Jackson trial may start Sept. 13

The judge in the Michael Jackson child-molestation case Friday optimistically scheduled the trial to start in late summer, but delayed ruling on the pop singer's request for a reduction of his $3 million bail.

Santa Barbara County Superior Court Judge Rodney Melville also delayed ruling on media requests to make public transcripts of the grand jury that indicted Jackson as well as details contained in the indictment. The transcript has been ordered sealed by the judge, while only an edited version of the indictment is available to the public.

Moments after Melville took his seat at the bench, he announced a target start date of Sept. 13, but acknowledged it as tentative.

"It may be necessary to change the trial date," Melville said.

The defense opposed the trial date, arguing that they had not yet received proper access to the prosecution's evidence.

In explaining his decision to set a date, Melville noted, "Somebody has to say, 'This is the goal. This is where we're going."

Also on Friday, Melville agreed to consider a defense motion to reduce Jackson's bail.

In line with the extreme secrecy of the Jackson case so far, Melville decided to postpone ruling on media requests for the unsealing of the grand jury transcripts until at least June 25, the next hearing date in the case. He also indefinitely delayed releasing an unedited version of the indictment against Jackson.

Jackson, 45, has pleaded not guilty to engaging in lewd acts with an unnamed boy under the age of 14 on four occasions between Feb. 7 and March 20, 2003, and four counts of "administering an intoxicating agent" - reportedly wine - to help him with the alleged molestations.

He also has pleaded not guilty to a conspiracy charge involving child abduction, false imprisonment and extortion and a count of attempted child molestation. The names of Jackson's alleged co-conspirators are among the information that was taken out of the indictment before its release to the public.

The pop singer, who did not attend Friday's hearing, owns the 2,700-acre Neverland Ranch near Los Olivos, where the incidents allegedly occurred.

The nearly two-hour hearing started promptly at 8:30 a.m.

After Melville named the tentative trial date, he considered a defense request to reduce bail.

Lead defense attorney Thomas Mesereau argued that Jackson's $3 million bail was "grossly excessive," and cited examples in the county bail schedule of crimes involving murder and terrorism in which recommended bail was far lower than what his client posted.

Mesereau also repeatedly alluded to his client's donations to children's charities and other philanthropic organizations.

"He's a highly unusual individual in that his contributions to the community is second to none," Mesereau said.

Senior Deputy District Attorney Ron Zonen argued against reducing bail, noting that Jackson's former attorney, Mark Geragos, raised no objections during Jackson's booking.

Zonen also said that Jackson is a "self-proclaimed billionaire," and thus the bail amount represents no real hardship to him.

Melville said he would take the bail issue under consideration, though he didn't indicate when he might rule.

The next issue up for discussion was a defense motion asking the judge to force prosecutors to share its "discovery" evidence against Jackson.

Senior Deputy District Attorney Gordon Auchincloss argued that the prosecution has been forthcoming with its discovery, and indicated that it already had handed over more than 2,200 pages of documents, 69 audiotapes, two videotapes and one CD-Rom.

Denying that prosecutors had hoarded evidence, Auchincloss said that "the pipeline will be essentially empty" by next week, and that the defense will have virtually everything collected during the ongoing investigation.

Defense Attorney Steve Cochran argued that more than 400 items of evidence have been seized by the prosecution, and that his side would need time to run its own forensic tests before trial.

Melville did not force prosecutors to change the way they share evidence, instead noting that both sides should follow rules of evidence.

Next, the judge took up media requests to unseal grand jury documents.

Theodore Boutrous, the attorney representing a coalition of media organizations, noted that both sides in the case have justified sealing documents by stating Jackson's right to a fair trial. However, neither has specifically indicated what damage would be caused by public access to the documents.

Melville indicated that he might release portions of the grand jury transcript, but noted the document would not likely be prepared until after the next hearing.

Before the end of Friday's hearing, representative from both sides retreated to chambers with Melville for 20 minutes to privately discuss discovery issues.

Court was recessed shortly after their return, at 10:40 a.m.

Seats inside the courtroom were about three-fourths full, and most of the high-profile journalists who made previous trips to Santa Maria skipped this hearing, perhaps because of the long holiday weekend.

Patriarch Joe Jackson was the only Jackson family member present. He was accompanied by Jackson spokesman Firpo Carr and newly hired Jackson family lawyer Debra Opri.

District Attorney Tom Sneddon, who is leading the prosecution's case, did not attend Friday's hearing.

May 29, 2004