Jury

Michael Jackson's doomed comeback attempt is again taking center stage in Los Angeles as the pop singer's family and the entertainment behemoth AEG square off in a legal showdown that could last months. Jackson's mother and children are suing the Los Angeles entertainment giant, alleging it is liable for Jackson's death because it hired and supervised Dr. Conrad Murray, who used a powerful surgical anesthetic in an effort to help the singer cope with insomnia. Murray was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in 2011.

With former Bell city manager Robert Rizzo's trial slated to begin in September, his assistant now wants a separate hearing and may join her ex-boss in asking that the case be moved out of Los Angeles. Rizzo and Angela Spaccia were ordered to appear Sept. 9 on multiple public-corruption-related charges, but whether the trial takes place in Los Angeles or elsewhere - and whether the two are even tried together - remains to be seen. Spaccia's attorney, Harlan Braun, said he will ask that his client's trial be "severed" from Rizzo's.

William H. Ginsburg, a seasoned medical malpractice attorney who bolted to national prominence in the brutal arena of Washington politics as Monica Lewinsky's lawyer, died Monday at his home in Sherman Oaks. He was 70. The cause was cancer, said his daughter-in-law Virginia Ginsburg. In 1998, Ginsburg was a senior partner in a Beverly Hills medical malpractice firm, where he had a sterling track record defending unpopular clients. He represented the physician accused of covering up the cause of entertainer Liberace's death from AIDS and the cardiologist who examined Loyola Marymount University basketball star Hank Gathers just before the young player's sudden death during a game.

The mother of a man accused of killing a 5-year-old boy in a Spider-Man costume left the courtroom Friday carrying a green pocket Bible after a mistrial was declared in her son's case. Leonard Hall Jr. was a gang member but not a murderer, Deborah Mosby said. Her heart goes out to the victim's family, but she is going through a lot, too, she said. "I'm glad God was in there," she said Friday outside court. "God knows he didn't do it.” The victim's grandfather, Wiliam Shannon, drew on reserves of patience as he hoped for a retrial.

A judge declared a mistrial Friday after a jury failed to reach a verdict in the case of an alleged gang member accused of fatally shooting a 5-year-old boy who was in a Spider-Man costume on Halloween. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Bob S. Bowers Jr. dismissed the jury after it deadlocked 9 to 3 in favor of convicting Leonard Hall Jr. in the slaying of Aaron Shannon Jr. The jury had been deliberating since Wednesday. Aaron was fatally shot Oct. 31, 2010, as he showed off his new costume in the backyard of his great-grandmother's South Los Angeles duplex.

A jury has awarded $1.1 million to a Palmdale teenager who, while holding a toy gun, was shot in the back by a Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy. Deputy Scott Sorrow used excessive force when he shot William Fetters in Palmdale on May 10, 2009, a jury found Wednesday. Fetters was 15 at the time of the shooting. “He's had a lot of emotional distress being the victim of a wrongful shooting,” said Fetters' attorney, Bradley Gage. “He's thankful that he has a chance to let the healing process begin.

A jury has awarded $1.1 million to a Palmdale teenager who, while holding a toy gun, was shot in the back by a Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy. Deputy Scott Sorrow used excessive force when he shot William Fetters on May 10, 2009, a jury found Wednesday. Fetters was 15 at the time of the shooting. "He's had a lot of emotional distress being the victim of a wrongful shooting," said Fetters' attorney, Bradley Gage. "He's hopeful that the verdict will send a message to the Sheriff's Department that it needs to protect the community better.

The Bell corruption trial came to a chaotic end Thursday as the judge declared a mistrial on the outstanding counts, saying "all hell has broken loose" with the deeply divided jury. An exasperated Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Kathleen Kennedy drew the case to a close after a bizarre day in which one juror asked to reconsider the guilty verdicts reached Wednesday. Then, an anonymous juror passed a note to Kennedy urging her to "remind the jury to remain respectful and not to make false accusations and insults to one another.

Are you planning to watch HBO's "Phil Spector"? Then step into my cubicle. We need to talk. I'm just a reporter, so my opinions about film aesthetics don't add up to much, but as one of the only journalists to cover both of Spector's murder trials, I can tell you that this movie, which premieres Sunday, is a bomb factually. And in an era when millions depend on "The Daily Show" for their news and best picture nominees for their history lessons, that scares me. Most viewers will know very little about the Spector case, and when the program is over, their understanding will be deeply flawed.

As the defendants sobbed and their attorneys fought back tears, an Ohio judge convicted two high school football stars of raping a 16-year-old girl and sentenced them to juvenile prison Sunday, but the case that cast an ugly light over a small town and its athletes is not over. Shortly after Judge Thomas Lipps sent Ma'Lik Richmond, 16, and Trent Mays, 17, out of the Steubenville courtroom to begin serving their time, Ohio Atty. Gen. Mike DeWine said he had asked Jefferson County to convene a grand jury to investigate whether more people should be charged in the case.