Michael Jackson Pleads 'Not Guilty'
Saturday, January 17, 2004
Preliminary hearing set for February 13th.

Michael Jackson entered a plea of "not guilty" to charges of child abuse, in Santa Maria Courthouse yesterday.

Arriving in the Courthouse about 8:51am, and 21 minutes later than he was meant to, the King of Pop was then reprimanded by Judge Rodney S. Melville, "Mr. Jackson, you have started out on the wrong foot here", he said, according to the Associated Press.

Michael was accompanied inside the Courthouse by his lawyers Mark Geragos, and newly employed attorney Benjamin Brafman. Brafman's employment was only announced Thursday, he has previously been in the limelight for representing rapper Sean "P.Diddy" Combs.

Joining Mark Geragos and Benjamin Brafman on the defence team were Steve Cochran and Bob Sanger. Santa Barbara District Attorney Tom Sneddon led the Prosecution's team, and was joined by Senior Deputy District Attorneys Ronald Zonen and Gerald Franklin.

A gag order has been actioned to prevent all participants from speaking publicly about the case. Also, media lawyers argued in favour of the search warrant documents that included information about the Neverland raid on November 20th, the Judge decided to keep them sealed.

The Judge has scheduled a date of Friday, February 13th 2004, for a preliminary hearing. This hearing is used to decide whether or not there is enough evidence for the case to go to trial.

According to AP, Tom Sneddon then "pointedly" asked, "Judge will that be 8:30?" in reference to Michael's lateness for this hearing, the Judge then responded, "8:30".

From MJNI

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