Home>News Center>Life | ||
Web site prints what it says are Jackson transcripts
The Smoking Gun web site on Friday published 1,903 pages of what it were the sealed grand jury proceedings that led to the indictment of pop star Michael Jackson on charges of child molestation last year. The Web site, which has frequently broken legal stories in recent years, did not say where it obtained the documents + only that it believed them to be genuine. Jury selection in the Jackson trial resumes on Tuesday. The Smoking Gun's action came after several media outlets went to court to get the transcripts unsealed. They have so far not been successful, and an appeals court is considering their case. Santa Barbara County Superior Court Judge Rodney Melville ordered the grand jury indictment sealed, including the specific allegations listed against Jackson in the indictment to protect the pop star's right to a fair trial. News organization described the act as throwing a nearly unprecedented veil of secrecy over a high profile case. Jackson's lawyers and prosecutors operate under a gag order in which they cannot comment on the case without the prior permission of the judge. Jackson is charged in a 10-count Santa Barbara County grand jury indictment with sexually abusing a then 13-year-old boy, who is seen with the entertainer in a 2003 documentary by journalist Martin Bashir. The singer is also charged with conspiring to commit false imprisonment, extortion and child abduction. ABC News recently aired what it said were key portions of the boy's testimony before the grand jury in which the boy described being molested by Jackson.
|
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||