LOS ANGELES COUNTY : Garcetti Seeks Way to Force Jackson Accuser to Testify

Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti announced Thursday that he is sponsoring a legislative amendment that would allow prosecutors to attempt to force a 14-year-old boy to testify against Michael Jackson.

Garcetti acknowledged at a news conference that a reported multimillion-dollar settlement nine days ago of a lawsuit that the teen-ager filed against Jackson prompted his effort to overturn a section of the California Code of Civil Procedure.

That section states that “no court may imprison or otherwise confine or place in custody the victim of a sexual assault for contempt when the contempt consists of refusing to testify concerning the sexual assault.”

Garcetti said his proposal would take away that legal protection, even from children, only if they have filed a civil suit in their cases, or if they have accepted a monetary settlement. Filing a suit indicates a willingness to get on a witness stand, he said.

Legal experts have noted that the civil code section, as currently written, would protect the boy if he balked at testifying against Jackson in a criminal proceeding.

The settlement, the experts said, made it unlikely the boy would give such testimony. And without his testimony, they said, the prosecution’s chances of success in a criminal case are weakened.