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http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-jackson30.html
Chicago Sun Time
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November 30, 2003
BY CHRIS FUSCO Staff Reporter
Yes, he is a baby-dangling, crotch-grabbing, plastic-surgery-overhauled celebrity. Yes, he has said he enjoys sleeping next to children at a place called Neverland.
But don't call the King of Pop a criminal. It's too early for that.
With each passing day, the child-molestation case against Michael Jackson appears to grow weaker, though that could be because his lawyers have been trumpeting his innocence on the Internet and through the same mass media that have labeled their client a freak.
Jackson's lead counsel, Mark Geragos, says his accuser's family is gold-digging. He's piggybacking off news reports that this is the third time the boy's mother has raised allegations of physical or sexual abuse in court.
Also, a lawyer for the boy's father in his parents' divorce case said last week that the woman had a "Svengali-like" ability to make her children repeat her lies.
The boy's family has filed no civil suit against Jackson, but "if anybody doesn't think based upon what's happened so far that the true motivation of these charges and these allegations is anything but money . . . then they're living in their own Neverland," Geragos said. "Michael Jackson is not going to be slammed."
"His lawyer is coming on very, very strong. As a result, it leads me to think he's got something," said Leonard L. Cavise, a DePaul College of Law professor who specializes in criminal procedure and evidence. "He's not just sitting back. He's saying this guy's a victim."
"What we don't know is what, if anything, that the prosecution and the sheriff's office recovered from Michael Jackson's home," said Richard Kling, a Chicago-Kent College of Law professor and practicing criminal-defense attorney. "If there's no additional evidence, the prosecutor is in a lot of trouble."
A bizarre case so far
Jackson, 45, celebrated Thanksgiving at an undisclosed location after posting $3 million bail Nov. 20 for his arrest for engaging in lewd or lascivious conduct with a child younger than 14. Since then, the Santa Barbara County district attorney's office has declined to comment, saying it will do so only after it files formal charges against the Gary, Ind., native. Those charges are expected before Christmas.
The prosecution's silence has let a swirl of reports about Jackson's accuser's family surface in newspapers and on television. The boy reportedly has cancer, which sparked Jackson to befriend him.
In November 2001, J.C. Penney Co. paid the boy's family $137,500 to settle a lawsuit that accused company security guards of beating the boy, his mother and his brother in a parking lot after a boy left a J.C. Penney store with clothes that hadn't been paid for, the Associated Press reported. The mother also accused a security guard of sexually assaulting her during the incident, which happened in 1998.
A month before the settlement, the boy's mother filed for divorce and accused his father of child abuse. Russell Halpern, the father's attorney, told the AP that the mother lied and that the father once showed him a script she allegedly had written for her children to use in a deposition.
That information -- combined with the background that Jackson paid a reported multimillion-dollar settlement in a 1993 case involving similar sex-abuse allegations -- could help the star in court.
"This cuts to the credibility of the accuser and the accuser's family," said DePaul's Cavise. "In most sexual abuse cases -- absent physical evidence, DNA or injury to sexual organs -- it's usually the case where it's the word of the victim and whatever the victim has told his or her parents or his crisis counselors."
A judge would need to decide that the information about the boy's mother is relevant for it to be presented in court, which could prove challenging -- but not impossible -- for Jackson's lawyers.
"If there's a pattern to their fabrication of claims, then that pattern could easily be admissible," Cavise said.
Kling, the Kent professor, acknowledges that the information raises more questions about the accusations, but he isn't sure it's Jackson's silver bullet.
Also, the boy's father could pose credibility problems if Jackson opts to use him to discredit his wife. He was sentenced to domestic-violence counseling after pleading no contest to charges that he beat her. He also has pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of willful cruelty to a child in an incident involving his daughter, Newsweek reported.
"I don't see a pattern of frivolous lawsuits; I see a dysfunctional family," Kling said. "Certainly there's a lot of potential fodder for cross-examination, but the two suits have nothing to do with sexual abuse [involving the boy]. They show a lack of normal functioning on the part of his mom."
Kling said "he would be smiling a lot" right now if he were Jackson's attorney, but "until such time that we see what the evidence is," you just don't know.
It only gets weirder
Jackson's accuser, according to Newsweek and People magazines, appeared in a British documentary with Jackson in which the singer admitted sleeping in his bed at Neverland with children in a nonsexual manner.
The boy met Jackson a few years ago with the help of Jamie Masada, a Los Angeles comedy club owner who runs a camp to teach needy kids about comedy. At that point, Masada said doctors were giving the boy, now believed to be 13, only a few weeks to live. Meeting Jackson was one of his dreams.
The allegations against Jackson were related by the boy to a therapist, who was required by law to notify authorities.
Masada said last week that the cancer-stricken teen is seriously ill again. He has only one kidney and is awaiting a transplant because his remaining kidney is failing.
The boy's poor health adds yet another level of bizarreness to the case. If it goes to trial, Kling predicts a three-ring circus that could make the murder trial of O.J. Simpson "look like a Sunday school kindergarten class."
Jackson's Web site, both Cavise and Kling said, is an indicator that Jackson's defense team is trying to sway a potential jury that undoubtedly will bring preconceived notions about him into court.
"If this case went to trial tomorrow, I don't think you could possibly find a fair jury," Cavise said. "If the guy's public profile is killing him right now, it's part of his lawyer's job to change that."
Jackson says on mjnews.us that he's trying to avoid the spotlight.
"We will not engage in speculation," he writes. "We will not provide running commentary on every new development or allegation dujour. We intend to try our case in the courtroom, not in the public or the media."
A gag order could go out soon, temporarily ending all chatter by key players. But until it's all over, "there's nothing that's going to be usual about this case because it's Michael Jackson," Kling said.
Chicago Sun Time
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
November 30, 2003
BY CHRIS FUSCO Staff Reporter
Yes, he is a baby-dangling, crotch-grabbing, plastic-surgery-overhauled celebrity. Yes, he has said he enjoys sleeping next to children at a place called Neverland.
But don't call the King of Pop a criminal. It's too early for that.
With each passing day, the child-molestation case against Michael Jackson appears to grow weaker, though that could be because his lawyers have been trumpeting his innocence on the Internet and through the same mass media that have labeled their client a freak.
Jackson's lead counsel, Mark Geragos, says his accuser's family is gold-digging. He's piggybacking off news reports that this is the third time the boy's mother has raised allegations of physical or sexual abuse in court.
Also, a lawyer for the boy's father in his parents' divorce case said last week that the woman had a "Svengali-like" ability to make her children repeat her lies.
The boy's family has filed no civil suit against Jackson, but "if anybody doesn't think based upon what's happened so far that the true motivation of these charges and these allegations is anything but money . . . then they're living in their own Neverland," Geragos said. "Michael Jackson is not going to be slammed."
"His lawyer is coming on very, very strong. As a result, it leads me to think he's got something," said Leonard L. Cavise, a DePaul College of Law professor who specializes in criminal procedure and evidence. "He's not just sitting back. He's saying this guy's a victim."
"What we don't know is what, if anything, that the prosecution and the sheriff's office recovered from Michael Jackson's home," said Richard Kling, a Chicago-Kent College of Law professor and practicing criminal-defense attorney. "If there's no additional evidence, the prosecutor is in a lot of trouble."
A bizarre case so far
Jackson, 45, celebrated Thanksgiving at an undisclosed location after posting $3 million bail Nov. 20 for his arrest for engaging in lewd or lascivious conduct with a child younger than 14. Since then, the Santa Barbara County district attorney's office has declined to comment, saying it will do so only after it files formal charges against the Gary, Ind., native. Those charges are expected before Christmas.
The prosecution's silence has let a swirl of reports about Jackson's accuser's family surface in newspapers and on television. The boy reportedly has cancer, which sparked Jackson to befriend him.
In November 2001, J.C. Penney Co. paid the boy's family $137,500 to settle a lawsuit that accused company security guards of beating the boy, his mother and his brother in a parking lot after a boy left a J.C. Penney store with clothes that hadn't been paid for, the Associated Press reported. The mother also accused a security guard of sexually assaulting her during the incident, which happened in 1998.
A month before the settlement, the boy's mother filed for divorce and accused his father of child abuse. Russell Halpern, the father's attorney, told the AP that the mother lied and that the father once showed him a script she allegedly had written for her children to use in a deposition.
That information -- combined with the background that Jackson paid a reported multimillion-dollar settlement in a 1993 case involving similar sex-abuse allegations -- could help the star in court.
"This cuts to the credibility of the accuser and the accuser's family," said DePaul's Cavise. "In most sexual abuse cases -- absent physical evidence, DNA or injury to sexual organs -- it's usually the case where it's the word of the victim and whatever the victim has told his or her parents or his crisis counselors."
A judge would need to decide that the information about the boy's mother is relevant for it to be presented in court, which could prove challenging -- but not impossible -- for Jackson's lawyers.
"If there's a pattern to their fabrication of claims, then that pattern could easily be admissible," Cavise said.
Kling, the Kent professor, acknowledges that the information raises more questions about the accusations, but he isn't sure it's Jackson's silver bullet.
Also, the boy's father could pose credibility problems if Jackson opts to use him to discredit his wife. He was sentenced to domestic-violence counseling after pleading no contest to charges that he beat her. He also has pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of willful cruelty to a child in an incident involving his daughter, Newsweek reported.
"I don't see a pattern of frivolous lawsuits; I see a dysfunctional family," Kling said. "Certainly there's a lot of potential fodder for cross-examination, but the two suits have nothing to do with sexual abuse [involving the boy]. They show a lack of normal functioning on the part of his mom."
Kling said "he would be smiling a lot" right now if he were Jackson's attorney, but "until such time that we see what the evidence is," you just don't know.
It only gets weirder
Jackson's accuser, according to Newsweek and People magazines, appeared in a British documentary with Jackson in which the singer admitted sleeping in his bed at Neverland with children in a nonsexual manner.
The boy met Jackson a few years ago with the help of Jamie Masada, a Los Angeles comedy club owner who runs a camp to teach needy kids about comedy. At that point, Masada said doctors were giving the boy, now believed to be 13, only a few weeks to live. Meeting Jackson was one of his dreams.
The allegations against Jackson were related by the boy to a therapist, who was required by law to notify authorities.
Masada said last week that the cancer-stricken teen is seriously ill again. He has only one kidney and is awaiting a transplant because his remaining kidney is failing.
The boy's poor health adds yet another level of bizarreness to the case. If it goes to trial, Kling predicts a three-ring circus that could make the murder trial of O.J. Simpson "look like a Sunday school kindergarten class."
Jackson's Web site, both Cavise and Kling said, is an indicator that Jackson's defense team is trying to sway a potential jury that undoubtedly will bring preconceived notions about him into court.
"If this case went to trial tomorrow, I don't think you could possibly find a fair jury," Cavise said. "If the guy's public profile is killing him right now, it's part of his lawyer's job to change that."
Jackson says on mjnews.us that he's trying to avoid the spotlight.
"We will not engage in speculation," he writes. "We will not provide running commentary on every new development or allegation dujour. We intend to try our case in the courtroom, not in the public or the media."
A gag order could go out soon, temporarily ending all chatter by key players. But until it's all over, "there's nothing that's going to be usual about this case because it's Michael Jackson," Kling said.
) pero un pequeñísimo resumen: 
