Posted on 01/08/2005 6:21:21 PM PST by foolscap
SANTA MARIA, Calif. (AP) - Lawyers for Michael Jackson urged a judge to deny a prosecution request to present evidence of alleged past sexual offenses during the pop singer's upcoming child molestation trial. "This is the same 'evidence' that left two separate grand juries so unimpressed with the prosecution's 'case' that they did not return indictments," Jackson's lawyer, Robert Sanger, said in court documents released Friday.
Superior Court Judge Rodney Melville will hear arguments on the issue Wednesday.
In a motion released last month, prosecutors argued the evidence should be admitted under a 1995 California law that lets relevant previous acts, whether prosecuted or not, be considered in sex crime cases.
Prosecutors said the evidence would demonstrate Jackson's propensity for committing such crimes, his motive and intent. The evidence would also be used to bolster the credibility of the alleged victim and his family.
Jackson's attorneys said only one alleged past victim is scheduled to testify, although prosecutors claim at least seven prior sexual offenses took place.
"In place of the alleged victims, the prosecution intends to introduce the testimony of a collection of disgruntled former employees, paid tabloid informants, and other disreputable characters," Jackson's lawyers said in court documents.
Jackson, 46, has pleaded not guilty to charges of molestation, conspiracy and giving alcohol to his alleged victim at his Neverland Ranch in Santa Barbara County.
In a separate motion, Jackson's lawyers also asked the judge to bar the public from all remaining pretrial hearings on what evidence will be allowed at the trial, which is scheduled to begin Jan. 31.
Melville has issued a gag order that bars both sides from speaking about the case publicly. The judge has also sealed virtually all documents, including some 14,000 pages of evidence filed by prosecutors.
I can understand the gag order.........this POS pervert makes me want to.
I wonder if all those people that said they would still let their kids stay with jackson after he got busted, still think that way... Thos libs are a weirdos, i stay away from them.
Those people are insane, or looking to cash in. After the first payoff that screamed his guilt, any parent who allowed their child to stay with the pervert should have been looked into by social services.
.
...What's a Fella & Gal to do...
...with MICHAEL & HILLARY's...
...very own P.I.,
...ANTHONY PELLICANO,
...now sitting in Jail...
...for his possessing illegal...
...Hand Grenades and...
...C-4 Explosives..?
I wonder.
.
"...prosecutors claim at least seven prior sexual offenses took place."
Must just be a conspiracy of coincidences, your honor.
Who ever let him adopt those three children?
They aren't adopted. He is -- allegedly -- the father of all three, the first two from sham wife #2 Debbie Rowe, the dumpy, ditzy nurse that said that she married him to give him children "as a gift," and the third from an anonymous surrogate whom he claims used his donor sperm.
The third child, whom he legally named after his first son Prince Michael (what a creative genius) but nicknamed "Blanket," is as naturally pale as Jacko is artificially. He doesn't look as if Michael Jackson's DNA -- and thus those of his father, mother, and brothers -- has been passed along to him. Even if you want to believe Jacko's insistence that his case of vitiligo made him milky white all over with no assistance from cosmetic bleaching of his skin, the disease cannot alter genetics. IMHO, Blanket is white.
The first two are also white.
The adoption business in general needs some regulation. Jackson should not be allowed to pay some woman to have babies for him.
I have always thought that the DA really didn't want to put MJ on trial and just used the grand jury as CYA, see I tried, but the grand jury didn't buy it.
I don't believe anybody should -- Michael Jackson, Deidre Hall, anybody. I don't believe surrogate parenting is a "right." I think it's barely a step above prostitution.
I agree, great point.
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