Pop king faces multiple counts of child molestation

SANTA BARBARA, California: Authorities issued an arrest warrant for Michael Jackson on multiple counts of child molestation and asked the pop superstar to turn in his passport and surrender, law enforcement officials said yesterday. Bail would be set at $3 million, Santa Barbara County Sheriff Jim Anderson told a news conference. The warrant was for violation of a California law that prohibits lewd or lascivious acts with a child under age 14. A conviction carries three to eight years in prison. District Attorney Thomas W Sneddon Jr said an affidavit outlining details of the case will be sealed for 45 days. He would not say how many charges Jackson faced.

As many as 70 law enforcement officials served a search warrant at Jackson’s Neverland Ranch on Tuesday and searched for evidence for more than 12 hours. Search warrants were also served for two other locations in Southern California, Anderson said. He did not disclose the other two locations. A spokesman for Jackson, Stuart Backerman, told The Associated Press early yesterday that he was consulting with attorneys and planned to issue a statement later in the day. He declined further comment, saying neither he nor Jackson knew the details of the investigation. Jackson, who reportedly was in Las Vegas when the search warrant was served, denounced media coverage in a statement released to The Associated Press by Backerman. “I’ve seen lawyers who don’t represent me and spokespeople who do not know me speaking for me. These characters always seem to surface with dreadful allegations just as another project, an album, a video is being released,” the Jackson statement said, referring to Tuesday’s release of a greatest hits album, “Number Ones.”  

Boy’s bombshell: Michael Jackson had sex with me              

The bombshell court declaration of a 13-year-old whose family was paid multi-millions by pop star Michael Jackson over allegations of child sexual abuse has finally seen the light of day, revealing in graphic detail the sexual relationship the two shared, reports The Smoking Gun. The four-page document signed by “J Chandler” under penalty of perjury, posted on the Court TV affiliate’s website, is purportedly the September 1993 statement given by teenager Jory Chandler, which was the basis of his family’s claim against Jackson for sexual battery, wilful misconduct and emotional distress. Following the settlement, the family dropped the charges. According to the document, the two became friends after Jackson visited the rental-car business operated by Chandler’s stepfather in May 1992. Chandler was 12.

Chandler states Jackson would call him from various locations on his concert tour. They would talk for hours about video games, water fights, Jackson’s 3,000-acre California ranch, Neverland, and famous people they both knew. Ten months later, according to the document, Chandler visited Neverland with his mother and half-sister at the invitation of Jackson. Jackson and the boy spent the whole weekend innocently playing together. Their activities included jet skiing, riding golf carts and playing video games. But things progressed. The document describes the two began sleeping in the same bed together a month later, while the boy, his mother and sister were staying at the Mirage Hotel with Jackson in Las Vegas. The two had watched the movie The Exorcist in Jackson’s bedroom. The boy was scared afterward and Jackson invited him to sleep with him in his bed. There was no physical contact on that first night. But from that night forward, according to the declaration, they began sleeping together regularly at Chandler’s house, Neverland and at hotels in New York, Florida and Europe.

Chandler purportedly states in the document that “physical contact increased gradually.” It progressed from hugging, to kissing, to Jackson putting his tongue in the boy’s mouth. Whenever the boy resisted, the document reads, Jackson would cry and complain that the boy did not “love him as much” as other boys do. The document reveals the turning point in the relationship happened during a family trip with Jackson in Monaco in May 1993. Chandler states that both he and Michael Jackson had colds, so they stayed in the hotel room all day while his mother and sister went out. “That’s when the whole thing really got out of hand,” Chandler states in the document. He then relates the details of a sexual encounter with Jackson while the two were taking a bath together, and afterwards. He states Jackson named some of his friends who had also had the same sexual contact with him. This sexual activity took place “many times” until their relationship ended in July 1993 when Chandler’s father obtained custody of the boy and he began living permanently with him.

The Smoking Gun claims all the exclusive documents it posts are “100 percent authentic.” WorldNetDaily contacted the Santa Monica, Calif, law firm whose name is stamped along the side of the document to verify its authenticity. The firm confirmed it handled the Chandler case. The secretary of the attorney involved with Chandler’s court declaration said the firm had not verified “word-for-word” that what was posted on the Internet was the real declaration. If authentic, the document undermines the singer’s latest attempt to rehabilitate his troubled reputation, although the attempt itself has largely backfired.          

Michael Jackson issues statement

SANTA BARBARA, California: Statement on behalf of Michael Jackson by spokesman Stuart Backerman: “The outrageous allegations against Michael Jackson are false. Michael would never harm a child in any way. These scurrilous and totally unfounded allegations will be proven false in a courtroom. Naturally, the implications are distressing to everyone who hears them, which is precisely the point. “We are disturbed by the levity of the environment surrounding the announcement of these very serious charges. When the evidence is presented and the allegations proven to be malicious and wholly unfounded, Michael will be able to put this nightmare behind him. “Michael through his attorneys, led by Mark Geragos, has already made arrangements with the district attorney to return to Santa Barbara to immediately confront and prove these charges unfounded.”

Michael Jackson confesses: I sleep with boys

Pop superstar Michael Jackson admitted last night in a television documentary that he loves to have young boys sleep in his bed. What’s more, everyone should do it, says the 44-year-old Jackson, who was accused of sexually molesting a 13-year-old boy a decade ago, and who admits recently encouraging a 12-year-old cancer sufferer to sleep in his bedroom. “It’s what the whole world should do,” Jackson told interviewer Martin Bashir on the Granada television programme, Living With Michael Jackson, according to a London Times account. Granada is one of the largest independent television companies in the United Kingdom.

Both Jackson and the cancer patient claim no sexual contact occurred during the sleepovers at Jackson’s Neverland ranch in California. Ten years ago, parents of 13-year-old Jordan Chandler accused Jackson of sexually molesting their son during overnight stays at his 3,000-acre ranch. After reaching a multimillion-dollar settlement with Jackson, the family dropped the case and no charges were brought against the pop star. Nevertheless, Tom Sneddon, the district attorney in charge of the Chandler investigation, will be paying close attention to the new allegations of Jackson “sleeping with boys” when the programme airs in the US Friday. “We will be watching the programme with interest,” a spokesman from his office told the London Times.

According to that report, Jackson granted the interview to Bashir, best known for interviewing Princess Diana, to help rehabilitate his troubled reputation. “Jackson’s friend, Uri Geller, persuaded him to allow Bashir to become part of his entourage for eight months,” reported the Times. “But the resulting film, which has been bought by the US broadcaster ABC for ?3.5 million, could lead to police action against the fallen star.” Indeed, one executive described it as the “longest suicide note in history,” said the Times. According to a London Telegraph account, the singer, when questioned by Bashir about the settlement with Chandler, said: “I didn’t want to do a long drawn-out thing (trial) on TV like OJ Simpson and all that stupid stuff. It wouldn’t look right. I said, ‘Look, let’s get this over with. I want to go on with my life. This is ridiculous. I’ve had enough.”’ Bashir assumed that, since the Chandler scandal, Jackson was now more circumspect about his houseguests. But to his “utter astonishment,” the interviewer said he discovered while visiting Jackson on his Neverland ranch that children were still sleeping over, “sometimes in his house, sometimes in his bedroom.”

One 12-year-old boy told Bashir he slept in the singer’s bed. Commenting on that occasion, Jackson said he had slept on the floor that night, feeling he was “four” not 44, reported the Telegraph. “I see God in the face of children,” said Jackson. “And man, I just love being around them all the time.” Although he claimed only “very few” boys had actually stayed in his bed, Jackson strongly defended the practice, saying: “Why can’t you share your bed? The most loving thing to do, is to share your bed with someone.” Despite persistent questioning from Bashir, Jackson defended his desire to sleep close to young boys, describing the practice as “very charming” and “very sweet.” In fact, he recommended that the interviewer do likewise, sleeping in the same bed as friends of his own children. According to Jackson, not only do children like to be touched, but the superstar told Bashir he would kill himself if he could not be close to young boys. The 12-year-old cancer patient, named Gavin, said he met Jackson two years ago, and began sleeping overnight at the superstar’s Neverland ranch with his brother and sister. On one occasion, reports the Times, Gavin asked to sleep in Jackson’s bedroom: “I was like, ‘Michael, you can sleep in the bed,’ and he was like ‘no, no, you sleep on the bed,’ and I was like ‘no, no, no, you sleep on the bed’ and then he said ‘look if you love me you’ll sleep in the bed.’ I was like, ‘Oh man.’ So I finally slept on the bed. But it was fun that night.”

“We have guest units,” Jackson told the interviewer, “but whenever kids come here they always want to stay with me. They say: ‘Can I stay with you tonight?’ So I go, ‘If it’s OK with your parents, then yes you can.’” According to the Telegraph report, an uneasy Bashir concluded that Jackson is obsessed with children. But the singer dismissed fears of sexual molestation, saying: “When you say bed, they make that sexual. It’s not sexual. We’re going to sleep. “I tuck them in and put a little like, er, music on and when it’s storytime I read a book and we go to sleep with the fireplace on. I give them hot milk, you know. We have cookies. It’s very charming. It’s very sweet. It’s what the whole world should do. “If there were no children on this earth, if someone announced all kids were dead, I would jump off the balcony immediately.” Speaking of balconies, in November Jackson caused gasps around the world when he dangled his baby son, Prince Michael II, over the balcony of a Berlin hotel, appearing briefly to lose control. Santa Barbara County officials are reportedly considering launching an investigation into Jackson’s fitness to be a parent. He has three children.