Thursday, November 20, 2003
The singer is expected to surrender to authorities.
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (AP) -- Authorities were still awaiting the arrival of Michael Jackson early today in this seaside community, where an arrest warrant alleging multiple counts of child molestation awaited the pop superstar.
Jackson's spokesman said Wednesday that the allegations are "scurrilous and totally unfounded."
Investigators waited for the singer at Santa Barbara's small airport Wednesday, along with a throng of press, but he did not appear. Jackson had left Las Vegas in his private jet Wednesday, but his whereabouts were unknown, according to newspaper reports.
He was expected to surrender to authorities as soon as today, and law enforcement officials said charges would be filed.
"Get over here and get checked in," District Attorney Thomas W. Sneddon Jr. advised Jackson at a press conference broadcast worldwide. Jackson was directed to give up his passport and his arrest warrant set bail at $3 million, authorities said.
Jackson spokesman Stuart Backerman said Jackson had arranged to travel to the Santa Barbara "to confront and prove these charges unfounded."
Search warrant served
The 45-year-old singer was in Las Vegas when dozens of law enforcement agents swarmed his Neverland Ranch compound Tuesday to serve a search warrant.
Jackson left Las Vegas in his private jet Wednesday, according to reports in today's editions of the Los Angeles Times and Santa Barbara News-Press. He was escorted by Santa Barbara County deputy sheriffs to his own jet and flew from a private terminal at the McCarran International Airport, according to an airport security guard the Times did not name. The News-Press said Jackson's pilot had not filed a flight plan and neither newspaper reported where the jet was headed.
Jackson is charged by the state with lewd or lascivious acts with a child under age 14, punishable by three to eight years in prison, law enforcement officials said.
Backerman said Jackson will be represented by attorney Mark Geragos, who is defending Scott Peterson against charges he murdered his wife, Laci, and their unborn child.
"The outrageous allegations against Michael Jackson are false. Michael would never harm a child in any way. These scurrilous and totally unfounded allegations will be proven false in a courtroom," Backerman said in a statement.
Earlier allegations
Similar allegations surfaced against Jackson a decade ago, but they never led to the filing of criminal charges and in 1994 the probe became inactive. Jackson had maintained his innocence but reportedly paid a multimillion-dollar civil settlement, and the child would not testify in any criminal proceeding.
Sneddon said this case was different because he had a cooperative victim and because of a change in state law "specifically because of the 1993-94 Michael Jackson investigation."
Sneddon told the press conference multiple counts would be filed against Jackson "in a very short period of time," and noted that no civil case has been filed and none is expected, unlike 1993.
Sneddon would not say when or where the reported crimes took place or how old the child was. He said an affidavit outlining the details will be sealed for 45 days.
But Brian Oxman, an attorney who has represented the Jackson family over the years, told CBS that the case involves the reported molestation of a 12-year-old boy at Neverland Ranch, the storybook playground where the singer has been known to hold sleepover parties with children. Oxman is not representing Jackson.
In a statement Tuesday, Jackson noted that the allegations surfaced the same day a new greatest hits CD, "Number Ones," was released, but the district attorney dismissed any connection to the album's release.
"Like the sheriff and I are really into that kind of music," Sneddon said.
On Wednesday, CBS pulled a Jackson music special planned for next Wednesday on his greatest hits and the impact on pop culture of the former child star who got his start with his brothers as a member of the singing-and-dancing Jackson 5.
The singer had international hits with the albums "Thriller" (1982), "Bad" (1987) and "Dangerous" (1991), but saw his career begin to collapse after the 1993 allegations.
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