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Michael Jackson Case The Michael Jackson Case Michael Jackson has been under investigation for child molestation. Here are the current events (all reported from CNN.com). Prosecutors seek prior claims LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Prosecutors in the Michael Jackson child molestation case want to include as evidence previous allegations of sex offenses for which police did not charge the singer. Santa Barbara Deputy District Attorney Gerald Franklin crafted the 65-page motion. In sex-crime cases, such a filing is a standard legal procedure as prosecutors seek to use a California law that allows relevant, earlier acts to become evidence, a law school instructor told The Associated Press. "If you have prior incidents, and the law allows you to use it, then you go for it," Loyola University law professor Laurie Levenson told the AP. "It shows a pattern, a propensity for Michael Jackson to commit these types of crimes." In 1993, Jackson reached an out-of-court settlement with a 13-year-old boy who accused him of sexual misconduct. Police did not arrest or charge Jackson in that matter. That settlement dissuaded a second alleged victim from pursuing similar claims, sources said. Last September, Jackson's lead attorney in the present case acknowledged at a news conference that his client had reached financial settlements in two allegations, but regrets doing so. "Many years ago, he did pay money, rather than litigate, two false allegations that he had harmed children," Thomas A. Mesereau Jr. said. "People who intended to earn millions of dollars from his record and music promotions did not want negative publicity from these lawsuits interfering with their profits." The motion did not offer any insight into which particular allegations, the exact offenses or who or how many accusers the prosecution might seek to introduce. 'A veritable paradise' The Santa Barbara County Superior Court on Tuesday released a heavily redacted copy of Franklin's motion. The prosecution claims previous "uncharged acts" show Jackson's "disposition," "motive and intent," toward the crimes for which he's charged, which include several counts of child molestation, conspiracy and giving alcohol to a minor. "As a matter of logic, the best way to prove that a man is a sex offender is to prove that he has sexually offended again and again," Franklin wrote. The motion also states that such evidence would serve to "rebut defendant's stated defense that the charged offenses were fabricated by the victim and his family for financial gain." Franklin labeled Jackson's Neverland Ranch as "a veritable paradise," and claimed that "to children, it was a limitless wonderland of fun and entertainment." Jackson, 46, pleaded not guilty in April 2004 to a grand jury indictment charging him with four counts of child molestation, four counts of administeri == ng an intoxicating agent, one count of attempted child molestation and one count of conspiracy to commit child abduction, false imprisonment and extortion. He is accused of giving alcohol to his accuser, a cancer-stricken boy who appeared with the entertainer in a British documentary in February 2003. Santa Barbara Superior Court Judge Rodney Melville has issued a gag order in the Jackson case, which forbids attorneys to comment. The court has not released an official reply from Jackson's defense team to the prosecution's "Motion for Admission of Evidence of Defendant's Prior Sexual Offenses." The next hearing in the Jackson case is scheduled for December 20 and is expected to last several days. Melville will hear arguments then on the admissibility of Jackson's alleged "prior sexual offenses," among other issues. Jackson is not expected to attend the hearing, sources said. Source: Fingerprints on magazine LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Fingerprints of Michael Jackson and those of his accuser have been found on "pornographic magazines" seized during a raid on the pop singer's Neverland ranch, a source familiar with the case told CNN. Investigators raided Jackson's Los Olivos, California, property based on allegations of child molestation in November 2003 and seized a variety of items from the entertainer's estate, including items from his bedroom and master bath, sources said. Investigators reportedly found a "collection" of pornographic magazines, and other periodicals in those rooms, and fingerprint testing was later performed on those materials, sources said. CNN has also learned that authorities seized wine bottles found on the property, and those have been forensically tested as well, sources said. Santa Barbara Superior Court Judge Rodney S. Melville will decide what can be introduced as evidence in the trial, set to begin January 31. Jackson, 46, has pleaded not guilty to charges of child molestation, conspiracy and giving alcohol to his accuser, a cancer-stricken boy who lived for a time at the ranch. The boy and his family also claim to have been held captive on the property. They were also there when Jackson was away, and allegedly had "free run" of the property in the entertainer's absence, a source told CNN. They were "into everything," crashing golf carts and being generally "disruptive," the source said. The boy appeared with Jackson in a British television documentary in February 2003. It is not clear in what room at the ranch that sheriff's investigators found the wine bottles. At a recent court hearing it was disclosed that a hidden wine cellar was built beneath the Neverland arcade. The entrance for the basement-type area was concealed behind a juke box facade, which swung open to reveal the top of a staircase that led down to the cellar. A week ago, Jackson gave sheriff's investigators a DNA sample at his ranch. The meeting had been arranged by Jackson's defense lawyers, and Jackson cooperated fully, a source said. Police launch new search of ranch LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Sheriff's investigators were searching Michael Jackson's Neverland estate on Friday in connection with child molestation charges against the pop singer, a Santa Barbara County sheriff's spokesman said. Jackson, 46, has pleaded not guilty to charges of child molestation, conspiracy and giving alcohol to his accuser, a cancer-stricken boy who appeared with Jackson in a British documentary in February 2003. A January 31 trial date has been set. The search warrant was served around 9 a.m. (noon ET) Friday, and officers are expected to be on the premises for much of the day, spokesman Chris Pappas said. A judge has set Monday as the deadline for handing over evidence in the case. Jackson has not commented publicly on Friday's search. Debra Opri, an attorney representing Jackson's parents, Joseph and Katherine Jackson, said they are upset by the search, which they said is nothing more than continuing harassment of their son. Opri also said Jackson was not at Neverland on Friday when authorities arrived. She said she believes that at least one of Jackson's attorneys has been present during the search. Police also searched Jackson's estate in November 2003. Authorities seized computers and notes, and cut the top off a mattress. In September, authorities raided the home of one of Jackson's personal assistants. Jackson has been on $3 million bond since his formal arrest in late November 2003. Report: Jackson not 'manhandled' SANTA MARIA, California (CNN) -- The judge in the molestation case against pop star Michael Jackson on Thursday ordered the release of part of a report by the state's attorney general concluding that the singer was not treated roughly when he surrendered on the charges last year. Santa Barbara County Superior Court Judge Rodney Melville's announcement during a pretrial hearing in the case prompted a heated protest from Jackson attorney Thomas Mesereau Jr., who called the report a "sham and a scam" designed to give the prosecution positive publicity. Jackson told CBS' "60 Minutes" in December that he was "manhandled very roughly" when he was taken into custody on the child molestation charges. He said he was bruised and that his shoulder was dislocated. The Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Department denied the charges. Sources familiar with the investigation told CNN Sunday that the California attorney general's office determined that sheriff's deputies treated Jackson properly. Mesereau said it was "extraordinary" that the attorney general's office would take it upon itself to investigate the matter, since Jackson had never filed a complaint or lawsuit about the incident. He said the attorney general's office never interviewed or examined Jackson in the course of its investigation, and said the conclusion of the report was "propaganda designed to violate" the judge's gag order in the case. The judge said Jackson will be allowed to make a statement on the portion of the report made public, but will have to clear it with the judge first. Accuser's stepfather takes stand Later Thursday, the stepfather of the boy who accuses Jackson of molesting him took the witness stand in a hearing to determine whether some evidence gathered by the prosecution can be used at trial. Identified only as John Doe, the stepfather said someone representing Jackson called him and said that Jane Doe, his wife, and his children needed to come back to the ranch to film a video to rebut a British documentary in which Jackson admitted sleeping in the same bedroom as children. John Doe testified that he asked the man what he was offering, and the man said the family would be given a house, college educations for the children and security. The hearing is being held to determine whether some evidence gathered by the prosecution can be used at trial. At issue is the defense's claim that District Attorney Tom Sneddon violated attorney-client privilege between Jackson and his former attorney, Mark Geragos, when the prosecutor searched the office of private investigator Brad Miller. The defense said the prosecutor knew or should have known that Miller was working for Geragos at the time. As a result, the defense wants any information obtained in the search to be considered attorney work product -- notes and materials collected in preparation for a trial -- and therefore inadmissible as evidence. Sneddon maintains he did not know that Miller was directly employed by Geragos. An investigator with the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Department testified Tuesday the department sought search warrants for Miller's office because the mother of the alleged victim had said that some items belonging to her may be there. There was no court session Wednesday. Jackson, 45, has pleaded not guilty to child molestation for alleged incidents with the boy that prosecutors say took place last year in February and March. The singer is charged with seven counts of performing lewd or lascivious acts on a child under 14 and two counts of administering an intoxicating agent, reportedly wine. Tuesday, Judge Melville turned down a defense motion to quash warrants used to search the pop star's Neverland Ranch. The defense contended that investigators had used inaccurate information in making their case for the search warrants. But Melville said that even if that information wasn't accurate, authorities still had enough justification for the warrants. Jackson defense challenges credibility of accuser's brother SANTA MARIA, California (CNN) -- Michael Jackson's defense attorney Tuesday went after the credibility of the brother of the teenage boy accusing the pop star of child molestation, challenging the boy's account of seeing the singer grope his brother. Under cross-examination from defense attorney Thomas Mesereau Jr., the brother also admitted Tuesday that he lied in a deposition given in a civil suit. In a dramatic exchange, Mesereau told the jury that the magazine that the brother testified Jackson showed them at the singer's Neverland Ranch was dated August 2003 -- months after the boys stopped going to the Jackson estate. "I'm telling you, it's not exactly the one he showed us," the brother said, insisting that the magazine they saw was of the same type. The brother, now 14, repeatedly claimed an absence of memory in response to Mesereau's questions, saying that given his school work and tests, "most of that stuff leaves my memory." "I know everything happened," the brother said. "I just don't remembers details ... not all the details." The defense cross-examination of the brother will resume Wednesday morning, after court adjourned early Tuesday afternoon. After watching his attorney successfully challenge his accuser's brother on the stand, Jackson "felt better today, at court's end, than he did yesterday," his publicist, Raymone Bain, said in a statement. During the brother's testimony, Jackson sat still in his chair and looked directly at the boy, shaking his head from time to time with a look of displeasure. Jackson's father, sitting in the front row, sat with his chin in his hands, listening intently, as members of the eight-woman, four-man jury scribbled notes. On Monday, the accuser's brother testified that on two occasions in early 2003, he had walked into Jackson's bedroom at Neverland and found the singer masturbating with one hand, while his other hand was down his sleeping brother's pants. The brother also testified that there was an alarm in the hallway leading to the bedroom that would ring a bell in the bedroom if anyone approached.( Monday's testimony) Under cross-examination Tuesday, the brother said he had never seen Jackson disable the bell. The brother said he had heard the bell when he would enter Jackson's bedroom. But the accuser's brother insisted that if the door to the bedroom was closed, the bell would not have been audible in the bedroom. Mesereau also accused the brother of changing his story about what Jackson did to his brother, pointing to statements he made to a therapist and the grand jury that variously put Jackson's hand on top of the accuser's underwear, rather than inside, or had Jackson touching and rubbing the brother's buttocks, rather than his crotch. The brother denied changing his story, but he also told Mesereau that he didn't remember making some of those other statements. Questions over deposition Under questioning by prosecutors, the brother had also testified that his father had abused him and other members of his family and that his parents often fought with each other. Mesereau challenged that testimony with a deposition the brother gave four years ago in a civil suit in which he said his mother and father never fought and that his father never hit him. The brother said his statements in the deposition weren't true. When asked by Mesereau whether anyone had told him to lie in the deposition, he said, "I don't remember. It happened a long time ago." He gave a similar response when Mesereau asked the brother to tell the jury why he lied. "I don't remember. It's like five years ago. I don't remember nothing," the accuser's brother said. The civil case stemmed from a December 15, 2000, altercation between the boys' mother and a security guard in the parking lot of a J.C. Penney store, after Jackson's accuser was accused of shoplifting. The mother sued the store, claiming that she had been manhandled by guards, and received a $100,000 settlement. The defense has pointed to the civil suit as evidence that the boys' mother has a history of making claims of abuse for financial gain. On Monday, the brother testified that on an airplane trip from Florida to California, he saw his brother and Jackson drinking alcohol, saying that he saw a red ring around a 7-Up can from which the accuser was drinking. But Mesereau pointed to a transcript of an interview that the brother gave police, in which he said the wine in the can was white, not red. "Do you think the court reporter made a mistake?" Mesereau asked. "Yes," the brother answered. The brother also gave conflicting statements when pressed by Mesereau on whether he knew Larry Feldman, a Los Angeles attorney who assisted the family when they came forward with the allegations against Jackson. The brother first said he knew Feldman, then later said he didn't recall the name. Then, he said he didn't recall meeting Feldman but later admitted that he had met with him twice, before saying that he didn't remember if he had met Feldman. Brother: Jackson warned about speaking out Tuesday's court session began with Santa Barbara County District Attorney Thomas Sneddon finishing his questioning of the brother. The brother said Jackson warned him and his brother to keep quiet about what went on between them at the Neverland. "Don't tell anything that happened, not even if they put a gun to your head," the brother quoted Jackson as saying. Jackson, 46, arrived at the Santa Maria courthouse Tuesday morning, accompanied by his mother, Katherine, his father, Joseph, and his brother, Jermaine. He was wearing a black suit with a black vest, with a chain dangling around his waist. He was indicted in April by a state grand jury on 10 felony counts for incidents that allegedly occurred in February and March 2003: Four counts of committing a lewd act on a child; one count of conspiracy to commit child abduction, false imprisonment and extortion; one count of attempting to commit a lewd act on a child; and four counts of administering an intoxicating agent to assist in the commission of a felony. Jackson has pleaded not guilty to the charges. Leno: Clarify Jackson trial gag order SANTA MARIA, California (CNN) -- Late night talk show host Jay Leno, subpoenaed to appear as a defense witness in the Michael Jackson child molestation trial, has asked that a judge clarify the gag order in the case so he can continue to mention the trial in his nightly monologue. According to court papers released Wednesday by the Santa Barbara County Superior Court, "The Tonight Show" host was subpoenaed February 17 to appear as a witness in the trial and filed a motion for clarification on the gag order February 18. In the motion, attorneys for Leno asked that the gag order not be applied to the comic. But if it must be, they asked that it be amended to only prevent him from speaking about firsthand information he has in the case. "When the court issued this gag order more than a year ago, it could not possibly have been seeking to affect the ability of entertainment personalities like Mr. Leno to comment about public information in this case," the motion said. The gag order bars anyone connected to the case from publicly discussing testimony or evidence. In opening statements Monday, Jackson attorney Thomas Mesereau Jr. told jurors that the accuser in the case had called Leno a few years ago in a pitch for money to help pay for his cancer treatments. Mesereau said Leno became suspicious about the call, in which the boy's mother could be heard coaching her son, and contacted Santa Barbara police. Wednesday night, Leno devoted seven minutes of his monologue to the Jackson trial, poking fun at the celebrity witness list. He joked that attorneys would question possible witnesses like Larry King, Elizabeth Taylor and Diana Ross in a "Hollywood Squares" game show format, with Leno in the coveted center square. Jackson jury from diverse backgrounds SANTA MARIA, California (CNN) -- A 12-person jury has been chosen for Michael Jackson's trial on child molestation charges. There are four men and eight women on the jury. The youngest is a 20-year-old man. The oldest is a woman, 79. There are no African-Americans on the panel -- drawn from the county where Jackson lives. About 2 percent of the population of the county is African-American. One Asian woman who lists Indonesian as her first language is on the jury. Questionnaires given to jurors did not ask about race. The jurors are: - A 51-year-old woman who works as a computer programmer.
- A 22-year-old woman who is a physical therapy aide.
- A 62-year-old man who is a civil engineer.
- A 44-year-old woman who works in the Department of Social Services.
- A 63-year-old man who is retired.
- A 45-year-old woman who listed no job on her paperwork.
- A 79-year-old woman who is retired.
- A 21-year-old man who is a student.
- A 42-year-old woman who works as an education aide in special ed.
- A 50-year-old woman who is a horse trainer.
- A 39-year-old woman who is a clerk.
- A 20-year-old man who is an assistant head cashier.
Most jurors told lawyers they enjoyed Jackson's music and were impressed by his career. Most also said they distrusted what they heard in the media, and very few had seen recent interviews with the pop star. One juror's ex-husband is a police officer. Another juror said her sister was raped when the sister was 12. When asked if that would prevent her from being on the jury, she responded, "Hell no." The 79-year-old juror is a great-grandmother whose grandson had to register as a sex offender. She told lawyers she feels the experience will help her be fair to Jackson. The youngest juror told the court his sister and her boyfriend had visited Jackson's sprawling Neverland estate. The horse trainer said she was surprised by Jackson's size. She described him as a sm == all man with lots of energy. The 21-year-old student is a paraplegic, paralyzed in the lower half of his body, who said he wants to be a motor sports reporter. He said he visited Neverland with a United Cerebral Palsy group when he was in the sixth grade. Wednesday's announcement that a jury had been seated was a surprise. Jury selection began January 31 with hundreds of prospective jurors. Analysts believed that picking a jury would extend into March. Prosecutors and lawyers for Jackson must still select eight alternate jurors. The jury selection process was interrupted for one week after the death of the sister of Jackson's lead attorney, Thomas Mesereau Jr., and for a week when Jackson became ill and was hospitalized for the flu. He was released last week. Jackson is accused of molesting a 13-year-old former cancer patient, giving the boy alcohol and attempting to hold him and his family captive. The pop star has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
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