Posted by Substantial Amount of Exonerating Evidence?-MJEOL Bullet #119 Michael Jacksons lawyers came to court yesterday (April 2), prepared and ready to fight against these current allegations. Indeed, it was a good day for the defense. They won concessions to the gag order, they were awarded access to very important documents, and they came into court with binders of exonerating evidence with 100 items which points towards Jacksons innocence. According to the AP, Attorney Ben Brafman told Judge Rodney Melville that he and co-counsel Mark Geragos are turning over this information for the grand jury. Listed among those 100 items was info about psychiatric reports, reportedly from a lawsuit involving the accuser and his family, along with the accusers school records. Brafman told the court:
There is a wealth of clearly exculpatory material We are filing today 20 notebooks with the district attorneys office
Exculpatory material, of course, is proof that tends to point towards a defendants innocence. The prosecution is obligated to present this info to the grand jury. One of the complaints from the defense, however, is that Sneddon wasnt presenting any exculpatory info to the grand jury in a timely fashion. And remember, this is only what the defense is letting the prosecution see at this point. There is no telling what kind of bombshell information they are sitting on for a possible trial. Among the information were documents related to the JCPenney case in which the family sued the store for $3million. If you remember, the attorney representing JCPenney in a case against the family had some incredibly devastating information which greatly damages the accuser and his familys credibility. That attorney, Tom Griffin, was interviewed by NBCs Mike Taibbi concerning the lawsuit. Griffin calls what the mother did to JCPenney a shakedown. What was a small altercation with security-after some of the family members were actually caught outside of the store with an arm full of shoplifted clothesturned into a $3million lawsuit (see Video). During that case, the family claimed they were beaten severely in broad daylight by security to the extent where they all had broken bones. As of now, it is unknown if any medical records exist of the familys alleged beating by security. From the number of documents obtained by NBC, it would seem there was a substantial amount of information gathered by JCPenneys defense team in that case. During this investigation, Griffin says:
It became readily apparent that this case was an incident in my opinion, a scam, to extract money from JCPenney.
What may have sparked Griffins suspicions is the fact that the family, two years after filing the initial lawsuit, suddenly claimed the mother was sexually fondled in her breast and pelvic area for approx. 7 minutes by the guard(s) during the altercation. She didnt report any of this to the police or claim it happened at the time. Maybe she just forgot? I dont think so. Ultimately the suit was settled out of court for $137,000, a far cry from the $3million for which they were suing. The father has also said some very damaging things about the accusers mother in reference to the power she has over her children. According to his attorney, Russ Halpern, the father showed him proofa script written in the mothers handwritingthat the mother had coached her children to lie during that JCPenney case. If there is proof of this, it would be devastating to the prosecutions case since one of the allegations against the family is that the mother coaches her children to lie. No doubt Jacksons lawyers want the jury to be made aware of these issues. And this lawsuit may only be a few of the 100 points of information contained in the binders. Attorney James LaChance, who represented Tower Recordsanother store the accusing family suedwas also in court. That lawsuit too has been settled, but not before the attorney gathered a significant amount of data on the family including psychiatric records and school records. LaChance was subpoenaed by the defense and needed a court order allowing him to turn over this information to the defense, which Melville granted yesterday (see Jackson Attorney Wants to Present Evidence ). Brafman also complained that the prosecution was dragging its feet in handing over important information such as the unedited search warrants. Apparently, the prosecution still has yet to turn over all search warrant material to the defense. In fact, the defense says if they dont get this information soon, it could be grounds for the defense to move to throw out any indictment that may be handed down from the grand jury. This new report also slaps down the pro-prosecution pundits who claim it is the defense whom are dragging this case out, when clearly its the prosecution being oddly slow at turning over highly pertinent information. It has been over 4 months since Jacksons house was ransacked by police and the defense still hasnt seen the search warrants. It seems highly suspicious that the prosecution has failed to turn over this information. One has to wonder what other information is contained within the documents the defense wants presented to the grand jury. This substantial amount of exonerating information in its totality would be something the grand jury will weigh against the words of family members who have cleared Jackson, more than once, from the very allegations that they levied only after being financially cut-off from the Jackson gravy train. Stay tuned. -MJEOL