Grand Jurors Getting One-Sided View, Jackson’s Lawyers Say

Setting the stage for an appeal, Michael Jackson’s defense lawyers accused prosecutors Friday of failing to properly present evidence favorable to Jackson to a secret grand jury.

The grand jury was convened earlier this month in Santa Barbara to consider whether there was enough evidence to indict the entertainer on charges of child molestation.

The notice of plans to challenge the prosecution’s handling of the secret grand jury hearings was made to Superior Court Judge Rodney S. Melville by Jackson attorney Benjamin Brafman. Brafman said all witnesses called to testify to date should be required to testify again, once jurors have had a chance to digest the defense’s side.

“We anticipate a challenge,” Brafman said.

He told Melville that prosecutors had failed to comply with an order to give Jackson’s lawyers copies of recent search warrant affidavits, which they need to rebut some probable grand jury testimony.

“There is a wealth -- that’s the only way I can say it -- a wealth of exculpatory evidence,” Brafman said. “We have 100 items on exculpatory materials and we expect more. We need these materials released immediately.”

Brafman, a New York trial lawyer, was brought into the Jackson case to work with lead lawyer Mark Geragos. He said the defense had prepared thick binders of evidence to be given to the 19 grand jurors and six alternates hearing the charges.

“Even on the East Coast, the papers are quoting chapter and verse of witness testimony,” Brafman said. “We think prosecutors have an obligation to call those witnesses back” after the grand jury has read the defense materials.

Jackson, 45, was charged in December with seven felony counts of lewd and lascivious behavior and two felony counts of providing an intoxicant to a boy under 14 in order to seduce him. He is accused of molesting a young cancer patient at his Neverland Ranch in Santa Barbara County early last year.

Friday’s hearing originally was set to schedule a preliminary hearing in the case. But a grand jury indictment would enable prosecutors to move on to a trial without public disclosure of their evidence or strategy.

The grand jury began hearing evidence on Monday.

Any future Jackson trial would be held in the city of Santa Maria in northern Santa Barbara County. The grand jury has been meeting in the Santa Barbara area.

In addition to a gag order imposed by Melville, another strict “decorum order” was issued by the county’s presiding judge to block representatives of the media from talking with or photographing grand jury witnesses.

Judge Clifford R. Anderson III modified his own order after appeals from news organizations. The 2nd District Court of Appeal also ruled that it was too strict.

Attorney Theodore J. Boutrous Jr., representing a coalition of national news organizations, including The Times, said Friday that prosecutors might “be shooting themselves in the toes” by confusing the public about why so much secrecy was needed in the Jackson case.

“It is an extraordinary level of secrecy,” he said. “We keep trying to come up with reasonable approaches. But they are intent.

“They have even tried to hide the entire grand jury in secret locations for no real purpose.”