LOS ANGELES (AP) – The district attorney who charged Michael Jackson with child molestation is convening a grand jury to hear evidence in the case, a move apparently designed to sidestep a public preliminary hearing, a newspaper reported Wednesday.
Citing unnamed legal sources, the Santa Barbara News-Press said potential grand jurors have received summonses to appear later this month.
A spokesman for Tellem Worldwide, which handles media inquiries for Santa Barbara County prosecutor Tom Sneddon, said a grand jury is being convened but he could not say whether it’s for the Jackson case or another matter.
”The business of the grand jury is confidential,” spokesman Jason Karpf said.
Jackson’s lawyers said Wednesday they could not comment due to a judge’s gag order.
”It doesn’t surprise me if he (Sneddon) has decided to go to the grand jury,” said Loyola University Law School Professor Laurie Levenson. ”It avoids the media spectacle and it gives them a chance for a dress rehearsal” before a possible trial.
Jackson has pleaded innocent to seven counts of performing lewd or lascivious acts on a child under 14 and two counts of administering an intoxicating agent, reportedly wine. He’s free on $3 million bail.