Bad blood between Jackson and prosecutor boils for decade

THE bad blood between pop star Michael Jackson and the prosecutor who has filed child molesting charges against him goes back more than a decade.

It even spawned a song in which Jackson calls Santa Barbara County district attorney Tom Sneddon a “cold man”.

Ten years ago Mr Sneddon tried to put together a child-molesting case against Jackson. But it fell apart when the singer’s accuser reportedly accepted a multimillion-dollar civil settlement and refused to testify in any criminal case.

Mr Sneddon “believed Jackson to be guilty of the first offence, and given Tom’s personality, he would not let go of that”, retired Superior Court Judge, James Slater, who handled portions of the 1993 case, said.

“He would certainly be thinking back on the last time when Mr Jackson walked away from the judge,” he said.

Mr Sneddon said a new law that allows prosecutors to halt civil suits during related criminal cases should prevent a recurrence of the 1993 scenario.

Mr Sneddon, however, rejected suggestions that he had a vendetta against Jackson or timed the arrest to coincide with the release of Jackson’s latest album, a greatest-hits collection.

“When that 1993 case went to bed it went out of my mind. I haven’t given it a passing thought,” he said.

Still, some observers said Mr Sneddon, a prosecutor for 34 years, appeared to be grandstanding at the news conference and seemed to take delight in announcing a warrant for Jackson’s arrest had been issued.

“It was baffling, perplexing and it didn’t have a particularly serious tone,” said Laurie Levenson, a professor at Loyola University Law School.

During the earlier investigation, Mr Sneddon ordered photographs taken of Jackson’s genitalia. At the time, Mr Sneddon told Vanity Fair the photos matched descriptions of Jackson’s genitalia given by boys to investigators.

The ordeal was the inspiration of a 1995 song titled DS that Jackson included on his HIStory album.

Meanwhile, the singer’s well-known celebrity attorney Mark Geragos, who is also representing accused double murderer Scott Peterson in another sensational case, denied the molestation allegations on behalf of his client. “He is greatly outraged by the bringing of these charges,” said Mr Geragos. “He considers this to be a big lie.”

Jackson’s booking photo, released by authorities and available at www.sbsheriff.org, showed a wide-eyed and pale Jackson with bright red lips and arched eyebrows staring into the camera.

Jackson’s brother, Jermaine, denounced the allegations in a TV interview.

After leaving California, the entertainer, who has three young children, arrived at a Las Vegas-area airport, where what appeared to be three children covered by blankets were carried aboard his plane by assistants.

They were then carried off and Jackson exited the plane as well.

Michael X Dean, deputy director of Santa Barbara County Social Services, declined to say whether there were plans to take Jackson’s children into protective custody, citing confidentiality rules.

If convicted Jackson could face three to eight years for a single count of molestation and two years each for any subsequent count.