Inquiry Fails to Verify Jackson’s Complaints

After interviewing 163 witnesses, state officials have cleared Santa Barbara County sheriff’s deputies of any wrongdoing in the booking of Michael Jackson in November, Sheriff Jim Anderson announced Tuesday.

In a December interview on CBS’ “60 Minutes,” Jackson said he was “manhandled very roughly” by deputies after his arrest on child molestation charges. The 45-year-old pop star said his arm was injured and his shoulder dislocated, and that he had been locked for 45 minutes in a feces-smeared jail bathroom.

However, an extensive investigation by the state attorney general’s office failed to verify any of Jackson’s accusations, Anderson said at a news conference.

The disclosure bolsters prosecution efforts to cast Jackson, who is free on $3-million bail, as vengeful and manipulative, some observers said.

“You have the attorney general saying that, on ’60 Minutes’ Michael Jackson lied to the world,” said Jim Thomas, a former sheriff of Santa Barbara County who works as an analyst on the Jackson case for NBC. “That, in my opinion, could be used in trial to impeach his credibility.”

Thomas Mesereau Jr., Jackson’s lead attorney, dismissed the finding during an argument at a pretrial hearing last week.

The investigation was “a sham from the beginning,” Mesereau contended, saying that the attorney general’s office was biased toward the prosecution. The announcement by the sheriff would be nothing more than a publicity stunt, he said, characterizing the disclosure as “propaganda.”

The singer never filed a formal claim of mistreatment. However, after his appearance on “60 Minutes,” Anderson asked the attorney general’s office for an investigation.

Anderson answered no questions from reporters Tuesday, citing a gag order imposed by Santa Barbara Superior Court Judge Rodney S. Melville. County attorneys last week secured the judge’s permission for Anderson to release a brief statement on the matter along with a three-page letter he received earlier this month from Martin A. Ryan, chief of the California Bureau of Investigation.

In the letter, Ryan said his 12-member investigative team spent 2,500 hours talking with witnesses, including 71 jail inmates, Santa Barbara police officers and Jackson’s chiropractor. Attempts to obtain a statement from Jackson were rejected, Ryan said.

In a police car transporting him to the jail, Jackson did complain of discomfort from his handcuffs, the letter stated. However, he stopped complaining when officers “had Mr. Jackson adjust his seating position” during the 10-minute ride.

Most inmates said Jackson “was in good spirits” while at the jail, waving at them and flashing the peace sign, the letter stated. The four who witnessed physical contact between officers and Jackson said it was not sufficient to cause injury.

Jackson’s first complaint of pain was made to his makeup and hair stylist Dec. 7, investigators found.

That was more than two weeks after his arrest.

His chiropractor said Jackson told him Dec. 27 that his pain stemmed from officers lifting his cuffed hands behind his back.

However, the chiropractor told investigators that “due to Mr. Jackson’s frailness, the application of intermediate force could have caused the injuries he observed,” the letter stated.

Jackson’s shoulder was not dislocated, the chiropractor said.

The letter did not address Jackson’s claim of being held in a dirty bathroom during the 63-minute booking process. The sheriff in December told reporters that Jackson stayed for 15 minutes in a toilet-equipped holding cell that had just been cleaned.