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Thursday, March 24, 2005
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal
NORM: Jackson guard in legal trouble
Donald Trump involved in courting of Michael Jackson.
Britney Spears is pregnant. Look for the announcement any day now.
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A former Michael Jackson bodyguard has his own legal troubles.
Las Vegan Christopher Eric Carter,
25, characterized by the prosecution as a key witness in the singer's
molestation trial, is in jail in Las Vegas on armed robbery, burglary
and kidnapping charges.
A former security guard at Caesars Palace, Carter is being held on
$850,000 bond. He was arrested Feb. 19, about two weeks after a robbery
that netted $239 at the Jack in the Box at 4970 Spring Mountain Road.
He has been charged with robbery with a firearm, burglary with a
firearm, and kidnapping with a firearm, according to police records
obtained by the Review-Journal.
According to his grand jury testimony, Carter met Jackson during the 2002 filming here of the Martin Bashir documentary and worked for the pop star at Neverland Ranch for about a year, during the time of the alleged molestations.
Carter, in his grand jury testimony first reported by The Smoking Gun
Web site last month, said that while driving the accuser and his family
from Neverland Ranch to their home, the accuser's mother was upset,
crying and praying. He also testified that he discovered the accuser
driving a golf cart while intoxicated at Jackson's ranch.
A man wearing a white T-shirt over his head with cutout eye holes was
seen committing the robbery and kidnapping on video surveillance tape,
according to police records. The next day the FBI, acting on
information gathered from a series of other robberies, went to Carter's
residence and found a T-shirt with circular holes in a trash bag near a
fence.
TV topics
"The Late Show with David Letterman"
is holding an audition for stupid pet and human tricks from noon to 4
p.m. today at the MGM Grand. Call 1-888-PET-TRIK (1-888-738-8745). ...
ABC's "Extreme Makeover" show has an open call Saturday from 1-5 p.m.
at The Beach, 365 Convention Center Drive. For more information:
www.abc.com, keyword: makeover ...
Friday is the last day at KLAS-TV, Channel 8 for reporter Janine Gill, who is ending her five-year stay to return to San Jose, her hometown, to join her fiance. Victor Woodall,
chief photographer at KLAS, left last Friday to accept a job at
KPNX-TV, the NBC affiliate in Phoenix. He joined KLAS in 1998. ...
I goofed in Wednesday's column: Sue Manteris, who appears in "Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous," is a morning anchor at KVBC-TV, Channel 3. She is identified as Sue Tripathi, her maiden name.
The Scene and Heard
You heard it here first: Britney Spears ... not a girl, soon to be a mommy. She's pregnant. Look for the announcement any day now. ...
Local "American Idol" contestant Mikalah Gordon is on shaky ground after a scathing review by judge Simon Cowell. "It was a complete and utter mess," Cowell told Gordon after her version of Taylor Dayne's
"Love Will Lead You Back" during Tuesday's show. She'll be on the hot
seat during tonight's cut-down, which was moved from Wednesday after
the wrong telephone numbers were flashed Tuesday for three contestants,
including Gordon. ...
It's hard to take Donald Trump
seriously as a future force in Las Vegas after this Hall of Lame PR
stunt: The Donald is claiming he's interested in having Jackson, if
he's acquitted in his molestation trial, as a resident headliner at the
New Frontier, where Trump and Phil Ruffin are collaborating on a 64-story luxury condominium high rise, which is going up behind the New Frontier. ...
Sightings
Actor Robert Duvall, in the second row at Lance Burton's
magic show (Monte Carlo) on Tuesday night. He sent a note backstage
telling Burton he enjoyed the show so much 10 years ago at the Hacienda
that he came back to see him.
The Punch Line
"Reeks of tequila and Easter egg dye." -- Letterman's Top 10 signs you've hired a bad Easter bunny
Norm Clarke can be reached at 383-0244 or norm@reviewjournal.com.
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