The Michael Jackson Case
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MALICIOUS PROSECUTION?

You've already read about Tom Sneddon's ten year vendetta against Michael Jackson. It seems that Sneddon is not trying to hide the fact that he has it in for Jackson. Read about the unfair treatment Jackson has received since authorities raided Neverland:

1. During the raid of Neverland, police went into areas that they were not permitted to go into and took items that were not on the search warrant.

2. According to a motion filed by the defense, Sneddon conducted an illegal search of the office of Bradley Miller. Because Miller worked for Jackson’s former defense attorney Mark Geragos, anything taken from his office falls under the category of attorney/client privilege. Sneddon tried to justify his search by claiming he did not know that Miller worked for Geragos. In court, however, it was revealed that Sneddon was caught on tape admitting to having known about Miller and Geragos' working relationship at the time of the raid. Sneddon claimed he was tired when he made this taped statement and did not mean what he said.

3. Sneddon waited until November 18th- the day Jackson's Number Ones album was released- to raid Neverland. He claimed that he knew about the allegations since June but didn't take action until November because of Halloween. (Yes, we wouldn't want to upset anyone's trick-or-treating experience, so let's let an alleged pedophile run around for five months and finally raid his house on the day that his new CD comes out.)

4. During the press conference announcing the accusations against Michael Jackson, Tom Sneddon laughed and made several jokes at Jackson's expense.

5. Sneddon acknowledged that Jackson was investigated for suspected child abuse in February but said "don't assume it's the same family." He knew it was the same family, why did he make this statement?

6. At the press conference, Sneddon invited more victims to come forward.

7. Sneddon said that California law was changed so that child victims in a molestation case could be forced to testify. This was a lie; the law was changed so that if a civil suit was filed, it would remain inactive until the criminal trial was resolved.

8. Sneddon swore that the family was after justice and not money even though it is a widely known fact that they went to a civil lawyer first.

9. Jackson's bail amount was set at $3 million; this amount is excessive compared to the amount that other Defendants in child molestation cases have to pay. Jackson’s lawyers recently filed a motion challenging the bail amount but their request was denied by Judge Rodney Melville. Melville sided with the prosecution, stating that because Jackson is rich, his bail should be higher than that of other Defendants. He did not use any laws to support his decision. (The court of appeals later questioned Melville’s ruling and asked him to provide a better justification for his decision)

10. Sneddon gave an interview to tabloid journalist Diane Dimond where he referred to Michael Jackson as "Jacko Wacko."

11. Dimond admitted to knowing about the allegations months in advance. Why was the DA leaking information to a tabloid journalist?

12. Sneddon delayed filing charges until December so that the Santa Barbara Police Department could set up a website exclusively for members of the press.

13. Sneddon enlisted the help of a PR firm to deal with the media. Tellem, the PR firm working for Sneddon, also works for Dave Schwartz, the stepfather of Jackson's first accuser.

14. Sneddon dismissed the Department of Children and Family Services investigation as an "interview" and accused the DCFS of being incompetent. It turns out that his own department also investigated Michael Jackson in February and came back with the same "unfounded" ruling as the DCFS.

15. In December, Jackson told Sixty Minutes that he was roughly handled by police officers when he was arrested; he showed photographic evidence to substantiate his claims. The SBPD responded to Jackson's allegations by releasing audio clips of Jackson whistling in the car before he was booked. Jackson, however, did not claim that he was abused on his way to the station. The only mistreatment he alleged before the booking was when the handcuffs were put on but you can hear him on the audiotape complaining about the handcuffs being too tight.

The actual abuse was not alleged to have occurred until Jackson was brought into the booking station. The SBPD did not show any footage of Jackson in the booking station, claiming that they did not film Jackson's booking because they didn't anticipate that there would be any problems. This contradicts their explanation as to why they recorded Jackson on his way to the station; they said they taped Jackson because it was a high-profile arrest and they wanted to ensure that everything was handled appropriately. In that case, why didn't they tape Jackson in the booking station?

16. Sheriff Jim Anderson said that if Michael Jackson's claims of police abuse turned out to be false, he would charge Jackson with making a false complaint. Since Jackson never actually made a formal complaint, Anderson's statement is not in accordance with the law.

17. Attorney General Bill Lockyer was asked by Anderson to investigate Jackson's claims in December; almost seven months later, he still has not issued any statement regarding his findings.

18. Jackson also alleged during the interview that he still had not received a list of what was taken from Neverland.

19. The alleged victim's parents are currently in the midst of a custody battle. Sneddon wrote a letter to the judge in the custody proceedings requesting that the boy be kept from seeing his father. Why would the District Attorney care if the boy saw his father? What does this have to do with the molestation case? Perhaps Sneddon does not want the boy to change his story once he's no longer under the influence of his mother.

20. To date, Sneddon has obtained 69 search warrants, including warrants to search Jackson's bank statements, financial records and security boxes. Please tell me what evidence of child molestation does Sneddon hope to find in Jackson's financial records?

21. Eight months after arresting Michael Jackson, Sneddon has still failed to hand over all of his evidence to the defense. How are Jackson's attorneys supposed to prepare for the trial?

22. Court documents filed by the prosecution indicate that Sneddon sends his investigators to read fan discussion boards like MJJForum.

23. Sneddon took his case to a grand jury in order to avoid a public preliminary hearing. This is unfair to the Defendant.

24. The charges from the criminal complaint are completely different from the charges in the indictment. After the inconsistencies in Sneddon's case were brought to the attention of the public, the timeline of alleged abuse changed, the number of times the abuse allegedly occurred changed and allegations of kidnapping have suddenly materialized. Why is this?

25. Jackson’s defense team recently filed a 126-page motion asking for the indictment to be thrown out. The document states that during the grand jury proceedings, Sneddon bullied witnesses, failed to properly present exculpatory evidence, refused to let the jurors question the prosecution witnesses and provided the jurors with a false legal definition of the term “conspiracy” (for which Jackson was indicted). The motion says: "There is simply no evidence that Mr. Jackson had the specific intent to agree or conspire with anyone about anything."

26. The grand jury transcripts reveal that Sneddon allowed the accuser's mother to refer to Jackson as "the devil" when she testified.

27. Although she has never even met Michael Jackson, a woman who worked for him for 10 days was the prosecution's key witness to the alleged conspiracy. When she testified in front of the grand jury, she answered questions with: "I'm not sure," "I guess," "I assume," "I don't know exactly," and "I think." Sneddon allowed her to proceed even though she clearly had no knowledge of any alleged conspiracy.

28. A defense motion reveals that Sneddon used Jackson's preference for a clean household as evidence that he was the mastermind of a criminal conspiracy. Seriously. The motion reads: "It is simply not reasonable to infer that Mr. Jackson's preference for a well run household demonstrates the specific intent to commit crimes. Evidence that Mr. Jackson would complain to his staff when household chores were not done properly is not evidence that he was directing a criminal conspiracy."

29. While at a District Attorney's convention in Canada, Sneddon broke the gag order in the case and inadvertently revealed prosecutorial misconduct on his part. He told his fellow DAs that: "We sent letters to some people saying we intended to call them as witnesses in order to keep them off TV." As it turns out, a journalist from the Globe and Mail was at the conference and printed his comments in a newspaper. Sneddon's behaviour drew criticism from many legal experts who felt this was an abuse of power on Sneddon's part. Jackson's lawyers also brought Sneddon's comments to the attention of Judge Melville, asking him to clarify whether or not Sneddon had violated the gag order.

30. According to a motion filed by the defense, the amount of search warrants that have been given to them by the prosecution does not match the amount of search warrants that have actually been issued by the prosecution. Six search warrants are missing, 10 affidavits used to support the search warrants have been heavily redacted and 49 affidavits used to support the search warrants have not been given to the defense at all. What is Sneddon hiding?

31. Sneddon has been ordered to testify about his illegal raid of Bradley Miller's office. The accuser's mother, her former civil lawyer Bill Dickerman and the therapist who reported the allegations to the police have also been subpoenaed to testify. Sneddon tried to quash their subpoenas so that they would not have to appear in court; the judge denied his request.

According to the defense team: "There is no case in the history of the state of California that has condoned anything like the abuse of power demonstrated in this grand jury proceeding."

Sneddon's prosecutorial misconduct in the Michael Jackson case is not an isolated incident; in fact, several other people have accused him of malicious prosecution.



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