Police Lied to Young Children During 1993 Investigation?

REDEMPTION by Geraldine Hughes (Excerpt) 3.7 The Child Molestation Investigation – …Once the news of the investigation surfaced, it was quickly known that the tabloids were paying big bucks for anyone to come forth with any information, whether true or not. People began to come out of the woodwork with so-called eye witness stories of inappropriate behavior. None of this information was reported prior to the allegations being made public.

Allegedly the Los Angeles Police Department proved to be the greatest leak of confidential documents from the Department of Children’s Services, which contained the details of the child molestation allegations.

The police investigation was reportedly attempting to dig up witnesses, even at the cost of lying to the boys they interviewed. Michael Jackson’s then attorney, Bertram Fields, wrote a letter to Police Chief Willie Williams advising him, “That your officers have told frightened youngsters outrageous lies, such as, ‘we have nude photos of you,’ to push them into making accusations against Michael Jackson. There are, of course, no such photos of these youngsters, and they have no truthful allegations to make. But the officers appeared ready to employ any device to generate potential evidence against Mr. Jackson” Chief Williams’ response was a standard not-willing-to-admit-guilt answer, “We stand behind our officers”

After a long and costly investigation, which produced no evidence, the police resorted to even more desperate measures. On March 17 1994, Katherine Jackson, Michael Jackson’s mother, was subpoenaed to testify before the grand jury in Los Angeles.

…Howard Weitzman stated, “In all the years of my experience, I’ve never before seen the mother of the target of an investigation called before the grand jury. It’s just done in real poor taste. It borders on harassment.”

Another of Michael Jackson’s attorneys, Richard Steingard, stated to the press, “A prosecutor attempting or trying to use a mother against a son, a parent against a child is just wholly inappropriate and even more so inappropriate in this case because Mrs. Jackson has repeatedly and publicly denounced the allegations and insisted that her son was innocent.”

Thomas Sneddon, District Attorney from the Santa Barbara County, and Gil Garcetti, District Attorney from the Los Angeles County, launched separate investigations into the child molestation allegations.

Although, the investigation actively lasted for approximately 13 months and remained open for six years, neither Mr. Sneddon nor Mr. Garcetti were able to make a case against Michael Jackson.

Mr. Garcetti blamed it on the little boy’s refusal to testify after reaching a settlement. Although it is a well known fact that if they had more than one witness who could testify to sexual wrongdoings by Michael Jackson, they would have indicted Michael Jackson. As often happens in high profile case, too much taxpayer money was spent and the police needed justification because of it.

After coming up empty handed, Garcetti sought to change the California law that does not require juveniles to testify in sex abuse cases. Simply put, the only witness he had against Michael Jackson was the little boy, and because of the then state laws, he could not be forced to testify.

…Mr. Garcetti appeared to be very single-minded in his manner of pursuit of trying to indict Michael Jackson on the charge of child molestation. I am not criticizing Mr. Garcetti’s approach of pursuit, but in the interest of justice, there has to be an equal manner of pursuit to protect innocent parties from being framed or railroaded into being charged with offenses they did not commit.

This was unfortunate to me because when it came to the investigation of extortion, Mr. Garcetti’s office did not provide the same manner of pursuit to Michael Jackson as it did for Dr. Chandler. Obvious facts were overlooked—I was an employee of Mr. Rothman’s office and no one from Mr. Garcetti’s office subpoenaed me to investigate the extortion charge.

Not being able to indict Michael Jackson after such a heated pursuit was an embarrassment to the District Attorney’s office. It appeared to many as if Mr. Garcetti was waging a personal vendetta against Michael Jackson. The District Attorney’s office spent millions of tax payer’s dollars trying to indict him of the charge of child abuse.

 

from Redemption by Geraldine Hughes (pgs 90-92) You can order you copy of Redemption directly from the Publisher here: Ajalon Press (Note: It only took 8 days for me to receive my copy ordering directly from the publisher.) You can also DEMAND that Barnes and Noble carry the book in your local store. Your Comments?