Defense drops bombshell, Katz commits perjury on the stand? – CNN

Sources: Threats made against Jackson [b]Defense drops bombshell[/b] From Miguel Marquez and Dree deClamecy CNN Tuesday, August 17, 2004 Posted: 5:14 PM EDT (2114 GMT) Did D.A. Tom Sneddon violate Jackson’s lawyer-client privilege? SANTA MARIA, California (CNN) — Threats made against pop star Michael Jackson prompted authorities to maintain a heightened alert for the singer’s court appearance, sources close to the case told CNN Tuesday. The nature of the threats had to do with inflicting bodily harm on the singer, CNN has learned. The Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department refused to discuss details of the alleged threats that led to Monday’s alert. Jackson attended the hearing Monday that focused on the actions of Santa Barbara County District Attorney Tom Sneddon in the weeks before child molestation charges were filed against Jackson. Jackson did not return to the Santa Barbara County courthouse Tuesday. At issue is the defense’s claim that Sneddon violated attorney-client privilege between Jackson and his former attorney, Mark Geragos, when he conducted a search of the office of a private investigator. The defense claims the prosecutor knew or should have known that the investigator, Brad Miller, was working for Geragos at the time of the search. As a result, the defense wants any information obtained in the search of Miller’s office thrown out. Sneddon maintains he did not know that Miller was directly employed by Geragos. Investigator on why they went to office Tuesday, Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s investigator Jeff Klapakis, the lead investigator on the Jackson case since February 2003, testified that the sheriff’s department did not know that Miller worked for Geragos, but was interested in finding out for whom he did work. “It dawned on no one … that Mr. Miller was an investigator hired by an attorney, namely Mr. Geragos?” asked Jackson defense attorney Steve Cochran. “That is correct,” Klapakis responded. The investigator said the department sought search warrants for Miller’s office because the mother of the alleged victim, identified as Jane Doe, claimed that some items belonging to her may be there. Klapakis said the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department didn’t notify police in Beverly Hills, where Miller’s office was located, about the warrants, fearing there would be a leak and the private investigator would remove the items authorities were searching for. Among the items taken from Miller’s office when authorities served the search warrant were a videotape and letters. The defense wants those items to be excluded from the admissible evidence at trial. Therapist’s connection to investigator Another tangle in the case came when Dr. Stan Katz took the stand Tuesday. Katz was the psychologist who interviewed the alleged victim and concluded that molestation had taken place. The boy and his family had been referred to Katz by attorney Larry Feldman, who also referred another boy and his parents to the doctor in the 1993 molestation allegations against Jackson. The singer settled those previous allegations with a nearly $20 million settlement, and no charges were ever filed. Katz testified under questioning by Brian Oxman, a Jackson family attorney, that the first time he had heard of Miller was in a meeting with Feldman in June 2003. “He just mentioned that an investigator named Brad Miller had made a videotape of the minor children,” Katz said. He said the next time he had heard Miller’s name was in the media, in stories about a break-in at the investigator’s office. Oxman then dropped a bombshell. “Bradley Miller is a very special patient of yours, isn’t he, Dr. Katz?” Oxman asked. Katz claimed doctor-patient privilege and said he couldn’t discuss any of his patients. He then admitted that he knew Miller because he had worked on family law cases with the investigator. Defense attorneys also want to question Jane Doe, the alleged victim’s mother, in this hearing, but the prosecution told Judge Rodney Melville on Tuesday the woman could not appear in court until the end of September due to complications from a C-section she underwent to deliver a baby July 27. Melville said such a delay was “unsatisfactory to our timeline.” Also, Jackson attorney Thomas Mesereau Jr. told the judge that he must appear in Alabama the last two weeks of September for a death penalty case. Melville already moved the projected start of the trial from September to the end of January 2005. Jackson, 45, has pleaded not guilty to child molestation. The singer is charged with seven counts of performing lewd or lascivious acts on a child under 14 and two counts of administering an intoxicating agent, reportedly wine. Source: http://www.cnn.com/2004/LAW/08/17/jackson.case/