Jackson indicted for molestation

LOS ANGELES -- Michael Jackson's secret indictment on child molestation charges sets the stage for a unique defense challenge on grounds that extraordinary security measures may have intimidated witnesses and grand jurors. Authorities blocked sidewalks, hid witnesses and delivered grand jurors to secret locations in buses with blacked-out windows to keep the proceedings secret. In one case, a photographer outside the building where grand jurors were meeting was ordered to delete photos from his digital camera because they revealed too much of the people entering the building.\nJackson's attorney, Mark Geragos, unable to comment directly because of a gag order, suggested grounds for a challenge as he protested the secrecy before Santa Barbara Superior Court Judge Clifford Anderson.\n"If you believe what is reported, we've got people covered up, wrapped in blankets, put into vans driven around like they're Osama bin Laden's lieutenants and put into a training facility, then admonished in the procedure and then spirited out into the afternoon sun," Geragos said. \nGeragos won approval to interview witnesses, by stating the effect the reports have had on the witnesses. \n"That has had an enormously chilling effect on the defense in terms of all of the witnesses," Geragos said. \nAn indictment was returned Wednesday, and authorities would not confirm that had happened even after major news organizations reported it. The document remained sealed and its details unknown.\nSources told The Associated Press Thursday that 25 witnesses testified. The indictment was to remain under wraps until April 30, when Jackson is scheduled to be in court in Santa Maria for a pretrial hearing. He could be arraigned on the indictment that day. The defense has said Jackson will plead innocent as he did to previous charges lodged by the district attorney. The defense could then launch an effort to quash the indictment.\nCriminal defense attorney Steve Cron said Geragos' plan of attack is unusual but could draw the attention of an appeals court, if not the trial judge. Cron said District Attorney Tom Sneddon would likely argue the secrecy was designed to protect grand jurors and witnesses from the media.\n"It may have been taken a bit too far," Cron said. "They were probably made to believe they were evaluating someone particularly dangerous."\nLoyola University Law Professor Laurie Levenson said a challenge because of secrecy would be "novel," but she said unusual motions seem to go hand-in-hand with high-profile cases.\n"It's not a standard motion. And Geragos is going to be pushing the envelope here," she said. "But I've never before heard of a hide-and-seek grand jury."\n"We've had grand jury hearings for a United States president in the Monica Lewinsky case," she said, "hearings in the Rodney King cases, but I've never seen anything go off the charts like this. And even with such secrecy, you have a leaked indictment."\nAttorney Theodore Boutrous, who represents media companies challenging secrecy in the case, said authorities' tactics infringed on the press' First Amendment rights to report on the case for the public.\n"It forces reporters into back-alley reporting, and that is not good for the public," Boutrous said. "It closes a window on the public's ability to serve as a check on the system"