Arrest Warrant Issued for Michael Jackson
AARON BROWN, CNN ANCHOR, NEWSNIGHT: Good evening, again, everyone. There are important stories and irresistible ones and you can be absolutely certain this is one of them. Michael Jackson, for better or worse, guilty or innocence, has been part of the landscape in one way or another for nearly 40 years. He's been famous almost his entire life, infamous for some of it. Front page news either way. So irresistible, yes. But important? We remember the day Elvis died and the "CBS Evening News" led with the signing of the Panama Canal Treaty instead. We won't make that mistake tonight. Michael Jackson leads the program and "The Whip." The Whip begins in Santa Barbara , California, not far from Mr. Jackson's Neverland Ranch. CNN's Frank Buckley has been there all day. Frank, start us with the headline.</s>FRANK BUCKLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, authorities here today confirmed that Michael Jackson is wanted on an arrest warrant that alleges multiple counts of child molestation. Jackson has agreed to turn himself in. He is also vowing to fight the charges to prove his innocence. Aaron.</s>BROWN: Frank, thank you. Next to New York and an investigation of Rush Limbaugh and his dealings with the bank. CNN's Deborah Feyerick with that. Deb, a headline.</s>DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, new denials from the radio chat host, not about painkillers this time, but about money laundering.</s>BROWN: Thank you very much. Now to Boston and the tricky job of legislating the issue of gay marriage, or something close to it, while under a court order. Our Boston Bureau Chief Dan Lothian, has the watch again. So, Dan, headline from you tonight.</s>DAN LOTHIAN, CNN BOSTON BUREAU CHIEF: Aaron, yesterday's ruling is now coming under heavy attack. Of course, that's not a big surprise. Opponents making a lot of phone calls to lawyers and lawmakers as they try to stop same-sex marriage from taking place in this state.</s>BROWN: Thank you very much. Finally, a port of call that hasn't been called on in decades. CNN's Mike Chinoy on the videophone now with the U.S. Navy in Vietnam. Mike, a headline.</s>MIKE CHINOY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Aaron, for the first time since the end of the Vietnam War, the U.S. Navy is making a port call here in Vietnam. It's an important symbol of reconciliation. As the sailors went off on liberty in what used to be Saigon, folks here seemed very pleased to welcome them back. Aaron.</s>BROWN: Mike, thank you. We'll get back to you and the rest shortly. Also tonight, the president defends his stand on Iraq in a visit to Great Britain. Later we get a report on the ground from Baghdad, from John Burns, of "The New York Times," who says in some ways things are not so bad as you may think. We continue our look at the assassination of President Kennedy with a look at how it ended an era of optimism in the country. As always, we end the evening with a check of your papers for tomorrow morning and the rooster that thankfully does not show up on your front doorstep. All that and more in the hour ahead. We begin with Michael Jackson, whose latest single, from his newest album, is entitled "One More Chance." He was supposed to perform it a week from today on a network TV special, but as you might imagine the special has been postponed indefinitely. The singer faces serious charges and plans for a comeback have been set aside in favor of plans for his surrender. CNN's Frank Buckley begins our coverage.</s>FRANK BUCKLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Santa Barbara authorities said they are actively pursuing an arrest warrant against entertainer Michael Jackson.</s>JIM ANDERSON, SHERIFF, SANTA BARBARA: An arrest warrant for Mr. Jackson has been issued on multiple counts of child molestation.</s>BUCKLEY: Sheriff Jim Anderson and District Attorney Thomas Sneddon would not disclose any details including the age or gender of the alleged child victim. Jackson denied any wrongdoing through a spokesman, who said, "The outrageous allegations against Michael Jackson are false. Michael would never harm a child in anyway. These scurrilous and totally unfounded allegations will be proven false in a courtroom." The announcement came a day after a team of more than 60 investigators descended on Jackson's Neverland Ranch to serve a search warrant. Two additional warrants were served in Los Angeles. Jackson was not at any of the locations. He was working on a music video in Las Vegas. Authorities did not pursue him, allowing him instead to turn himself in.</s>ANDERSON: Mr. Jackson's been given an opportunity to surrender himself to the custody of the Santa Barbara sheriff's department within a specified period of time.</s>BUCKLEY: Jackson was accused in 1993 of sexually molesting a 13- year-old boy. He was not charged with a crime. The alleged victim refused to testify. Jackson consistently maintained his innocence.</s>MICHAEL JACKSON: I am totally innocent of any wrongdoing and I know these terrible allegations will all be proven false.</s>BUCKLEY: A financial settlement was reached in that case, but Santa Barbara authorities say this case will be different.</s>THOMAS SNEDDON, SANTA BARBARA DISTRICT ATTORNEY: There is no civil case filed, and there is no anticipation that there will be a civil case filed in this particular case.</s>BUCKLEY: And a familiar legal name will be representing Michael Jackson, at least leading the defense team. Mark Geragos, who is currently representing Scott Peterson in the Laci Peterson preliminary hearing in Modesto has agreed to be the lead on the defense team for Michael Jackson. Meanwhile, Aaron, tonight we continue to wait for Michael Jackson to turn himself in; a knowledgeable source telling us that that will happen sometime tomorrow.</s>BROWN: Frank, let me try to do a bunch of really quick ones. Help me out here. Do we know where Mr. Jackson is tonight?</s>BUCKLEY: We -- the latest we have is we believe he's still in Las Vegas.</s>BROWN: OK. Number two, do we know anything about the young man whose allegations are at the center of this? How he came in contact with Mr. Jackson, anything like that at all?</s>BUCKLEY: A lot of speculation. No need to go there, because we don't know for sure. We don't even know, at least officially, if it's a boy or a girl. All we know is that according to the charging -- the penal code violation, that it's a child under the age of 14 years of age.</s>BROWN: Do we know anything about what police were looking for or found in their long search of the property over the last day?</s>BUCKLEY: We can assume that they were looking for things like photos. There are many photos on the grounds. Other documents that would corroborate what the child has said, what the victim has said. We know that generally that's what they're looking for. We also know that they videotaped everything on the Neverland premises. But beyond that, we don't have any specifics yet and we're told that the affidavit that was in support of the search and arrest warrants will be sealed for at least 45 days.</s>BROWN: And finally, if in fact he is guilty and is convicted on these counts, what is he looking at?</s>BUCKLEY: Well, it's three to eight years, depending on the conviction, per count. We don't know how many counts. And it's up to the judge. And, again, this is looking way forward, but it would be up to the judge to sentence. And he could do those consecutively. So theoretically, each count, a certain number of years and run them all together.</s>BROWN: Frank, nice job tonight. Thank you very much. Frank Buckley out of Santa Barbara, California, tonight. We'll have more on the Michael Jackson case in the next segment of the program. Other matters first. In this case, Rush Limbaugh. When he entered rehab a little more than five weeks ago it was understood he still faced a number of questions and potentially a lot of legal complications regarding his drug purchases. He was addicted to painkillers. Today he addressed one of them stemming from questionable withdrawals from a bank in New York. Reporting the story for us, CNN's Deborah Feyerick.</s>DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Rush Limbaugh, back on the air and back on the defensive.</s>RUSH LIMBAUGH, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: I was not laundering money. I was withdrawing money, for crying out loud.</s>FEYERICK: Limbaugh recently got out of drug rehab after admitting he was addicted to painkillers. Police are investigating claims by Limbaugh's former housekeeper that she illegally sold Limbaugh thousands of prescription painkillers. He has denied doing anything illegal. Now the question raised by news stories, did Limbaugh violate Florida money laundering laws? That's what the radio chat host was denying Wednesday, telling listeners his bank told him to take out sums under $10,000, so the bank wouldn't have to report them to the government.</s>LIMBAUGH: The bank apparently told many other of their clients that their cash withdrawals should be in amounts less than $10,000.</s>FEYERICK: Limbaugh says a bank representative came to his office four or five times, each time bringing him more than $9,000. The bank, U.S. Trust, tells CNN it never talks about its clients. Two years ago, U.S. Trust paid state and federal regulators a $10 million fine for allegedly violating rules designed to stop money laundering and fraud. U.S. Trust admitted no wrongdoing. Money laundering experts say Limbaugh still could be in jeopardy.</s>CHARLES INTRIAGO, MONEY LAUNDERING EXPERT: It doesn't matter what the purpose of the withdrawals was. What matters under the criminal law that I'm referring to, the structuring law, is that he structured the transaction to avoid or evade the filing of a required federal reporting form.</s>FEYERICK (on camera): Limbaugh told his audience he took out about $300,000 over five years, mostly to remodel his Palm Beach home. His lawyers said he has not committed any money laundering offense. Aaron.</s>BROWN: This is -- are all the law enforcement sources on this pretty tight lipped right now?</s>FEYERICK: Everybody is very tight lipped about what's going on right now.</s>BROWN: All right. Let's leave it there. Deborah Feyerick, thank you on the Limbaugh story. Now, a question of life or death for convicted sniper John Muhammad. The prosecution rested today in the penalty phase of his trial. The defense gets under way tomorrow with chilling and potentially damaging testimony from Muhammad's ex-wife, still fresh in the ears and on the minds of jurors. Reporting the story, CNN's Jeanne Meserve.</s>JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John Muhammad's ex-wife Mildred, a central but until now mysterious figure in the sniper story, testified that John Muhammad repeatedly threatened her after the break-up of their marriage, saying to her at one point, "Just know this, you have become my enemy, and as my enemy, I will kill you." In the courtroom, deputies shielded her whenever Muhammad was near. Prosecutors theorized the snipers shootings were part of an elaborate scheme to kill Mildred and regain custody of their three children. Jurors haven't been allowed to hear that theory, but 10- year-old Talibah (ph) Muhammad is apparently aware. According to Mildred, when Talibah heard her father had been found guilty, she said, "Mom, I know if dad gets out that means he's going to kill you, and I don't want to live the rest of my life without my mommy. Out of the presence of the jury, she quoted 13-year-old John Jr. as saying, "If dad takes you out, then I'm going to have to take him out." Mildred carried to Virginia Beach letters for John Muhammad from each of the children. All wrote that they loved him and always would. And from Talibah, "I miss you so much, and can I ask you some questions? One, why did you do all those shootings?" Mary Merez (ph), a former girlfriend of Muhammad, testified for the defense, describing Muhammad as a generous man. She cried as she said, I feel that his life will always have value. He's a person that has so much to give. (on camera): Jurors had to pass around a tissue box after the highly emotional victim impact testimony of friends and family of Dean Meyers. They described him as a generous man, who always thought of others before himself until a single gunshot wound to the head left him dead. Jeanne Meserve, CNN, Virginia Beach, Virginia.</s>BROWN: The day after the Massachusetts supreme court opened the door to gay marriage in the state, the rough and tumble work of making sense of the ruling is under way. Legislators there now have less than six months to craft a new marriage law, laws that don't discriminate against couples of the same sex. The ruling appears to leave little room for doing anything but, which has done nothing to settle the issue, Just the opposite. Here's CNN's Dan Lothian.</s>DAN LOTHIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: As the headlines screamed a historic decision and wedding cliches as gays, lesbians and their supporters reveled in the high court's ruling, the battle to defeat same-sex marriage intensified. Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney leads the way, unwilling to call it a done deal.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think there may be civil unions of some kind, some definition being crafted by the legislature on an interim basis, but I don't think you'll see traditional marriage.</s>LOTHIAN: At the Massachusetts Family Institute President Ron Cruz has been working the phones to help fuel opposition to what he calls a radical decision.</s>RON CREWS, MASSACHUSETTS FAMILY INST.: I've been talking to attorneys to find out if there are any legal remedies, any's to take to either delay the implementation of this decision, any motions we can file.</s>LOTHIAN: It isn't clear what the state legislature, which has 180 days to act on the ruling, can or will do in the short term. But anything to block this landmark decision, say supporters, is not only wishful thinking, but wrong.</s>JARRETT BARRIOS (D), MASS. STATE SENATOR: The SJC said that the constitution requires that nobody be discriminated against.</s>LOTHIAN: GLAD, the Gay and Lesbian Organization, which won the lawsuit on behalf of seven same-sex couples, has been meeting behind closed doors to keep their meeting from being derailed.</s>MARY BONAUTO, PLAINTIFF'S LAWYER: It's fine to talk about something, but it's late, late to be talking about civil unions. We're now on the frontier of marriage, the same marriage everyone else has.</s>LOTHIAN: Public reaction remains mixed, in a state where 50 percent support same-sex marriage and 44 percent oppose it.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm surprised it happened in Massachusetts.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think everyone should be afforded the same civil protections as everyone else.</s>LOTHAIN: So what happens if opponents succeed in either delaying or blocking same-sex marriage in this state? Well, GLAD says it is paying attention and trying to figure out what move they will make, and it's ready to foil those moves, even if it means going back to court -- Daryn.</s>BROWN: Is the legislature in session?</s>LOTHAIN: They are. And what they say at this point is that simply they really doesn't know. There seems to be so much confusion in this case. They say there was a lot of vague statements made in that ruling yesterday, and they simply don't know what their next move will be.</s>BROWN: Dan, thank you very much. Dan Lothian, our Boston bureau chief. Ahead on NEWSNIGHT, a lot more on the Michael Jackson case. We'll be joined by defense lawyer Al DeBlanc and Peter Castro of "People" magazine. Later, a strange sight indeed, American soldiers on liberty in a city once known as Saigon, the first time since the end of the Vietnam War. We'll have a report from New York. This is NEWSNIGHT.