The High Price of Justice

Santa Barbara now finds itself on the media map, as a result of the Michael Jackson trial, and as such can "enjoy" the benefits that fame can bring.

However, as with everything in life, there is a price to be paid. In this particular case, it is estimated to be around $426K to date.

This covers the pretrial hearings held from January 2004 to date. Once that the trial "for real" is up and running, in 2005, the cost per day is estimated to be around $50K.

Whilst these cost estimates include the security and other staff costs, they do not include investigation and prosecution costs.

Rather wistfully Michael Brown, the County Administrator, is hoping for interest in the case to wane.

I suspect that, once the trial starts, the interest in it will rise exponentially.