Judge refuses to throw out charges against Michael Jackson

SANTA MARIA, California, Oct 14 (AFP) - A judge Thursday dealt a blow to Michael Jackson's defense by rejecting the superstar's bid to have the child molestation charges against him tossed out of court.
Dismissing Jackson's lawyers' claims of prosecutorial misconduct, Judge Rodney Melville ruled that there was enough evidence to warrant the 10 charges, including one that he conspired to silence his alleged victim.
The judge also ordered prosecutors to hand over to the defense key documents and evidence in the case and warned both sides that he would not tolerate a delay to the scheduled start of singer's trial, set for January 31.
The ruling came after Jackson's team sought in July to have the indictment against him dismissed on the grounds of insufficient evidence and because prosecutors allegedly flouted rules when presented evidence to the grand jury that issued the charges.
"Having concluded that there was no significant instructional error, and given sufficient evidence of the crimes upon which the indictment was presented, the brief episodes of concern in the record is not such as to justify setting aside the indictment," he wrote.
Jackson's lawyers had contended that the secret grand jury proceedings that resulted in the indictment were hopelessly flawed, that prosecutor Thomas Sneddon "bullied" witnesses and that there was inadequate reason to suspect a crime.
Jackson, 46, is accused of molesting a 12-year-old boy at his Neverland Ranch, near Santa Maria, in February and March of last year. He was arrested on November 19 and freed on three million dollars bail.
In April, he pleaded innocent to 10 charges including child molestation, plying a minor with alcohol and conspiracies to kidnap, illegally imprison and extort his alleged victim or his family.
While refusing to make the indictment public, Melville threw some light on details of the charges against Jackson, which have been shrouded in secrecy under a strict gag order imposed on the case.
The conspiracy to extort centers on claims by the now 14-year-old alleged victim's mother that Jackson told her that her children's lives were in danger in order in order to silence the family and persuade them to make a video defending Jackson against claims that he abused the boy.
The boy, a cancer patient, and his family did record a taped exoneration of Jackson after the youngster appeared in an explosive BBC documentary that led to the child abuse charges.
The indictment alleges that Jackson convinced the boy and his family to attend a press conference in Miami that never took place, the judge said.
When the family arrived in Miami, Jackson personally advised them to cooperate with the making of the rebuttal video in order to ensure their safety, it claimed.
The conspiracy to kidnap charges stem from Jackson allegedly flying the family to Neverland and holding them against their will after moving them out of their Los Angeles apartment and putting their goods into storage ahead of a planned trip to Brazil, the judge's ruling revealed.
"These circumstances would support the view that the crimes were committed," the judge wrote, adding that the fact that there was enough evidence for the case to go forward did not indicate Jackson's guilt.
In a further blow to the defence bid to chip away at the prosecution case, the judge also refused to toss out evidence seized on November 18 in massive police raids on Neverland and on a private investigator's office.
Jackson's team had claimed that investigators overstepped the bounds of their search warrants, making the evidence inadmissible.
But Melville said that the evidence contested by the prosecution represented only a small part of that seize and that investigators had not flagrantly overstepped their authority.
The judge granted a defense request and ordered Sneddon to reveal the names of the secret informants whose testimony sparked the police searches.
"We are here to seek the truth, to defend an innocent person who is falsely accused," lawyer Susan Yu told the judge, explaining why the confidential informants should be identified.
An irate Melville told prosecutors to hand over outstanding documents and evidence to Jackson's camp and warned both sides he would not delay the start of his trial.
"I am not interested in continuing this case beyond the trial date," the judge said. "That would be punishing me for your failure to comply with the rules. I'm not doing that."
Sneddon retorted that there was a "tremendous gap in logic by the defence in concluding we are hiding something when we are not."
But the judge put off until the next hearing on November 4 considering a defence bid to kick Sneddon off the case on the grounds that he is biased and holds a grudge against Jackson, whom he unsuccessfully pursued on other child abuse charges in 1993.