Jacko To Lawyer: You're Fired

APRIL 25--A member of Michael Jackson's legal team who has frequently tangled with chief defense lawyer Thomas Mesereau has been sacked. Brian Oxman, who has long represented other members of the singer's clan, was dumped effective last Friday, according to a "notice of disassociation" filed today by Mesereau in Santa Barbara Superior Court. The bare-bones notice, a copy of which you'll find below, does not offer a reason for Oxman's canning, just the fact that the 53-year-old lawyer was no longer a "counsel of record" in the Jackson molestation case. As seen in the photo at right, following the conclusion of today's court session, an animated Mesereau apparently dressed down Oxman in the parking lot of the Santa Maria courthouse. With the exception of his recent authoring of an April 15 appellate motion, Oxman has had a limited role with the Jackson defense team--and was often relegated to a chair behind the defense table when Mesereau sat with co-counsels Susan Yu and Robert Sanger. (2 pages)