boy that Jackson is alleged to have molested last winter approached Los Angeles attorney Larry Feldman in March after she became concerned that the singer had been giving wine to her cancer-stricken son, who had first asked to meet his idol.

At that point she was not aware of any alleged molestation, the source said. But as the boy told of his friendship with Jackson in bits and pieces, Feldman concluded that the boy needed to talk to a therapist, who in June reported alleged sexual abuse by Jackson to police, the source said.

We'll be discussing the case tonight on MSNBC's Abrams Report at 9 pm ET (repeats at 11 pm.)

Update: More details about the family of the accuser:

District Attorney Nola Foulston of Kansas tells Greta Van Susteren of Fox that she just got off the phone with Michael Jackson DA Tom Sneddon who emphatically said no love letters were seized from Michael Jackson's house. The finding of letters was reported by Diane Dimond on Greta's show last night. We really like Diane, but we think she might be better off flying to Salt Lake to investigate the Osmonds for jaywalking.

Despite the 24/7 media lynching of Michael Jackson the past five days, his new record has soared to number one in the UK. Fox News reporter Trace Gallagher said on tv tonight it's number 9 here, but the new Billboard will come out tomorrow. We're putting it on our wish list.

Fox News reporter Trace Gallagher also reports that hidden cameras recorded Michael Jackson, his make-up artist and Mark Geragos on their plane ride from Las Vegas to Santa Barbara. The plane was rented so it is doubtful the cameras were put there by Jackson. The company that owns the plane says the tape shows Jackson was calm on the ride, conferring with Geragos, and was not freaking out, vomiting, etc. as had previously been reported. The company is trying to sell the videos to the highest bidder.

Update: CNN reports on the accuser's dad.

Update: Article about cameras taping plane ride.

Update: Mother's divorce lawyer said she had only good things to say about Michael as late as April or May.

An attorney who represented the mother of Michael Jackson's accuser in her divorce from the child's father said the family never indicated to him that Jackson had sexually abused the boy. Attorney Michael Manning said Monday he remembers the mother saying positive things about Jackson as recently as April or May. ``'He was really good to us' - that's what she said at the time,'' Manning said. Asked if she had said anything else about Jackson, Manning added, "Nothing bad. ... If it turned sour, I don't know how.''

Update: Mark Geragos fumes over covert taping. He filed for and received a temporary injunction preventing the release of the tapes, which the plane company tried to sell to Fox for a six figure sum.