Associated Press
Wednesday, November 19, 2003
LOS OLIVOS, Calif. (AP) -- The arrest warrant issued for Michael Jackson involves "multiple counts of child molestation."
Sheriff Jim Anderson of Santa Barbara County, California says bail in the arrest warrant has been set at $3 million US.
He says investigators are giving Jackson the chance to surrender -- and are advising him to give up his passport when he does surrender.
Word of the warrant comes a day after dozens of officers swarmed Jackson's Neverland Ranch north of Santa Barbara.
A spokesman says the singer and his children are in Las Vegas, where he's taping a video.
As many as 70 law enforcement officials served a search warrant at the ranch and hunted for evidence through the night as part of an ongoing criminal investigation, Sgt. Chris Pappas said.
Jackson denounced media coverage in a statement released to The Associated Press by spokesman Stuart Backerman.
"I've seen lawyers who don't represent me and spokespeople who do not know me speaking for me. These characters always seem to surface with dreadful allegations just as another project, an album, a video is being released," the Jackson statement said, referring to Tuesday's release of a greatest hits album, Number Ones.
Backerman refused to comment on any allegations and said neither he nor Jackson knew the details of the investigation.
The 45-year-old singing superstar faced a child molestation investigation in 1993 in a case that never resulted in criminal charges. Jackson reportedly paid a multimillion dollar settlement in that case but maintained his innocence.
The $12.3 million US Neverland Ranch in the Santa Ynez Valley has a mansion, its own zoo and amusement park, and has often been the site of children's parties.
Steve Manning, a Jackson family spokesman, briefly talked to reporters outside a Las Vegas recording studio and said Jackson was "holding up" and had his family's support.
In a television documentary broadcast on ABC earlier this year, Jackson said he had slept in a bed with many children. "When you say bed you're thinking sexual," the singer said during the interview. "It's not sexual, we're going to sleep. I tuck them in. ... It's very charming, it's very sweet."
Jackson caused an international uproar last year when he displayed his baby, Prince Michael II, to fans by dangling him briefly from a fourth-floor balcony in Germany. Jackson called the incident a "terrible mistake," and Berlin authorities said the actions were not punishable.
The singer had international hits with the albums Thriller (1982), Bad (1987) and Dangerous (1991) but saw his career begin to collapse after the 1993 allegations.
His last studio album, Invincible, sold about two million copies in the United States. Such sales would be great for most artists, especially veteran stars, but only so-so for the man who bills himself as the King of Pop.
© Copyright 2003 Associated Press
) to his multiple child molestation allegations, to dangling his baby...theres just something not right 
my mom was telling me about how she heard Sheryl Crow talking about how he used to stab his pet chimpanzee with a pen when it did something wrong....
