Judge rejects defence moves in Jackson case

THE judge in the Michael Jackson child abuse case has rejected a defence bid to throw out the charge in a ruling that for the first time publicly detailed the conspiracy charge against the pop star.

Judge Rodney Melville also turned down defence requests to exclude evidence seized from a private investigator’s office and Jackson’s Neverland Ranch estate north west of Santa Barbara.

Melville rejected defence arguments the indictment should be thrown out because of aggressive conduct by District Attorney Tom Sneddon during grand jury proceedings, insufficient evidence and flawed legal instructions given to jurors.

Melville said in his ruling the conspiracy charges against Jackson and others appeared to involve events that occurred following a February 2003 BBC television documentary in which Jackson said he lets children sleep in his bedroom.

Recapping the prosecution’s theory of events, the judge said in this ruling that Jackson and his advisers wanted to make a rebuttal video with the boy Jackson is accused of molesting, a young cancer patient who appeared in the original documentary.

Jackson invited the boy and his family to Miami, then “personally explained to the mother that her children were in danger” and urged her to cooperate with his filmmakers.

In the following days, the family was flown to Neverland, where the boy and his brother “were invited to sleep in the Jackson bedroom”.

The family’s movements were limited and their phone calls were monitored. The rebuttal video was filmed, and passports and visas were obtained for the family to travel to Brazil. Security personnel were given a written directive one of the children should not leave Neverland. Jackson has pleaded not guilty to child molestation, conspiracy and administering an intoxicating agent, alcohol.