Formal charges after Thanksgiving; arraignment set January 9
Thursday, November 20, 2003 Posted: 10:53 PM EST (0353 GMT)
SANTA BARBARA, California (CNN) -- Pop star Michael Jackson was booked on suspicion of child molestation Thursday, posted a $3 million bond, and was released in less than hour, flashing the peace sign, waving, and blowing kisses to cameras as he left the Santa Barbara County jail.
The 45-year-old singer will be arraigned January 9 in Santa Barbara Superior Court.
District Attorney Tom Sneddon's office said formal charges of lewd or lascivious contact with a child younger than 14 would be filed against him after Thanksgiving.
Jackson's lawyer, Mark Geragos, told reporters his client had come "to confront these charges head-on. He is greatly outraged by the bringing of these charges. He considers this to be a big lie."
Some commentators were surprised at his quick release and the setting of $3 Million bond, a figure that has to be seen as a pittance for the multimillionaire rock star, but police insisted that there had been no favoritism shown. "If anything, we did it to avoid problems in the holding cell," said Deputy Myram Foglight. "It just wasn't fair to put him in with drunks, rapists, and murderers. It would be unnecessarily cruel to expose them to that lipstick-wearing weirdo. Big Rocco was crying when he thought that he might have to share a cell with Jackson, and I don't mean little fakey tears like when he burned the orphanage down."
As was the case with a scandal involving Prince Charles a few days ago, the lawyer neglected to specify exactly what Jackson was accused of, but he did note that "Mr. Jackson strongly denies that he is a member of the British Royal Family, or that he has even met Prince Charles."
Jackson immediately left for Las Vegas on a private jet - ironically enough, one that had been sharing a hangar at the Santa Barbara airport with two smaller jets. He was whisked to a rented villa in a Lincoln Navigator SUV that had been garaged with two VW Beetles.
Jackson was expected to continue filming a new TV series, "Pansexual Freak's Eye for the below-legal age guy," which is expected to run early next year on Fox.
Remember, Kids, the part in bold is actual 100% news-flavored media product.
The rest is the fakey part.
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