Jurors selected in Jackson trial

Jurors selected in Jackson trial
By Gary Barlow
Copyright by The Chicago Free Press

The trial of Hearts Foundation founder Michael L. Jackson, accused of killing cab driver Haroon Paryani in Lakeview in February 2005, got underway Aug. 14 in Cook County Circuit Court.

A jury of nine women and three men were selected to try Jackson on the first-degree murder charge, with opening statements expected Aug. 15 after CFP went to press.

Witnesses said they saw Jackson argue with Paryani in the street outside Jackson’s Briar Street home shortly after midnight Feb. 4, 2006. Then, the witnesses told police, Jackson jumped behind the wheel of Paryani’s taxi and ran over the 61-year-old cab driver, backed up and ran over him again, then ran over him one more time before taking off down the street.

Jackson turned himself into police late the following afternoon.

His defense team, led by high-powered attorney Thomas Breen, is expected to argue that Jackson was provoked and threatened by Paryani.

Jackson, who worked in the STD/HIV/AIDS division of the Chicago Department of Public Health at the time of the incident, was released on bail about three months after his arrest. But on his second night out of jail, he apparently overdosed on painkillers at the Lombard home of his boyfriend and was taken to Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital in Downers Grove, where he reportedly woke up and spit at a nurse, telling her, “And here’s some HIV for you, bitch!”

He was charged with aggravated assault and reckless conduct in that incident and has been held without bond in DuPage County or Cook County ever since. While in DuPage County Jail, he was also charged with reckless conduct for allegedly having sex with fellow inmates without disclosing that he is HIV-positive.

Jackson’s trial is expected to last well into next week.