Law change will prevent Jackson settlement

CHARGES against Michael Jackson won't be derailed by a settlement, a prosecutor says, and the reason is a law passed in response to the last time the pop singer was accused of molestation, when the accuser refused to testify.

"It is an irony," said Santa Barbara District Attorney Tom Sneddon.

"The history of the law is that the LA district attorney's office carried the legislation as a direct result of the civil settlement in the first investigation."

Sneddon baffled legal experts when he seemed to imply in a nationally televised news conference on Wednesday that the state law had changed since the 1993 case so that prosecutors could force minors to testify.

In that case, Jackson's alleged victim refused to testify against him after reportedly receiving a multimillion settlement from Jackson.

"The law in California at that time provided that a child victim could not be forced to testify in a child molest proceeding without their permission and consent and cooperation," Sneddon said.

"As a result of the (first) Michael Jackson case, the Legislature changed that law and that is no longer the law in California."

But Sneddon later said he was referring to a change that allow prosecutors to intervene in a civil action and stop it, removing the monetary incentive for someone to wait for the outcome of a civil case before they decide whether to testify in a criminal trial.

"The practical effect is that they cooperate with prosecutors in the criminal case", he said.

Sneddon said he was aware that children cannot be forced to testify, and that reporters and other attorneys had misinterpreted his remarks at the news conference.