MJEOL

DA’s Office has History of Illegal Searches, Breaking Atty-Client Privilege? – MJEOL Bullet #164 As previously reported, the search warrant served upon a defense attorney’s private investigator, Brad Miller, is a major point of contention in the Michael Jackson “case”. Aside from it being illegal for prosecutors to raid the office of anyone working with the defense team, there appears to be a history of this kind of brazen behavior with the Santa Barbara County District Attorney’s Office (SB DA’s Office).

Apparently, Miller and Jackson aren’t the only persons whose rights may have been trampled on by this DA’s office. There have been other cases in regards to the DA’s office getting into trouble for screwing-over a defendant’s constitutional rights, as outlined in a June 22 2004 defense motion and July 9 response to the prosecution’s reply. Redacted copies were released by Judge Rodney Melville on July 8 2004.

Continuing the series of reporting on the misconduct during the grand jury process, we learn even more about the way in which grand jurors may have been intimidated by prosecutors and received incorrect statements of the law. We also learn that the lead detective investigating this Jackson “case” was the same person responsible for escorting grand jurors to and from their meeting place. On top of these facts is more information cited from the grand jury transcripts regarding Sneddon allowing jurors to hear total hearsay and speculation on which to base their decision.

In continuation of the series on reporting about the prosecutorial misconduct during the grand jury and before, more information found in the grand jury transcripts reveals just how argumentative and one-sided the process was. If you remember, prosecutors were alleged to have bullied witnesses, became involved in personal arguments between witnesses and vouched for their version of events to grand jurors while accusing other witnesses of lying. They are also accused of a host of other actions where they defense cite examples of their misconduct during the grand jury process.

Defense Subpoenas Sneddon & Others for Misconduct – MJEOL Bullet #163 Update2 Michael Jackson’s attorneys are calling prosecutors out on their misconduct today (July 9 2004) in a pre-trial hearing. Tom Sneddon, the current district attorney of Santa Barbara, apparently engaged in misconduct when he lied—intentionally or not—in order to obtain a search warrant to raid the offices of a private investigator working for Mark Geragos. Sneddon himself went to Miller’s office, took picture and looked up Miller’s number in a phone book at a phone booth, days before he got the search warrant. As a result, Sneddon and investigators have now been subpoenaed to testify in at the next pre-trial hearing to be held July 27 2004; possibly by videotaped deposition.

Massive Prosecutorial Misconduct during Grand Jury Process? – MJEOL Bullet #162-Part 1 There are shocking new details today (July 8 2004) in the Michael Jackson “case”. Apparently there was massive prosecutorial misconduct during the grand jury process. Prosecutors were bullying witnesses, became involved in personal arguments between witnesses and vouched for their version of events to grand jurors while accusing other witnesses of lying. Witnesses were also told not to talk to the defense by prosecutors. In addition, sources say prosecutors didn’t allow grand jurors to ask certain questions and denied their request to have certain witnesses called back to for further testimony. This is massive prosecutorial misconduct which can be corroborated by the grand jury transcripts.