December 28, 2003 - Official charges against Michael were released

1:25 a.m. - A few minutes ago, after the official release of the charges against Michael Jackson by the Santa Barbara police department, Tom Sneddon provided explanations during a press conference and answered several questions from reporters. This press conference, which was broadcast live in full by many news networks around the world, including CNN, offered more details about the judicial process of the matter, while not providing much information about the charges against Michael. In the charges, which were sent to news agencies only minutes earlier as well, the allegations against Michael were listed in 9 counts: 7 counts related to the abuse of this child in the months from February to April of the current year, and 2 counts related to the use of a sedative substance on him. The report does not name the child in question and refers to him as John Doe (the name used in court cases for an unnamed person), but as reported by CNN reporter, this child is the same person who appeared on camera in the documentary program by Martin Bashir and who was suffering from cancer. A confusing and ambiguous point in the version published in the newspapers is that all of the items from one through seven, as well as items eight and nine, are completely identical to one another. (You can obtain the PDF version signed by Tom Sneddon from this address.) Tom Sneddon noted that the judicial review of this case has been postponed by one week—from January 19 to January 26 (January 16)—and said this decision was made based on negotiations between Michael’s lawyers and the relevant officials. At the same time, since before the announcement of the recent charges against Michael, he had a contract for attending a ceremony in England for a celebration that had been approved, the judicial authorities decided to return Michael’s passport to him only for this specific occasion so he could attend the special ceremony. This news will likely bring a wave of great joy to fans who, for a long time, have been preparing to see Michael and have bought tickets for the Music & Me ceremony organized by the MJNI fan club. Meanwhile, as informed by news agencies, over the weekend a celebration will be held at Michael’s private home with the presence of a number of his supporters and close acquaintances, though Michael’s personal attendance at this event has not yet been confirmed. Sneddon, in response to a reporter who asked what he thought about the fact that despite a long delay until the official announcement of the charges, no new evidence had been found to identify Michael as guilty, strongly stated that "Absolutely, absolutely, absolutely our delay in finding new evidence was not the reason, and this is not done anywhere. We only waited to prepare a website to publish the evidence on the internet." It should be noted that this website still has not appeared, and according to Sneddon, there were some technical problems, but they did not consider it acceptable to delay any longer. Michael’s lawyer is expected to provide explanations in a press interview today. As soon as we learn about the new news, we will inform you.