Police press conference
Tom Sneddon
A few minutes ago, a press conference was held on the sidelines of the recent searches carried out at Michael’s home. While Santa Barbara’s sheriff was expected to provide more information about the matter, Tom Sneddon, the chief prosecutor, spoke at greater length. Many television networks around the world broadcast the press conference live for their viewers, but not all of them covered everything said by Mr. Sneddon, including the BBC World news network, which limited itself to broadcasting the sheriff’s remarks. Sheriff Jim Anderson said, “The bail set is equivalent to three million dollars.” Tom Sneddon, who appeared very excited, said that this case differs in three ways from the ten-year-old case: 1) California state law has changed—under the current law, the punishment for sexual abuse of any child under 14 carries a prison sentence of 3 to 6 years; 2) in a short time, several charges will be brought against him; 3) this time, another victim is involved in addition to the main complainant. Hours earlier, Staurt Backerman, Michael’s spokesperson, told CNN that Michael’s legal team is in negotiations with Santa Barbara officials regarding the arrest of Jackson. The Las Vegas Police Department, the city where it is said Michael is currently staying, announced that Santa Barbara police did not obtain permission from them to arrest Jackson in Las Vegas—if they had wanted to arrest him quickly, they would have done so by now. According to Backerman, for now, Michael’s legal team has invited Mark Geragos, the attorney for Scott Peterson in his high-profile trial in California, to consult with the team, but no decision has yet been made to use him as Jackson’s lead attorney.
Brian Oxman, Jackson family attorney, said on Larry King Live on CNN the day before that he believes the root of these investigations comes from someone else who is seeking to profit financially from Michael. “This is an exciting and nerve-racking case because it happened in exactly the same way as ten years ago. Just like replaying the knockout matches from the beginning.” Johnnie Cochran, Jackson’s defense attorney in the court case from ten years ago, also said on the program, “It seems strange that the search warrant is issued on the very day this singer releases his latest album. I think it’s more than just a simple coincidence. In my view, it’s a pre-planned scenario.” He added, “I tried to remind Michael that he should never put himself back into such a situation by being alone with young children, but Michael Jackson is like that—he’s very, very simple and inexperienced in many matters, and there’s no doubt about it. Yes, he really is a good target.” Meanwhile, it appears that Tom Sneddon is pursuing a personal score against Michael. He gained a lot of attention for his involvement in the 1993 case, and one of Jackson’s songs on his HIStory album is about him. The song, titled D.S, is a sign of Michael’s anger toward him and ends with the sound of a gunshot.