Prosecutors Concede Accuser’s Mother KNEW Miller was defense atty. PI ?

Posted on Wed, Sep. 15, 2004 [b]Hearings will include face-off between Jackson, alleged victim’s mother[/b] TIM MOLLOY Associated Press LOS ANGELES – Michael Jackson’s attorneys will challenge the admissibility of evidence seized from his Neverland Ranch and a detective’s office when they arrive in court for a two-day hearing that will also include testimony from the mother of a boy Jackson is charged with molesting. Beginning Thursday, defense attorneys will argue that prosecutors and law enforcement overstepped their bounds in the searches. The boy’s mother is to take the stand Friday and face questions about whether she knew private investigator Bradley Miller was working for former Jackson attorney Mark Geragos when his office was searched. Jackson, 46, has pleaded not guilty to child molestation, conspiracy, and administering an intoxicating agent, alcohol. Authorities say he indicated he will be in court when the boy’s mother testifies. In a case where even routine filings or hearings are often steeped in secrecy, reporters got a rare look at the defense’s strategy late Monday when Robert Sanger, one of Jackson’s attorneys, accidentally e-mailed an attorney for news agencies a motion he planned to file under seal, which would have kept it out of the public eye. The motion also included the name of the accuser’s mother – which is known to reporters, though prosecutors publicly call her “Jane Doe” – as well as arguments against a prosecution effort to limit her testimony. [b]Defense attorneys say the mother and prosecutors knew or should have known that Miller worked for Geragos and that his office should not have been searched because of the attorney-client privilege of confidentiality. “(The mother’s) communications with law enforcement regarding Mr. Miller is a critical issue in the hearings before this court. She met with Mr. Miller and later provided an account of those meetings to the government,” Sanger said in the motion. “The prosecution concedes that (she) was expressly informed that Mr. Miller worked for Mr. Geragos.” The motion also said the mother had a private, unrecorded meeting with Santa Barbara County District Attorney Thomas Sneddon.[/b] The motion noted that prosecutors had objected to broad questioning, saying defense attorneys “should not be allowed to aggressively cross-examine a witness on entirely collateral matters under any circumstance.” The defense responded that it had the right to question the mother about issues that might raise questions about her credibility. Santa Maria police Lt. Chris Vaughn said court officials have notified officers that Jackson, who is not required to attend most court proceedings, plans to be in the courtroom during the mother’s testimony. He also attended in August when Sneddon testified about the search of Miller’s office. It will be a tense reunion for Jackson and the woman, who allowed her children to stay repeatedly at the singer’s Neverland Ranch during a once-close friendship. Her former attorney, Michael Manning, told The Associated Press in November that the woman once told him Jackson was “really good to us.” But she told a grand jury earlier this year that Jackson was “the devil.” On Friday, the court released the prosecution’s response to a defense request that several of the items taken in a search of Neverland not be admitted into evidence. Defense attorneys said they were improperly taken. Prosecutors listed dozens of items and where on the property they were found to argue that they were in plain sight and relevant to the case. The items included computers, paperwork, a calendar and tapes, but the prosecution’s motion was heavily redacted to remove details about them. Source: http://www.montereyherald.com/mld/montereyherald/news/politics/9671965.htm