Jackson fans gather for court appearance

Dozens of Michael Jackson’s fans pressed against a chain-link fence outside a California court today, staking out viewing spots hours before the pop star was to arrive to face the prosecutor who has pursued him for years on child molestation charges.

Some fans hoisted signs reading Our Love is With You and Michael Jackson is Innocent. A teenage girl wore a shirt reading Mrs Michael Jackson.

Though not required to attend, Jackson decided he wanted to be present for the confrontation with Santa Barbara County District Attorney Tom Sneddon.

He was expected to have company in the Santa Maria court, as well: his parents, Joseph and Katherine, and siblings including Janet, LaToya, Jermaine and Jackie.

On Sunday, Jackson made a surprise visit to Los Angeles’ pre-eminent black church, First AME, wearing a dark blue velvet jacket with a gold armband on one sleeve.

During a meeting with about 35 Sunday school students, Jackson was asked by one girl if the children could visit Jackson’s Neverland ranch, to which the pop star replied: “You’re welcome to come anytime.”

Today’s hearing was to focus on Sneddon’s actions in the weeks before charges were filed in the child molestation case.

The defence wants to show that Sneddon invaded the lawyer-client privilege between Jackson and his former lawyer when he conducted personal surveillance of a private investigator’s office.

The investigator, Bradley Miller, was not in his Beverly Hills office when Sneddon went there and photographed the building and its roster of occupants.

Santa Barbara County sheriff’s officials already have testified that they used a sledgehammer to break into Miller’s office and seize videotapes and files relating to the Jackson case. They maintain that they did not know Miller was employed by Jackson’s former lawyer, Mark Geragos.

The defence says any materials seized from Miller’s office should never see the light of day as evidence.

The seized materials are believed to be crucial to the prosecution case - among them, a videotape of Jackson’s 12-year-old accuser and his family praising the singer’s character.

Prosecutors claim the tape was made under duress, with Jackson holding the family prisoner at his Neverland ranch. Without the tape, a central theory of the case against Jackson would be severely undermined.

Jackson, 45, is charged with committing a lewd act upon a child, administering an intoxicating agent and conspiring to commit child abduction, false imprisonment and extortion. He has pleaded not guilty and is free on $3m (€2.4m) bail.

Ten years ago, Sneddon tried to build a child-molestation case against Jackson. But it fell apart when the singer’s accuser reportedly accepted a multi-million-dollar civil settlement and refused to testify in any criminal case.