Juror Changes His Mind

Ray Hultman, one of the jurors in the Michael Jackson trial, has changed his mind about writing a "tell all" book about the trial.

He is now taking legal action to try to get out of writing the book.

Hultman claims that he was talked into signing a book deal with California publisher Larry Garrison.

Hultman now wants to end his contract, and is seeking unspecified damages for mental and emotional stress.

Funny how money always comes into these things, isn't it?

Hultman claims that he was due to co-write a book about the case, entitled "The Deliberator", with writer Stacy Brown. However, Hultman now says that he was shocked by reports that his book proposal contained material plagiarised from a Vanity Fair magazine article.

He said this damaged his reputation, one might be forgiven for asking "what reputation?", and the book deal.

He claims that he had to "expend substantial time in writing portions of a book proposal which turned out to be valueless give the aforementioned plagiary,"

Now, correct me if I'm wrong but:

1 Don't all authors have to expend substantial time writing?

2 Do all authors get published? No!

3 Doesn't the fact that he admits the plagiarism, be it intentional or accidental, negate the validity of his claim?

To add further to Hultamn's loss of face, it turns out that Stacy Brown is now claiming never to have met him or indeed ever having agreed to write the book.

Brown is quoted as saying:

"I had no intention of writing their book nor did I believe what was in their book,".

I don't see that this legal action exactly does Hultman's reputation any good.