***** Case Sore Loser?
Thursday, July 07, 2005
By Roger Friedman
acko District Attorney: Sore Loser?
Believe it or not, the Michael Jackson case is not over.
Even though they lost the case, the Santa Barbara District Attorney's office is still refusing to return evidence they seized at Jackson's Neverland Ranch in 2003 and 2004.
Papers filed in Santa Barbara Superior Court, and made available late yesterday, indicate that the problem is not easily resolved, either.
Attorney Stephen Dunkle, working for Jackson lawyer Robert Sanger, filed a declaration that clearly indicates the prosecution's desire to keep the case going, even after everyone else has gone home.
Dunkle wrote on June 22 that he appeared in court on June 16 and presented the deputy district attorney — who was not part of the Jackson case — with a proposal to return Jackson's property.
"[The deputy district attorney] initially signed the stipulation. However, he eventually withdrew the stipulation and stated that the stipulation needed to be reviewed by the prosecutors who were assigned to the case."
Apparently, hope springs eternal in the prosecutor's office, where just because they blew nearly $3 million of taxpayers' money on a deeply flawed case, they plan to try again one day.
In a response to Jackson's request to get his possessions back, the DA wrote in other just-released papers: "Certain of the property seized from Neverland is contraband. Certain of that property may not belong to Mr. Jackson. Other items may have relevance in the event of another investigation."
The last sentence doesn't do much to allay the illusion that Tom Sneddon is on a vendetta, whether he likes it or not.
To top it off, Sneddon writes in a kind of folksy, albeit all too personal manner when he concludes: "one just knows that defendant's counsel would assert that the order [to return Jackson's property] covers photographs taken of Mr. Jackson's person in 1994, in connection with the investigation of his reported molestation [of the boy in the Chandler case]."
Well, I don't know what's considered "contraband" from the Neverland raid, since Jackson was never charged with having anything illegal in his house, including pornographic magazines and small dolls that sat on his desk.
As for the Chandler case, Sneddon wasn't able to prove in court that it ever happened, Chandler's mother was considered an unreliable witness and the jury later said that evidence offered from possible previous cases played no part in their decision to acquit Jackson.
Be a man, Tom: Give the stuff back now. It's not nice to be a sore loser.
(fox news)
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