California authorities said Wednesday that they had issued an arrest warrant for the singer Michael Jackson on multiple counts of child molestation.
The sheriff of Santa Barbara County, Jim Anderson, said at a press conference that he and the district attorney, Thomas W. Sneddon Jr., were working with Jackson's lawyers to arrange for his surrender, and that they would ask that bail be set at $3 million.
Anderson and Sneddon would not name the child involved, nor would they say when or where the activity under investigation had taken place.
"I believe he is willing to cooperate with us and turn in his passport at this time," Anderson said of Jackson, who was last reported to be in Las Vegas, on Tuesday, making a video. The two would not say how much time they had given Jackson to surrender.
Lawyers for Jackson called the charges "outrageous" in a statement issued on his behalf less than two hours after the news conference. The lawyers, led by Mark Geragos of Los Angeles, said Jackson would return to Santa Barbara from Las Vegas to confront the accusations.
"The outrageous allegation against Michael Jackson are false," the statement said. "Michael would never harm a child in any way. These scurrilous and totally unfounded allegations will be proven false in a courtroom."
The warrant was issued under a California law that prohibits lewd or lascivious acts with a child under age 14. A conviction could result in up to eight years in prison, the two law enforcement officials told reporters in a televised news conference at the Earl Warren Showgrounds in Santa Barbara.
The announcement of the arrest warrant came a day after more than than 60 law enforcement officers searched Jackson's ranch, Neverland, on the authority of a warrant issued by the Superior Court in Santa Barbara for what officials then would say only was a "criminal investigation." The sheriff and the district attorney said investigators arrived at the ranch at 8:30 a.m. and did not leave until 11 p.m.
Jackson, 45, did not immediately comment on the announcement of the arrest warrant. But on Tuesday, he denounced news media coverage of the search in a statement given Tuesday to The Associated Press by his spokesman, Stuart Backerman.
"I've seen lawyers who don't represent me and spokespeople who do not know me speaking for me," Jackson's statement said. "These characters always seem to surface with dreadful allegations just as another project, an album, a video is being released" — a reference to the release of Jackson's greatest hits album, "Number Ones," on Tuesday.
At the press conference, Sneddon, the district attorney, said the timing of the arrest warrant had nothing to do with Jackson's musical career.
"Like the sheriff and I are into that kind of music," he said, eliciting laughter at the press conference. "It has nothing to do with anything else that goes on in his life. We don't track him."
That and other occasional laughter at the news conference came in for sharp criticism in the statement issued by Jackson's lawyers. "Naturally the implications are disturbing to everyone who hears them, which is precisely the point," the statement said. "We are disturbed by the levity of the environment surrounding the announcement of these very serious charges."
Despite — or perhaps because of — the widespread public attention prompted by the arrest warrant, the sheriff and the district attorney said that they would not grant interviews to any of the array of journalists from around the world who had either come to Santa Barbara or had contacted their offices. The officials asserted that all official information about the case would be delivered only at news conferences or through official proceedings.
Almost 10 years ago, Jackson faced another investigation of child molestation involving a 12-year-old boy. No charges were ever filed in that case, but during the investigation, the boy's family filed a civil lawsuit, and Jackson settled out of court, reportedly for several million dollars.
In December 1993, Jackson, fighting back tears, denied in a television appearance, broadcast from the ranch, that he had sexually abused the boy, and called the accusations "disgusting" and "totally false.
"Don't treat me like a criminal, because I am innocent," the pop star pleaded at that time.