Police Dispute Michael Jackson's Abuse Claims
By Howard Breuer

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (Reuters) - The Santa Barbara County Sheriff on Wednesday dismissed claims by Michael Jackson that he was roughed up by deputies during his arrest on child molestation charges and threatened to charge the pop star with making a false police report.

Sheriff Jim Anderson, speaking to reporters at a news conference to rebut Jackson's claims, also showed a videotape of the 45-year-old entertainer being taken into custody inside an airport hanger and excerpts of an audiotape made during his subsequent ride to a police station.

On the audiotape Jackson initially tells deputies that his handcuffs were "a little tight," but later assures them that he is "wonderful, thank you" and can be heard whistling, singing and humming during the ride.

The deputies can be heard asking Jackson several times if he was comfortable and advising the onetime "King of Pop" how to sit in the car seat to avoid discomfort from the handcuffs.

The videotape shows Jackson stepping off his private plane with attorney Mark Geragos and having a discussion with authorities before he is placed into the car.

"Michael Jackson was treated with the utmost respect and courtesy during his arrest, transport and booking and release by all members of the department," Anderson said. "He was in no way manhandled or abused."

He later added: "I think Mr. Jackson has seriously hurt his credibility."

Anderson said that on the tape Jackson can be heard as he leaves the jail thanking one of the detectives who escorted him there and can be seen waving to the crowd with the arm that he said was injured.

"I am accepting the extremely serious allegations made by Mr. Jackson as a formal citizen complaint against members of the Santa Barbara's sheriff's department," Anderson said, adding that he had asked for the complaint to be "thoroughly and completely" investigated by the state attorney general.

California Attorney General Bill Lockyer said that at Anderson's request, he had asked investigators from his office to look into the Jackson arrest and whether the entertainer's civil rights had been violated.

"I cannot predict when our investigation will be completed, but we will work as quickly as possible to conduct a thorough and fair investigation and review all of the facts before reaching a conclusion," Lockyer said in a statement.

Anderson said that if the probe vindicated the conduct of the Santa Barbara sheriff's deputies, he would ask that Jackson be charged with filing a false report of police misconduct.

Jackson, during an interview broadcast on CBS on Sunday, told TV personality Ed Bradley that he had been treated roughly by police, suffered bruises to his upper forearm from the handcuffs and was locked in a filthy jail bathroom for 45 minutes.

Anderson, who did not take questions from reporters, noted that the entire booking process lasted only 63 minutes and said the jail bathroom had been cleaned shortly before Jackson asked to use it.

He said the bruises shown on Jackson's in pictures provided to news organizations by the singer were well above the area where he had been handcuffed.

Mark Geragos, Jackson's lawyer, said he welcomed the state investigation into the entertainer's arrest.

But he also asked that the scope of the probe be widened to consider whether Santa Barbara officials had acted improperly by disregarding an earlier Los Angeles social welfare investigation that found the child abuse allegations against Jackson to be "totally unfounded."

Jackson was charged on Dec. 18 with nine counts of child molestation. He is due in court in January for an arraignment.



I wonder who's going to be sued now. Cough *libel* cough.
[This message was edited Wed Dec 31 18:34:04 PST 2003 by VoicesCarry]

Blah!

Christopher said:

13 year olds!

:mj:

:whoisit?:
:thrilernose:

Christopher said:

Cloudbuster said:

Then MJ is Shinola

Cloudbuster said:

your going to far man...

VoicesCarry said:

Christopher said:

"Michael Jackson was treated with the utmost respect and courtesy during his arrest, transport and booking and release by all members of the department," Anderson said. "He was in no way manhandled or abused."

The they go on to say dude is "looking into it" Really sounds like he has an open mind doesn't it. What bullshit

intha916 said:

Cloudbuster said:

omg

If Michael pulls an O.J...

Christopher said:

[This message was edited Wed Dec 31 19:57:36 PST 2003 by Cloudbuster]

Cloudbuster said:

leave MJ alone!


lets kate bush for a change!

Christopher said:

Yeah, bitch had better release that new album soon. I'm waiting another decade and that's it!

You know, something just dawned on me. When I first heard of these manhandling allegations I though, this crazy MF is acting like a child and lying his ass off.

Just now I thought, what if he's trying to make a point. Like when the kid 10 years ago "made up" stories about him. I'm not sure if he was guilty back then, reading that "report" that is very general and doesn't give exact dates, etc. Who knows. I do know that if this is his logic, "I'll make up stories about police manhandling me", he's one stupid MoFo.

intha916 said:

Anderson isn't "looking into it" - read it again.

Bottom line: Money, money, money. MJ is just a poor pawn in a family's game to earn capitol. And the SMPD is in on it, too. And YES, they treated him like CRAP!!! God knows what the holding cell was like!

Poor Mike


You are not alone.

VoicesCarry said:

All MJ claimed was that he was locked in a toilet (which they've admitted) and that he was cuffed too tightly (and you can hear him complaining about the cuffs in the video footage).

So what exactly does this footage prove? Nothing, that's what.

MattyJam said:

true that.

Nobody mentioned the fact that the police have actually broken the law here as they taped and filmed him without telling him they were doing so, which is a breach of several laws relating to privacy and human rights!

Thats why when taken into police custody an officer will always tell you that you are being taped when making statements etc!

The film the police released doesnt prove anything other than that they are guilty of this!

Despite this, i dont think any other police force in the world would embarass themselves in this way and resort to a huge PR campaign!

Its a joke, the DA and police should be dealt with seriously by a higher power!

FunkyBrotha said:

Er...how do you know they didn't tell him he was being taped? Full disclosure to the defendant is standard procedure. I'm sure they wouldn't buck the trend with Michael Jackson. But where did you gain access to such exclusive knowledge? His people have made no such claims.
[This message was edited Thu Jan 1 10:13:54 PST 2004 by VoicesCarry]

Let's get real. MJ probably lied about his injuries.

"My shoulder was dislocated," he whined on 60 Minutes. But, he's VIDEOTAPED BY NEWS MEDIA waving joyously to his fans as he leaves the station after the alleged brutality and bathroom trauma occurred.

He's so fragile, and frail, right? He's a gentle person, by all accounts (especially his own).

If anything near the brutality and severity he's alleged had REALLY transpired, he would've exited the police station acting like he was on his last breath.

Add to that this week's departure of his former spokesman (citing differences in strategy) and a pretty reasonable picture of a lying MJ begins to emerge.

And, one has to ask, if he'd lie about police brutality that never occurred, is he lying about not molesting little boys?

MattyJam said:

No, he claimed vicious police brutality (handcuffs tight enough to cause major bruising, callous disregard for his person during the booking process - as in, they didn't adjust the cuffs and didn't care that he was in pain, and shoulder dislocation), as well as feces (doo-doo?) all over the walls of said toilet. Also claimed he was held for 45 minutes in such conditions.
[This message was edited Thu Jan 1 10:21:58 PST 2004 by VoicesCarry]

First of all, his spokesman was fired because he breached an agreement between himself and Geragos, MJ's lawyer! His exspokesman talked to the press despite being specifically told not to!

Also, the waving that you seen on the news clearly shows mj using his arm and elbow, his shoulder and spine are not involved in such movements! Add to that the fact that it takes some time for injuries such as this to fully materialize, he may have felt some pain at the time, followed by a period of comfort, then followed by extreme pain and the realisation of damage!

On top of that, you are never going to see michael jackson crawling out of a police station as if he had been beaten to a pulp because he would not publicly present himself like that!

Like we knew this wasnt going 2 happen - I just rolled my eyes when I read all the garbage he came out with.

A little reality check never harmed anyone.

Except Michael Jackson.

FunkyBrotha said:

Stop it. Your killin me man.