First Report Cleared Jackson – NY Post

FIRST REPORT CLEARED JACKO NY Post By BARRY BORTNICK December 10, 2003 — LOS ANGELES – Cops and county social workers earlier this year cleared Michael Jackson of molesting the young boy now accusing him, a newly revealed document shows. An internal memo from the L.A. County Department of Children & Family Services, posted on the Internet yesterday, said their investigators and LAPD officers probed sex allegations against Jackson in February and determined them to be “unfounded.” The document said that when the child was questioned by a social worker, he “denied any form of sexual abuse” by Jackson. The boy also said he had never “slept in the same bed as the entertainer,” according to the memo. The document was posted on The Smoking Gun Web site and confirmed as authentic by Los Angeles officials. Jackson’s defense team said the memo exonerates the pop star against any charges that he molested the young cancer survivor at his sprawling Neverland Ranch. “The document reinforces what Mr. Jackson has said all along, that there is no merit to the allegations,” said Stuart Backerman, a spokesman for Jackson. But in a joint statement, Santa Barbara County Sheriff Jim Anderson and District Attorney Tom Sneddon said they knew about the document and even gave it to the judge who signed off on their search warrant on Jackson’s home. Deputies tore apart Neverland, looking for evidence, on Nov. 18, two days before they slapped handcuffs on Jackson. “Given what we know, we do not consider the [Los Angeles document] a significant factor,” the statement from Anderson and Sneddon. The self-proclaimed King of Pop turned himself in to authorities Nov. 20, posted $3 million bail and hasn’t been seen in public since. Defense lawyer Mark Geragos said the latest revelation could force Sneddon to postpone filing charges. “I’m hopeful that [filing charges] won’t happen,” Geragos said. Additional reporting by David K. Li & Howard Breuer Source: http://www.nypost.com/news/nationalnews/13076.htm