Hamilton Spectator (Ontario, Canada)
January 28, 1994
Friday Final Edition
Jackson photos will clear him, source says; Settlement didn't end probe 

NEW YORK - Police photographs of Michael Jackson's genitals may end up being his salvation in avoiding criminal charges of child molestation, according to a source close to the pop star's camp.

The source said yesterday that the photographs don't tally with a description given to police by the 14-year-old boy who accused Jackson in a civil suit of sexually abusing him. Jackson, who wants to get the six-month-old matter behind him, agreed this week to settle the suit with the boy and his parents.

According to the source, the boy was paid $5 million to withdraw his suit and his parents received unspecified cash settlements. Prosecutors in Los Angeles said settlement of the civil suit did not end their investigation and lawyers for the boy said there was no provision in the settlement to bar him from testifying in a possible criminal case.

Lawyers both for Jackson and for the boy also said they wanted to get the case behind them and many outside legal experts took that as a sign that the boy would not testify in any future criminal proceeding.

Under California law, the decision as to whether to testify would be up to the boy. Jackson, in a four-minute televised speech last month, called the photographic session "the most humiliating ordeal" of his life.

Source: Lexis Nexis