Officials desperate to nail Michael Jackson – USA Today

[b]Officials desperate to nail Michael Jackson [/b] Wickham, DeWayne. USA TODAY. McLean, Va.: Feb 7, 1994. pg. A12 LOS ANGELES – The child sex abuse case against Michael Jackson has taken a new – and ugly – turn. Prosecutors in Los Angeles and Santa Barbara counties are scrambling to salvage what’s left of their criminal investigations into sex abuse allegations against the pop music star. Los Angeles District Attorney Gil Garcetti urged state legislators last week to amend a law that now prohibits forcing people who say they have been sexually assaulted to testify in criminal proceedings. If passed, the change would take effect immediately and allow Garcetti to compel the 14-year-old boy with whom Jackson reached an out-of-court settlement last month to testify in any criminal trials growing out of his widely reported charge that the superstarsexually abused him. That would be a real act of legal brinksmanship. If the lawmakers give Garcetti the power he seeks and the boy – whose doctors say he needs to put this matter behind him – refuses to testify, what would he do? Send the boy to jail? Law enforcement officials in Santa Barbara County have taken a different – if no less desperate – approach in their pursuit of criminal charges against Jackson. Investigators from the county sheriff’s office recently arranged for the 13-year-old son of Jackson’s former maid to see a therapist. The boy was first interviewed by police after his mother told them he had spent time alone with Jackson. According to his mother, the child has repeatedly denied being abused in any way by the pop music star. The offer of a therapist was made after the woman, an immigrant from Central America, complained about meetings and phone conversations sheriff’s deputies had with the boy while she was not present. It made her “feel uncomfortable,” she said in a deposition, that she didn’t know what the deputies were talking about with the young boy. When she asked them “who should I talk to” about her concerns, they arranged for the woman and her son to see separate therapists at the county’s expense, she said in the sworn statement. Not surprisingly, a senior official of the Santa Barbara sheriff’s department told People magazine last week that the boy who brought the original sex abuse charge against Jackson “is not the only victim out there.” This week, a grand jury will be convened in Santa Barbara County to hear testimony concerning the Jackson case, and the bill Garcetti is pushing will be introduced in the state assembly. And the line between justice and injustice is getting harder and harder to find. [url=http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/USAToday/4175068.html?did=4175068&FMT=ABS&FMTS=&date=Feb+7,+1994&author=Wickham,+DeWayne&desc=Officials+desperate+to+nail+Michael+Jackson]http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/USAToday/4175068.html?did=4175068&FMT=ABS&FMTS=&date=Feb+7,+1994&author=Wickham,+DeWayne&desc=Officials+desperate+to+nail+Michael+Jackson[/url] [url=http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/USAToday/55227649.html?did=55227649&FMT=ABS&FMTS=FT&date=Feb+7%2C+1994&author=&desc=Officials+desperate+to+nail+Michael+Jackson]http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/USAToday/55227649.html?did=55227649&FMT=ABS&FMTS=FT&date=Feb+7%2C+1994&author=&desc=Officials+desperate+to+nail+Michael+Jackson[/url]