Jacko escapes jail in new lawsuit

Michael Jackson was fined £5,500 and barely escaped arrest yesterday for missing two court appearances in a sexual assault lawsuit.

Jackson's lawyer, Charles Gay, told the hearing that administrative errors had stopped the singer from responding to the notices. District Judge Eldon Fallon said he would have ordered Jackson's arrest and possibly judgment against him if Gay had not attended the hearing on Jackson's behalf.

The unnamed plaintiff is asking for unspecified damages. He sued last November, saying he was lured into Jackson's limousine during the 1984 World's Fair in New Orleans and sexually assaulted.

He says he waited to sue because he repressed memories of the assault until news coverage of the child molestation charges against Jackson in California revived them.

In that case, a jury acquitted Jackson in June of molesting a 13-year-old boy in 2003.