AMERICAN MORNING
Woman Accused of Killing Expectant Mother, Stealing Unborn Baby on Way to Federal Court; Temperatures Plunging Below Zero
Aired December 20, 2004 - 07:00 ET
...
WALLACE: Welcome back. This Christmas week begins with Michael Jackson's lawyers shopping for a dismissal. Another round of pretrial hearings in Jackson's child molestation case gets under way today.
Senior legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin joins us now to talk more about the Jackson case. Great to see you as always.
JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SR. LEGAL ANALYST: Good morning.
WALLACE: Before we get to the legal arguments, let's talk a little bit about the scene on Friday, Michael Jackson inviting kids to his Neverland Ranch. There were cameras there. His spokesman said this had nothing to do with the case. Does it help hurt or help him?
TOOBIN: Was that creepy enough for you to see 200 kids...
WALLACE: Your words, not mine.
TOOBIN: It is so weird this guy is still surrounded by kids all the time. There you can see it. In a perverse way, I guess he has simply decided, look, I'm going to live my life, this is how I live my life, I am not going to pretend there's anything to be ashamed of.
I think it is basically a negative for him to display what seems to be an unhealthy interest in children. But Being under scrutiny and seeing all these kids, he's essentially saying, I have nothing to be ashamed of, and this is what I do.
WALLACE: Of course you always Have the court of public opinion, as well as what goes on behind closed doors.
TOOBIN: And it is not illegal to host 200 kids at your ranch, it is just weird, like everything Michael Jackson does.
WALLACE: Let's get to the arguments that Michael Jackson's attorneys are likely to present today. They're going to say that prosecutors really sort of overstepped their authority in these search warrants. They're calling for a dismissal, for the case to be thrown out, or at a minimum, a delay. Will they be successful?
TOOBIN: Well, I think they really do have a pretty good shot at delay. I think dismissal is virtually out of the question, but what is so weird among other things about this case, is that the prosecution continues to execute search warrants, continues to investigate this case more than a year after it was indicted. The trial is supposed to start January 31st. They're still doing search warrants in the last couple of weeks. They haven't turned over all the discovery material. This judge has said for a long time, I want this case to go on January 31st, I'm going to stick to it, but Jackson's lawyers made a good case that it won't go.
WALLACE: And as you know, prosecutors want to do something else as well, they want bring to court some of the evidence of these allegations that charges were never filed from 1993, allegation of previous child molestation. Now usually past criminal offenses don't get into a current trial. What will happen here?
TOOBIN: This is one of the big changes in the law. Because of the priest molestation cases, the California legislature changed the law so that previous conduct, even if you weren't convicted, can be brought in. So I think the prosecution's going to win this, that they will be able to prove -- use the evidence of the '93 incidents, where Jackson paid the out-of-court settlement; even though there were no criminal charges in that case, evidence will be allowed to be brought. Jackson's lawyers will argue that that event did not take place, that he paid for other reasons, but there will be essentially two trials here going on. There will be the '93 incident, which will be tried, and the charges against him.
WALLACE: We'll be watching. Jeffrey Toobin, always great to see you.
TOOBIN: We'll see when it starts.
Source: http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/041.../20/ltm.01.html
Woman Accused of Killing Expectant Mother, Stealing Unborn Baby on Way to Federal Court; Temperatures Plunging Below Zero
Aired December 20, 2004 - 07:00 ET
...
WALLACE: Welcome back. This Christmas week begins with Michael Jackson's lawyers shopping for a dismissal. Another round of pretrial hearings in Jackson's child molestation case gets under way today.
Senior legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin joins us now to talk more about the Jackson case. Great to see you as always.
JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SR. LEGAL ANALYST: Good morning.
WALLACE: Before we get to the legal arguments, let's talk a little bit about the scene on Friday, Michael Jackson inviting kids to his Neverland Ranch. There were cameras there. His spokesman said this had nothing to do with the case. Does it help hurt or help him?
TOOBIN: Was that creepy enough for you to see 200 kids...
WALLACE: Your words, not mine.
TOOBIN: It is so weird this guy is still surrounded by kids all the time. There you can see it. In a perverse way, I guess he has simply decided, look, I'm going to live my life, this is how I live my life, I am not going to pretend there's anything to be ashamed of.
I think it is basically a negative for him to display what seems to be an unhealthy interest in children. But Being under scrutiny and seeing all these kids, he's essentially saying, I have nothing to be ashamed of, and this is what I do.
WALLACE: Of course you always Have the court of public opinion, as well as what goes on behind closed doors.
TOOBIN: And it is not illegal to host 200 kids at your ranch, it is just weird, like everything Michael Jackson does.
WALLACE: Let's get to the arguments that Michael Jackson's attorneys are likely to present today. They're going to say that prosecutors really sort of overstepped their authority in these search warrants. They're calling for a dismissal, for the case to be thrown out, or at a minimum, a delay. Will they be successful?
TOOBIN: Well, I think they really do have a pretty good shot at delay. I think dismissal is virtually out of the question, but what is so weird among other things about this case, is that the prosecution continues to execute search warrants, continues to investigate this case more than a year after it was indicted. The trial is supposed to start January 31st. They're still doing search warrants in the last couple of weeks. They haven't turned over all the discovery material. This judge has said for a long time, I want this case to go on January 31st, I'm going to stick to it, but Jackson's lawyers made a good case that it won't go.
WALLACE: And as you know, prosecutors want to do something else as well, they want bring to court some of the evidence of these allegations that charges were never filed from 1993, allegation of previous child molestation. Now usually past criminal offenses don't get into a current trial. What will happen here?
TOOBIN: This is one of the big changes in the law. Because of the priest molestation cases, the California legislature changed the law so that previous conduct, even if you weren't convicted, can be brought in. So I think the prosecution's going to win this, that they will be able to prove -- use the evidence of the '93 incidents, where Jackson paid the out-of-court settlement; even though there were no criminal charges in that case, evidence will be allowed to be brought. Jackson's lawyers will argue that that event did not take place, that he paid for other reasons, but there will be essentially two trials here going on. There will be the '93 incident, which will be tried, and the charges against him.
WALLACE: We'll be watching. Jeffrey Toobin, always great to see you.
TOOBIN: We'll see when it starts.
Source: http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/041.../20/ltm.01.html