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American Morning
Jackson Attorney Declaring War on Anyone Trying to Profit From Accusations Client Facing
Aired November 26, 2003 - 08:03 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.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Michael Jackson's attorney is declaring war on anyone who tries to profit from the accusations that his client is facing. Mark Geragos says a charter jet company secretly videotaped him and Jackson on a plane last week. The star was flying from Las Vegas to California to surrender in that child molestation case against him.
Well, Geragos got a restraining order against the jet company.
And CNN's Gary Tuchman has the latest on the case now live from Jackson's Neverland Ranch in Los Olivos, California -- good morning to you, Gary.
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Soledad, good morning to you.
Michael Jackson's whereabouts are still unknown, but his viewpoints through his emissaries are well known. Yesterday, the loudest voice came from his defense attorney, Mark Geragos, angered at the secret video cameras aboard the plane. And Geragos uttered a memorable quote, saying that Michael Jackson is not a pinata.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARK GERAGOS, ATTORNEY FOR JACKSON: We will not sit back and allow him to be abused and that's what's actually going on here. If anybody doesn't think, based upon what's happened so far, that the true motivation of these charges and these allegations is anything but money and the seeking of money, then they're living in their own never land. Thank you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TUCHMAN: So that's what Geragos said. But last night CNN had an interview with the district attorney, Tom Sneddon. And he told CNN's Art Harris that is absolutely not true.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TOM SNEDDON, SANTA BARBARA DISTRICT ATTORNEY: It just doesn't make any sense that the sheriff and I would do something that is doomed in the long run to fail. We have a responsibility. We didn't go looking for this case. It came to us.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TUCHMAN: In the typical case, it's rather unusual for formal charges not to be filed immediately. Now, in this case, the district attorney told us last week the charges would likely come some time after Thanksgiving. But, because of all the evidence that still has to be examined, the district attorney says, it won't be next week, like we expected. Instead, the earliest will be the middle of December -- Soledad, back to you.
O'BRIEN: All right, Gary, thanks for that update.
The Santa Barbara District Attorney's office says it has been flooded with new leads since it asked the public for help in the Jackson investigation.
But is it right for law enforcement to make such a request to get information?
With us this morning to talk about that is former FBI investigator Bill Daly.
Good morning.
Nice to see you.
BILL DALY, FORMER FBI INVESTIGATOR: Good morning.
Good to see you.
O'BRIEN: Thanks for joining us.
It seems to me to be kind of unusual, maybe the first time -- you hear investigators ask for help when they're looking for a suspect. But Michael Jackson has already been arrested and even though no formal charges have been filed, that seems strange, that after they've arrested him they then open it up to the public.
Is it unusual or is this sort of standard operating procedure?
DALY: You're right, Soledad, it is a bit unusual. It's not out of the realm of possibility. The police have done this in the past, where they've arrested people and then said anyone in the area, anyone who may have had contact with this person to report in. But in this type of case, we would have thought that ahead of time they would have had the information in hand, they wouldn't need to go out to the public, at least not to solicit the public. If people were to call in and say they had the information, of course they will listen to that.
But to basically kind of have a call in, a toll-free number, that we've seen when we're hunting for fugitives or we're looking for information about people and we're trying to shake the trees, it does seem to be a bit unusual.
O'BRIEN: It is indicative of the fact that maybe they have a very weak case and they really need to turn to the public to bolster their case? Sort of shake the trees to get whatever else they can to make the case stick.
DALY: Yes. It would be very difficult right now to say that. I would probably think that they focused on the instant matter and they're probably looking for some corroboration. And don't forget, as we start getting into this whole media frenzy around the case, is that it can start to taint potential witness pools so that they may feel as though, let's try to get as much information now as we can that's both unsolicited in a way and it's not promoted by what people may hear or see on television, and therefore it corrupts some of the information they may get.
O'BRIEN: I want to run by you some of the words that we've heard over, really, the last 24 hours. Here, this is from Stuart Backerman. He issued this statement denouncing those who videotaped, apparently, this -- made a videotape on a private jet that had been chartered by Mark Geragos and Michael Jackson. And he said, "Motivated parties are taking obscene measures to injure Michael with false allegations. We will aggressively challenge the rogue's gallery of grifters who are seeking dividends from Michael's ordeal."
Then we hear Mark Geragos say words like, "I will come down with you," like a -- "I'll come down on you like a ton of bricks" and use the word hammer.
From an attorney's perspective, is that just sort of typical protecting your client, coming out strong, sort of turning the tide of P.R. in the direction they want? Or is that unusual and sort of threatening?
DALY: Well, I mean that's something for an attorney. Not being an attorney, I can't tell you what would be intimidating or not.
O'BRIEN: But in your experience...
DALY: In my experience...
O'BRIEN: I mean obviously you...
DALY: ... though, I would say that it certainly sounds as though he's trying to have a chilling effect throughout the population, and whether it's individuals, whether it's the media, to be very concerned about what they say and be very careful about what they say so that it in no way endangers the investigation.
You know, Soledad, this is one of the concerns about conducting high profile investigations -- and we've seen a number of them over the years -- is that as information gets out there, it can turn entire pools of people, potential jurors, as well as witnesses, with information, it can turn around what they may have believed and already have convicted them in the public opinion.
O'BRIEN: And it's fair to say he could be the most famous person in the entire world.
We heard from investigators that they're going to sort through all these tips that they're hoping to get -- and I guess they've gotten a hundred already -- to pass the smell test. I don't know what that means. What's the smell test? As an investigator, did you ever use the smell test? And what is it? DALY: Well, basically what you do is try to sort through -- this is a screening mechanism to sort out those people who kind of woke up and had a dream about information and those people who may actually have something substantive.
O'BRIEN: Cull out the nuts, basically.
DALY: Yes. And what it boils down to is being able to place people at a particular time at a location with some very specific knowledge and not just I heard someone say something about X, Y and Z. They need to start focusing in on saying does someone have very specific information? Can they start the name, dates and times that make sense? And should we consider that further?
O'BRIEN: And when you're talking about such a high profile case, I bet you're going to get a lot of nuts in this case.
DALY: I'm sure you will.
O'BRIEN: Bill Daly, nice to have you.
Thanks for joining us.
DALY: Happy Thanksgiving.
O'BRIEN: Appreciate it.
Oh, thank you. And likewise to you. I hope you have a good Thanksgiving with your family.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
From Accusations Client Facing>
Aired November 26, 2003 - 08:03 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Michael Jackson's attorney is declaring war on anyone who tries to profit from the accusations that his client is facing. Mark Geragos says a charter jet company secretly videotaped him and Jackson on a plane last week. The star was flying from Las Vegas to California to surrender in that child molestation case against him.
Well, Geragos got a restraining order against the jet company.
And CNN's Gary Tuchman has the latest on the case now live from Jackson's Neverland Ranch in Los Olivos, California -- good morning to you, Gary.
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Soledad, good morning to you.
Michael Jackson's whereabouts are still unknown, but his viewpoints through his emissaries are well known. Yesterday, the loudest voice came from his defense attorney, Mark Geragos, angered at the secret video cameras aboard the plane. And Geragos uttered a memorable quote, saying that Michael Jackson is not a pinata.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARK GERAGOS, ATTORNEY FOR JACKSON: We will not sit back and allow him to be abused and that's what's actually going on here. If anybody doesn't think, based upon what's happened so far, that the true motivation of these charges and these allegations is anything but money and the seeking of money, then they're living in their own never land. Thank you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TUCHMAN: So that's what Geragos said. But last night CNN had an interview with the district attorney, Tom Sneddon. And he told CNN's Art Harris that is absolutely not true.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TOM SNEDDON, SANTA BARBARA DISTRICT ATTORNEY: It just doesn't make any sense that the sheriff and I would do something that is doomed in the long run to fail. We have a responsibility. We didn't go looking for this case. It came to us.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TUCHMAN: In the typical case, it's rather unusual for formal charges not to be filed immediately. Now, in this case, the district attorney told us last week the charges would likely come some time after Thanksgiving. But, because of all the evidence that still has to be examined, the district attorney says, it won't be next week, like we expected. Instead, the earliest will be the middle of December -- Soledad, back to you.
O'BRIEN: All right, Gary, thanks for that update.
The Santa Barbara District Attorney's office says it has been flooded with new leads since it asked the public for help in the Jackson investigation.
But is it right for law enforcement to make such a request to get information?
With us this morning to talk about that is former FBI investigator Bill Daly.
Good morning.
Nice to see you.
BILL DALY, FORMER FBI INVESTIGATOR: Good morning.
Good to see you.
O'BRIEN: Thanks for joining us.
It seems to me to be kind of unusual, maybe the first time -- you hear investigators ask for help when they're looking for a suspect. But Michael Jackson has already been arrested and even though no formal charges have been filed, that seems strange, that after they've arrested him they then open it up to the public.
Is it unusual or is this sort of standard operating procedure?
DALY: You're right, Soledad, it is a bit unusual. It's not out of the realm of possibility. The police have done this in the past, where they've arrested people and then said anyone in the area, anyone who may have had contact with this person to report in. But in this type of case, we would have thought that ahead of time they would have had the information in hand, they wouldn't need to go out to the public, at least not to solicit the public. If people were to call in and say they had the information, of course they will listen to that.
But to basically kind of have a call in, a toll-free number, that we've seen when we're hunting for fugitives or we're looking for information about people and we're trying to shake the trees, it does seem to be a bit unusual.
O'BRIEN: It is indicative of the fact that maybe they have a very weak case and they really need to turn to the public to bolster their case? Sort of shake the trees to get whatever else they can to make the case stick.
DALY: Yes. It would be very difficult right now to say that. I would probably think that they focused on the instant matter and they're probably looking for some corroboration. And don't forget, as we start getting into this whole media frenzy around the case, is that it can start to taint potential witness pools so that they may feel as though, let's try to get as much information now as we can that's both unsolicited in a way and it's not promoted by what people may hear or see on television, and therefore it corrupts some of the information they may get.
O'BRIEN: I want to run by you some of the words that we've heard over, really, the last 24 hours. Here, this is from Stuart Backerman. He issued this statement denouncing those who videotaped, apparently, this -- made a videotape on a private jet that had been chartered by Mark Geragos and Michael Jackson. And he said, "Motivated parties are taking obscene measures to injure Michael with false allegations. We will aggressively challenge the rogue's gallery of grifters who are seeking dividends from Michael's ordeal."
Then we hear Mark Geragos say words like, "I will come down with you," like a -- "I'll come down on you like a ton of bricks" and use the word hammer.
From an attorney's perspective, is that just sort of typical protecting your client, coming out strong, sort of turning the tide of P.R. in the direction they want? Or is that unusual and sort of threatening?
DALY: Well, I mean that's something for an attorney. Not being an attorney, I can't tell you what would be intimidating or not.
O'BRIEN: But in your experience...
DALY: In my experience...
O'BRIEN: I mean obviously you...
DALY: ... though, I would say that it certainly sounds as though he's trying to have a chilling effect throughout the population, and whether it's individuals, whether it's the media, to be very concerned about what they say and be very careful about what they say so that it in no way endangers the investigation.
You know, Soledad, this is one of the concerns about conducting high profile investigations -- and we've seen a number of them over the years -- is that as information gets out there, it can turn entire pools of people, potential jurors, as well as witnesses, with information, it can turn around what they may have believed and already have convicted them in the public opinion.
O'BRIEN: And it's fair to say he could be the most famous person in the entire world.
We heard from investigators that they're going to sort through all these tips that they're hoping to get -- and I guess they've gotten a hundred already -- to pass the smell test. I don't know what that means. What's the smell test? As an investigator, did you ever use the smell test? And what is it? DALY: Well, basically what you do is try to sort through -- this is a screening mechanism to sort out those people who kind of woke up and had a dream about information and those people who may actually have something substantive.
O'BRIEN: Cull out the nuts, basically.
DALY: Yes. And what it boils down to is being able to place people at a particular time at a location with some very specific knowledge and not just I heard someone say something about X, Y and Z. They need to start focusing in on saying does someone have very specific information? Can they start the name, dates and times that make sense? And should we consider that further?
O'BRIEN: And when you're talking about such a high profile case, I bet you're going to get a lot of nuts in this case.
DALY: I'm sure you will.
O'BRIEN: Bill Daly, nice to have you.
Thanks for joining us.
DALY: Happy Thanksgiving.
O'BRIEN: Appreciate it.
Oh, thank you. And likewise to you. I hope you have a good Thanksgiving with your family.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
From Accusations Client Facing>
