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American Morning

Raid on Michael Jackson's Neverland

Aired November 19, 2003 - 08:07   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: More now about the raid on Michael Jackson's Neverland in California. Law enforcement agents descended on the pop star's home yesterday. A source with knowledge of that investigation says authorities now responding to allegations of child molestation.
Court TV's Diane Dimond broke the story yesterday.

She's back with us here live from Santa Barbara.

Diane, good morning to you and thanks for getting up early for us.

Last night you told Larry King there was major significant news today.

What's to come today, based on the reporting and the sources you have?

DIANE DIMOND, COURT TV REPORTER: Well, we learned, I think the headline here is that there is not only a search warrant for Neverland, but there was an arrest warrant in hand when they went into Neverland yesterday. And I was told by a top law enforcement source that had Michael Jackson been at the ranch yesterday, he would have been arrested on the spot.

HEMMER: Yes, what is alleged in the arrest warrant, Diane?

DIMOND: Well, we don't know because everything is sealed on a case like this.

HEMMER: Now, your sources, how high are they going?

DIMOND: They're going to the very top, Bill.

HEMMER: Yes.

DIMOND: That's about all I can tell you.

HEMMER: Well, you're rather intimate on this case. You've been involved in it for about 10 years, is that right? And at one point, you were sued yourself. Just quickly, what are the specifics of your involvement with Michael Jackson?

DIMOND: I started reporting on it in the fall of 1993, broke a lot of the major stories on it, worked for a program at the time called "Hard Copy" and he did sue me for $100 million, sued the show, as well.

We got a summary judgment on that. In other words, we won. And it's the kind of case, Bill, where you, you know, you bite into it and then you always follow it. And I've always kept my sources and his private detective, as you know, went to jail two days ago and now this case I knew was brewing.

So I've been working on it pretty hard the last few months.

HEMMER: Listen, a spokesperson for the singer issued a statement. I want to read it to you and get a response here quickly, saying, "These characters always seem to surface with a dreadful allegation just as another project, an album, a video, is being released."

Is that not the case, based on his history, the allegations come forward when he's making news, like he is now with the release of his album this past week, making a music video in Vegas?

DIMOND: I can tell you that law enforcement here in Santa Barbara County has no interest in Michael Jackson's career. They probably didn't even know he was coming out with a compilation. They didn't know that he was in Las Vegas doing a music video, trying to get his career back on track. That's not what this law enforcement community here is all about.

They've been at the ready for 10 years and when an allegation came in a few weeks, maybe a few months ago, I should say, they handled it like any other allegation that came in. They did an investigation. They got the arrest warrants. They got the search warrants. They put this family under protective custody and they went in and did what they would always do in a case like this.

HEMMER: Yes, how is it possible, he's been in Vegas for two and a half weeks. If they're so closely linked to this investigation, how would they not know that he wasn't there when they went yesterday?

DIMOND: Bill, I've been asked that a lot and you have to know the mentality here of law enforcement. They don't really care where he is. They are building a case piece by piece by piece. And that Michael Jackson is in Las Vegas, they have an arrest warrant that's good in all 50 states.

HEMMER: Yes, another question, if it's good in...

DIMOND: And Michael Jackson knows that it's out there.

HEMMER: If it's good in Nevada...

DIMOND: If he flees, he goes across state lines.

HEMMER: I apologize for the interruption...

DIMOND: And then the FBI gets involved.

HEMMER: If they knew he was in Nevada, why didn't they go there, though? Because it's basic knowledge at this point.

DIMOND: Hey, they're looking for the evidence at Neverland Ranch. That's what you present in court. That's more important to them. If he leaves Las Vegas, he knows he's a wanted man right now. If he crosses state lines and goes to Minnesota, then the FBI gets involved. Las Vegas police say that they don't know anything about an arrest warrant. Well, they're under no obligation to tell the local police.

HEMMER: Diane, what are you finding out as to what they've found at the Neverland yesterday and took away?

DIMOND: Well, that's a tough question, Bill. I am going to go partly on sources and partly on speculation as to what they did at the last search warrant back in 1993. They're looking for computers. They're looking for personal photographs. They're looking for video. Michael Jackson has been known to tape a lot of things, dancing and whatnot. They're looking for evidence to put this accuser together with Michael Jackson, anything that they could get their hands on.

HEMMER: I'll tell you, Diana, I want to stay away from any speculation right now, if we could, and just stick to the facts.

One more question before we let you go.

There's a press conference scheduled today. What time? What's set to be announced when that happens?

DIMOND: It's at 11:00 here. There's so many media that have now descended, boy, when I got here, I was the only one. But now there's so many, they're having it over at the fairgrounds, 11:00 Santa Barbara time. It'll be the sheriff and the D.A. and they're going to tell you what I'm telling you.

HEMMER: All right, Diane Dimond, thanks, from Court TV.

You broke the story yesterday, live in Santa Barbara today.

We should point out NBC News and "People" magazine also matching Court TV's reporting at this hour.

11:00 a.m. Pacific Time is when we'll look for that, 2:00 here on the East Coast.

Legal perspective right now on what may happen in a case like this.

Kendall Coffey is with us, an attorney from Miami -- Kendall, nice to see you.

Good morning to you.

KENDALL COFFEY, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Good morning, Bill.

HEMMER: You just heard Diane's reporting there.

What do you take away from that?

COFFEY: I take away that charges are going to be brought, that they've already been initiated. We know that the search itself means that a magistrate has found probable cause. And what we don't know is the specifics of the charges and we don't know anything about what the evidence might be, whether this is sort of a version of a he said versus child said or whether there's some hard physical evidence to corroborate what the authorities believe is a crime.

HEMMER: Ken, in a general sense, and not specific with Michael Jackson right now, because there's, frankly, a lot we do not know, when investigators go into a home and raid it, what are they looking for?

COFFEY: The kind of things Diane described. They're going to look, obviously, at -- for photographs, for video. They're going to go through computers in a crime like this because they usually think there's going to be things found in the hard drive. And physical evidence of any sort, possibly including, frankly, DNA.

HEMMER: Yes. Can you answer this question as to why they didn't go to Vegas?

COFFEY: Well, I think that what law enforcement would normally do is want to search the home when he's not around, when he's totally unexpecting and when he's totally distracted somewhere else. The element of surprise is a good thing when you want to search and you want to make sure that the evidence you're looking for is still there and none of it's been in any fashion tampered with or removed.

HEMMER: Kendall, thanks.

Kendall Coffey in Miami, a legal perspective on what's happening there.

COFFEY: Thanks.

HEMMER: More later. Again, 11:00 Pacific Time, 2:00 here in New York for that press conference in California.

Thanks, Kendall.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired November 19, 2003 - 08:07   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: More now about the raid on Michael Jackson's Neverland in California. Law enforcement agents descended on the pop star's home yesterday. A source with knowledge of that investigation says authorities now responding to allegations of child molestation.
Court TV's Diane Dimond broke the story yesterday.

She's back with us here live from Santa Barbara.

Diane, good morning to you and thanks for getting up early for us.

Last night you told Larry King there was major significant news today.

What's to come today, based on the reporting and the sources you have?

DIANE DIMOND, COURT TV REPORTER: Well, we learned, I think the headline here is that there is not only a search warrant for Neverland, but there was an arrest warrant in hand when they went into Neverland yesterday. And I was told by a top law enforcement source that had Michael Jackson been at the ranch yesterday, he would have been arrested on the spot.

HEMMER: Yes, what is alleged in the arrest warrant, Diane?

DIMOND: Well, we don't know because everything is sealed on a case like this.

HEMMER: Now, your sources, how high are they going?

DIMOND: They're going to the very top, Bill.

HEMMER: Yes.

DIMOND: That's about all I can tell you.

HEMMER: Well, you're rather intimate on this case. You've been involved in it for about 10 years, is that right? And at one point, you were sued yourself. Just quickly, what are the specifics of your involvement with Michael Jackson?

DIMOND: I started reporting on it in the fall of 1993, broke a lot of the major stories on it, worked for a program at the time called "Hard Copy" and he did sue me for $100 million, sued the show, as well.

We got a summary judgment on that. In other words, we won. And it's the kind of case, Bill, where you, you know, you bite into it and then you always follow it. And I've always kept my sources and his private detective, as you know, went to jail two days ago and now this case I knew was brewing.

So I've been working on it pretty hard the last few months.

HEMMER: Listen, a spokesperson for the singer issued a statement. I want to read it to you and get a response here quickly, saying, "These characters always seem to surface with a dreadful allegation just as another project, an album, a video, is being released."

Is that not the case, based on his history, the allegations come forward when he's making news, like he is now with the release of his album this past week, making a music video in Vegas?

DIMOND: I can tell you that law enforcement here in Santa Barbara County has no interest in Michael Jackson's career. They probably didn't even know he was coming out with a compilation. They didn't know that he was in Las Vegas doing a music video, trying to get his career back on track. That's not what this law enforcement community here is all about.

They've been at the ready for 10 years and when an allegation came in a few weeks, maybe a few months ago, I should say, they handled it like any other allegation that came in. They did an investigation. They got the arrest warrants. They got the search warrants. They put this family under protective custody and they went in and did what they would always do in a case like this.

HEMMER: Yes, how is it possible, he's been in Vegas for two and a half weeks. If they're so closely linked to this investigation, how would they not know that he wasn't there when they went yesterday?

DIMOND: Bill, I've been asked that a lot and you have to know the mentality here of law enforcement. They don't really care where he is. They are building a case piece by piece by piece. And that Michael Jackson is in Las Vegas, they have an arrest warrant that's good in all 50 states.

HEMMER: Yes, another question, if it's good in...

DIMOND: And Michael Jackson knows that it's out there.

HEMMER: If it's good in Nevada...

DIMOND: If he flees, he goes across state lines.

HEMMER: I apologize for the interruption...

DIMOND: And then the FBI gets involved.

HEMMER: If they knew he was in Nevada, why didn't they go there, though? Because it's basic knowledge at this point.

DIMOND: Hey, they're looking for the evidence at Neverland Ranch. That's what you present in court. That's more important to them. If he leaves Las Vegas, he knows he's a wanted man right now. If he crosses state lines and goes to Minnesota, then the FBI gets involved. Las Vegas police say that they don't know anything about an arrest warrant. Well, they're under no obligation to tell the local police.

HEMMER: Diane, what are you finding out as to what they've found at the Neverland yesterday and took away?

DIMOND: Well, that's a tough question, Bill. I am going to go partly on sources and partly on speculation as to what they did at the last search warrant back in 1993. They're looking for computers. They're looking for personal photographs. They're looking for video. Michael Jackson has been known to tape a lot of things, dancing and whatnot. They're looking for evidence to put this accuser together with Michael Jackson, anything that they could get their hands on.

HEMMER: I'll tell you, Diana, I want to stay away from any speculation right now, if we could, and just stick to the facts.

One more question before we let you go.

There's a press conference scheduled today. What time? What's set to be announced when that happens?

DIMOND: It's at 11:00 here. There's so many media that have now descended, boy, when I got here, I was the only one. But now there's so many, they're having it over at the fairgrounds, 11:00 Santa Barbara time. It'll be the sheriff and the D.A. and they're going to tell you what I'm telling you.

HEMMER: All right, Diane Dimond, thanks, from Court TV.

You broke the story yesterday, live in Santa Barbara today.

We should point out NBC News and "People" magazine also matching Court TV's reporting at this hour.

11:00 a.m. Pacific Time is when we'll look for that, 2:00 here on the East Coast.

Legal perspective right now on what may happen in a case like this.

Kendall Coffey is with us, an attorney from Miami -- Kendall, nice to see you.

Good morning to you.

KENDALL COFFEY, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Good morning, Bill.

HEMMER: You just heard Diane's reporting there.

What do you take away from that?

COFFEY: I take away that charges are going to be brought, that they've already been initiated. We know that the search itself means that a magistrate has found probable cause. And what we don't know is the specifics of the charges and we don't know anything about what the evidence might be, whether this is sort of a version of a he said versus child said or whether there's some hard physical evidence to corroborate what the authorities believe is a crime.

HEMMER: Ken, in a general sense, and not specific with Michael Jackson right now, because there's, frankly, a lot we do not know, when investigators go into a home and raid it, what are they looking for?

COFFEY: The kind of things Diane described. They're going to look, obviously, at -- for photographs, for video. They're going to go through computers in a crime like this because they usually think there's going to be things found in the hard drive. And physical evidence of any sort, possibly including, frankly, DNA.

HEMMER: Yes. Can you answer this question as to why they didn't go to Vegas?

COFFEY: Well, I think that what law enforcement would normally do is want to search the home when he's not around, when he's totally unexpecting and when he's totally distracted somewhere else. The element of surprise is a good thing when you want to search and you want to make sure that the evidence you're looking for is still there and none of it's been in any fashion tampered with or removed.

HEMMER: Kendall, thanks.

Kendall Coffey in Miami, a legal perspective on what's happening there.

COFFEY: Thanks.

HEMMER: More later. Again, 11:00 Pacific Time, 2:00 here in New York for that press conference in California.

Thanks, Kendall.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com