Leak of Jackson Memo Criticized

An attorney for the boy allegedly molested by Michael Jackson has filed a complaint with a Los Angeles County child welfare agency about the leak of a confidential memo.

The memo said child welfare officials were told in February that Jackson might have molested the boy. Officials investigated the allegation, the memo said, but concluded the accusation was not true. The memo was leaked to thesmokinggun.com website last month, about the time Jackson was charged with child molestation.

Attorney Larry Feldman sent the complaint to child welfare officials, according to the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office. He demanded that officials try to determine who leaked the memo, according to a source close to the case.

Feldman also wanted to know why the memo did not mention the fact that the boy’s therapist told a child welfare official in June that the boy might have been molested, the source said.

In the memo, a top child welfare official said her investigators questioned the boy and his family after a call in February from an unidentified school official who said the boy might have been molested. The tip came after a Feb. 6 segment of ABC’s “20/20” showed Jackson holding hands with the boy and saying that they had spent the night in the same room.

Child welfare officials would not comment on the letter.

But in a prepared statement, Deputy Dist. Atty. Richard Doyle said that a letter had been received from Feldman and that the matter was the subject of an internal child welfare investigation and not an inquiry by prosecutors.

Jackson, 45, faces seven felony counts of lewd and lascivious behavior with a minor and two felony charges of providing an intoxicant to help seduce the boy. He has denied any wrongdoing and is scheduled to be arraigned Jan. 16 in Santa Maria.