Prosecutors seek prior claims in Jackson trial
LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Prosecutors in the Michael Jackson child molestation case want to include as evidence previous allegations of sex offenses for which police did not charge the singer.
Santa Barbara Deputy District Attorney Gerald Franklin crafted the 65-page motion. In sex-crime cases, such a filing is a standard legal procedure as prosecutors seek to use a California law that allows relevant, earlier acts to become evidence, a law school instructor told The Associated Press.
"If you have prior incidents, and the law allows you to use it, then you go for it," Loyola University law professor Laurie Levenson told the AP. "It shows a pattern, a propensity for Michael Jackson to commit these types of crimes."
In 1993, Jackson reached an out-of-court settlement with a 13-year-old boy who accused him of sexual misconduct. Police did not arrest or charge Jackson in that matter. That settlement dissuaded a second alleged victim from pursuing similar claims, sources said.
Last September, Jackson's lead attorney in the present case acknowledged at a news conference that his client had reached financial settlements in two allegations, but regrets doing so.
"Many years ago, he did pay money, rather than litigate, two false allegations that he had harmed children," Thomas A. Mesereau Jr. said. "People who intended to earn millions of dollars from his record and music promotions did not want negative publicity from these lawsuits interfering with their profits."
The motion did not offer any insight into which particular allegations, the exact offenses or who or how many accusers the prosecution might seek to introduce.
'A veritable paradise'
The Santa Barbara County Superior Court on Tuesday released a heavily redacted copy of Franklin's motion.
The prosecution claims previous "uncharged acts" show Jackson's "disposition," "motive and intent," toward the crimes for which he's charged, which include several counts of child molestation, conspiracy and giving alcohol to a minor.
"As a matter of logic, the best way to prove that a man is a sex offender is to prove that he has sexually offended again and again," Franklin wrote.
The motion also states that such evidence would serve to "rebut defendant's stated defense that the charged offenses were fabricated by the victim and his family for financial gain."
Franklin labeled Jackson's Neverland Ranch as "a veritable paradise," and claimed that "to children, it was a limitless wonderland of fun and entertainment."
Jackson, 46, pleaded not guilty in April 2004 to a grand jury indictment charging him with four counts of child molestation, four counts of administering an intoxicating agent, one count of attempted child molestation and one count of conspiracy to commit child abduction, false imprisonment and extortion.
He is accused of giving alcohol to his accuser, a cancer-stricken boy who appeared with the entertainer in a British documentary in February 2003.
Santa Barbara Superior Court Judge Rodney Melville has issued a gag order in the Jackson case, which forbids attorneys to comment.
The court has not released an official reply from Jackson's defense team to the prosecution's "Motion for Admission of Evidence of Defendant's Prior Sexual Offenses."
The next hearing in the Jackson case is scheduled for December 20 and is expected to last several days.
Melville will hear arguments then on the admissibility of Jackson's alleged "prior sexual offenses," among other issues.
Jackson is not expected to attend the hearing, sources said.
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Associated Press contributed to this report.
