If they thought it was an open-and-shut case, prosecutors investigating child abuse allegations against Michael Jackson got it badly wrong. Just 10 days after the heavily publicised police raid on the singer’s Neverland ranch, the inquiry has hit several embarrassing snags.
While the lurid story still dominates tabloid headlines, Jackson’s camp has scored notable victories in a public relations offensive. As both sides gear up for a long battle, it seems the star may even have won round one.
Tom Sneddon, the Santa Barbara district attorney in charge of the case, had to apologise for referring to Jackson publicly as ”Wacko Jacko” and welcoming reporters covering the case for the money they will bring to the Californian economy.
”I knew as soon as I said it, it was inappropriate. It was unprofessional,” he said.
The Jackson camp accuses him of mounting a decade-long vendetta against the singer after the collapse of a 1993 child abuse case following a multimillion-dollar payoff to the alleged victim.
Sneddon denies any personal spite, but his climbdown was humiliating.
”If my mom was still alive she would take me to task for not being a good person,” the DA said.
The apology was only the beginning. It has emerged that the alleged victim went to see a therapist — whom he told that he had been abused — only after his family had already contacted a lawyer linked to the 1993 case. The lawyer helped put them in touch with police.
Perhaps most damaging of all are reports of an audio tape on which the child and his relatives praise Jackson and say he never ”acted inappropriately” towards the boy.
Jackson’s side has played a skilful media game, letting only Kimberly Guilfoyle Newsom, a CNN legal pundit, hear the tape.
Newsom said that on the tape the alleged victim, his brother and their mother all praise the singer effusively as a father figure, saying they were blessed to have him in their lives. The tape was recorded last February after the alleged abuse.
Newsom said the Jackson source who played it to her said the boy’s mother and the alleged victim had signed an affidavit that Jackson had never abused the child.
Ugly details have emerged of the home life of the boy, a 12-year-old cancer sufferer. His family pursued two abuse-related lawsuits in the past, once winning more than $137 000 in damages.
That case occurred after the family said they were assaulted by security guards at a department store after the child left with clothes he had not paid for. His mother told a court then that one guard had sexually assaulted her. Charges were dropped and a settlement paid.
The boy’s father has previously admitted domestic abuse. The couple had a bitter divorce in which the mother claimed her husband harmed her and was guilty of spousal abuse and child cruelty. The father accused her in turn of making the children lie.
Amid all the leaks, accusations and dirt digging, a sophisticated game is being played as each side tries to control the flow of information to an insatiable media.
The press are playing dirty too. The FBI has launched an investigation into how Jackson and his flamboyant lawyer Mark Geragos were secretly videotaped on board a private jet as Jackson flew from Santa Barbara to Las Vegas after his arrest.
Geragos said he had sued the plane’s owners, XtraJet, for placing cameras on board. The incident prompted one of the few comments nearly everyone agrees on.
”New lows are being hit daily in the case,” said Jackson’s spokesperson, Stuart Backerman.
Jackson’s robust defence and his hounding by the tabloids have won him the support of celebrities, many of whom see a racial element in the case, including rappers P Diddy and LL Cool J and R&B diva Alicia Keys. Civil rights leader Jesse Jackson has attacked Jackson’s treatment by the media.
If Jackson’s camp, operating from a hotel in Las Vegas, has come out with guns blazing, the prosecution remains convinced it has a firm case.
After saying they would charge Jackson this week, the prosecutors now signal this will not happen until at least mid-December, giving Sneddon more time to examine evidence from Neverland. Experts say the charge sheet should be far more detailed as a result of the extra time.
Sneddon has appealed for other witnesses and possible victims to come forward, Thousands of people have phoned with tips and information, and the investigators say that they are working on about 100 serious new leads. — Guardian Unlimited Â