Jacko: It's war
2003-11-20 15:47
Santa Barbara - Michael Jackson and his attorney will "choose their own time and their own place" to surrender to face child molestation allegations, a family attorney said on Thursday.
A friend said he was going to "fight this tooth and nail."
Investigators waited for the singer at the small airport at Santa Barbara on Wednesday, along with a throng of media, but he did not appear. Jackson had left Las Vegas in his private jet on Wednesday, but his whereabouts were unknown, according to published reports.
He was expected to surrender to authorities as soon as Thursday, and law enforcement officials said charges would be filed.
Brian Oxman, who has been an attorney for the Jackson family for years, said: It will be designed to be as quick as possible from their own perspective."
A family friend, Steve Manning, told ABC that Jackson's family came to Las Vegas to support him.
"He feels he's been wrongly accused and he's going to fight this tooth and nail," Manning said. "He's at war right now and he's going to use any weapon he has to fight these charges."
His arrest warrant set bail at $3 million and Jackson was directed to give up his passport, authorities said.
The 45-year-old singer was in Las Vegas when dozens of law enforcement agents swarmed his Neverland Ranch compound on Tuesday to serve a search warrant.
Jackson is charged with lewd or lascivious acts with a child under age 14, punishable by three to eight years in prison, law enforcement officials said.
Similar allegations surfaced against Jackson a decade ago, but they never led to the filing of criminal charges and in 1994 the probe became inactive.
Jackson had maintained his innocence but reportedly paid a multimillion-dollar civil settlement and the child would not testify in any criminal proceeding.
Sneddon said this case was different because he had a co-operative victim and because of a change in state law "specifically because of the 1993-94 Michael Jackson investigation."
Sneddon told the news conference multiple counts would be filed "in a very short period of time".
Sneddon would not say when or where the alleged crimes took place or how old the child was. He said an affidavit outlining the details will be sealed for 45 days.
But Oxman told CBS that the case involves the alleged molestation of a 12-year-old boy at Neverland Ranch, the storybook playground where the singer has been known to hold sleepover parties with children.
In a documentary broadcast on ABC earlier this year, Jackson said he had slept in a bed with many children. "When you say bed you're thinking sexual," he said in the interview. "It's not sexual, we're going to sleep. I tuck them in. ... It's very charming, it's very sweet."
On Wednesday, CBS pulled a Jackson music special planned for next Wednesday on his greatest hits and the impact on pop culture.
- AP