A Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Department patrol car sits parked Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2003, across from Michael Jackson's Neverland Ranch Railroad Station near Los Olivos, Calif. Officers conducting a criminal investigation searched the ranch. The station is a replica of the train station at Disneyland. PHOTO - TASR/AP
SANTA BARBARA - With police, thousands of reporters and child molestation allegations waiting for him in California, Michael Jackson's exact whereabouts were a mystery on Thursday although authorities still expected him to surrender before the day was out. Jackson was given a chance to turn himself in and raise $3 million bail by the Santa Barbara County sheriff and district attorney, who announced the charges against the 45-year-old entertainer at a news conference on Wednesday.
A spokesman for Jackson, Stuart Backerman, called the allegations false, scurrilous and without foundation. He said Jackson had arranged with the district attorney to return from Las Vegas, where he had been shooting a music video. The superstar's whereabouts remained a mystery.
District Attorney Thomas Sneddon said Jackson will be charged with multiple felony counts under a California law that defines molestation as „arousing, appealing to, or gratifying the lust, passions or sexual desires of" the offender or a child under age 14. Each charge carries a penalty of three to eight years in prison.
Friends who spoke to Jackson said the superstar was ready to fight the charges.
Officials have said they expected Jackson to turn himself in on Thursday at one of Santa Barbara County's two jails the sheriff's headquarters in Santa Barbara or a smaller booking station in Santa Maria, closer to Jackson's home, the sprawling Neverland ranch.
Police spent more than 14 hours searching and videotaping Neverland Ranch on Tuesday. Authorities declined to specify what they were looking for or to divulge other details about the allegations reportedly brought by a 12-year-old boy who said Jackson molested him. Jackson was the subject of similar child molestation allegations 10 years ago by a 13-year-old boy, but the accuser declined to testify after Jackson reached a multimillion-dollar settlement with the boy's family. No charges were ever filed.
Reuters
