Michael Jackson Prosecutor Tom Sneddon, 73, Dies; Pursued the Singer on a Vendetta
http://www.showbiz411.com/2014…-the-singer-on-a-vendetta
Posted By Roger Friedman On November 2, 2014 8:38 pm @ 8:38 PM In Celebrity,Featured,Media | No Comments
There isn’t much nice I can say about Tom Sneddon, the former Santa Barbara District Attorney. He is dead at age 73. You’re not supposed to speak ill of the dead. But this is what I
know: Sneddon conducted a vendetta against Michael Jackson that went on
for years. He bungled the 1993 investigation with Jordan Chandler. And
then in 2005 Sneddon — with no real evidence– brought Jackson to trial
and destroyed him. The child molestation case was almost completely
fabricated, with Sneddon at its forefront. It almost certainly led to
Jackson’s death.I watched Tom Sneddon in court through the winter and
spring of 2005.He was about as unsophisticated as he could be in upscale
Santa Barbara. It’s hard to believe a guy who seemed like such a hick
could be popular with wealthy constituents. His pursuit of Michael
Jackson was ridiculous, and you could say bordered on racist. It was
clear he wanted Jackson out of Santa Ynez, Los Olivos and the whole
area. Let’s not forget: Sneddon threw a victory party at a local
restaurant during jury deliberations. He was convinced he’d won. It was
in the poorest taste, and he was wrong, wrong, wrong.
Early on, Sneddon knew that the Arvizo family was nutty. Not only that,
there was ample evidence they were lying about a lot of things starting
with their “kidnapping” by Jackson. If yours truly had seen the
humungous pile of receipts rung up by the Arvizo’s during their
“incarceration,” certainly Sneddon knew about them, too. I certainly
reported enough stories at the time detailing the Arvizos’ activities–
shopping, restaurants, vacations, spa treatments– that a D.A. with a
legitimate brief would have questioned the veracity of his government
witnesses.
But Sneddon was out to get Michael Jackson. He’d lost out in 1993 when
Jackson paid off Chandler. He wasn’t thrilled that Jackson had needled
him in songs on subsequent albums. When Sneddon turned up at Neverland
in November 2003 with bottom feeding tabloid reporter Diane Dimond for
the big search and arrest, he showed his cards. It was a grudge match
return.
That Tom Mesereau, Jackson’s defense lawyer, made such mincemeat of that
prosecutors’ office should tell us everything. Sneddon did a lot of
smirking in that trial. He really thought he was sending Michael Jackson
to prison. He certainly humiliated the pop star. But then his case fell
apart: Janet Arvizo, revealed as a welfare cheat, told Tom Mesereau she
thought Jackson was going to take her kids away in a big helium
balloon. She and her kids all had different stories. No one could
explain how Arvizo was getting bikini waxes while Sneddon insisted she’d
been taken against her will.
Jackson left Los Olivos two weeks after the trial was over. Mesereau had
advised him to go. Sneddon, he said, would never give up. He’d make
Jackson’s life a living hell. So I’m sorry Tom Sneddon is dead,
and certainly it’s a terrible loss for his family. Maybe he was a
wonderful father and husband. But his overzealousness to get even with
Michael Jackson caused a lot of damage. The fact is, and people don’t like this,Michael Jackson was innocent of those charges. They should never have been brought.
!