Lawyers Seek to Keep Photos From Jackson Body Search Out of Trial
The defense team for entertainer Michael Jackson will fight to exclude nude photographs, taken by court order this week, from being submitted as evidence in any child molestation trial, one of his lawyers said Thursday.
“We will be litigating whether or not the photographs will be admissible,” said attorney Johnnie Cochran Jr., calling the body examination by criminal investigators “really outrageous.”
The 13-year-old boy suing Jackson reportedly gave police a detailed description of discoloration of the entertainer’s genitalia, prompting the examination.
No criminal charges have been filed and Los Angeles and Santa Barbara county authorities refused to discuss the search.
In a four-minute televised message, Jackson said Wednesday: “They served a search warrant on me which allowed them to view and photograph my body . . . the most humiliating ordeal of my life.”
Jackson told Oprah Winfrey during a February TV interview that he had a condition known as vitiligo, which creates a patchy, mottled skin because of the loss of pigment-producing cells.
“What do they expect to gain? Michael Jackson has acknowledged that he suffers from vitiligo,” Cochran said in condemning the body examination.
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