BradBuxer - Forum (Jacksonville-Ersatz-Board)

Los Angeles
May 28, 2004

The child sex charges against embattled pop icon Michael Jackson are "flimsy, ridiculous", "bogus" and "malicious", his lawyers have claimed in a stinging attack on the prosecution.

A court document filed by Jackson family lawyer Brian Oxman today accused prosecutors of doggedly pursuing the "King of Pop" despite the weakest of cases and demanded a reduction of his unusually high three-million-dollar bail which he branded as an example of "arbitrary discrimination."

The 32-page document filed in Santa Barbara Superior Court also revealed that Jackson needed money to finance his defence and business and that he stood to lose more than 70 million dollars if he were to jump bail.

Prosecutors are opposing a bail reduction, claiming Jackson could flee the United States and live in exile.

"Michael Jackson, a man with no criminal record and a reputation for contributing to social and humane causes worldwide, has been falsely accused if various acts of child molestation and conspiracy to falsely imprison, abduct and extort," Oxman wrote.

"The charges are outrageous and not supported by competent, credible evidence. Anyone who knows Mr Jackson quite properly mocks and ridicules these outrageous allegations."

The document said prosecutors had originally filed seven charges against Jackson that would have required a pre-trial hearing at which witnesses would have been publicly cross-examined, but then later changed tack and "chose a secret grand jury where the witnesses could not be cross-examined."

"The defence promises that when these flimsy, ridiculous charges are tested in open court, the truth will come out. These bogus, outrageous charges will be revealed as false and malicious," he wrote.

The document was released a day ahead of tomorrow's scheduled pre-trial hearing in the case in the town of Santa Maria, near Jackson's Neverland Ranch, at which his team was to argue for a reduction of his bail despite claims by prosecutors that he is a flight risk.

Jackson last month pleaded innocent to a 10-count indictment handed down against him by a Santa Barbara grand jury which accuses him of sexually abusing a 12-year-old boy. The details of the indictment remain secret.

AFP