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- Geraldine Hughes-

lars were spent over an eight month period before Mr. Garcetti
and Mr. Sneddon decided to end their criminal investigation.
Mr. Garcetti announced that the investigation would remain
open pending any witnesses coming forward until the six year
statute of limitation had expired.
Had Mr. Sneddon and Mr. Garcetti found anything cred-
ible to indict Michael Jackson on, he would have been indicted
and tried on the criminal charges. The settlement of the civil
proceedings did not interfere with the criminal prosecution
case nor did Michael Jackson buy his way out of being indicted.
The only problem the settlement caused, was that under Cali-
fornia law children cannot be forced to testify against their
will, but the law does not allow authorities to punish victims
of sex crimes who decline to testify. The reason why they could
not indict was because the 13-year old boy was their only wit-
ness, and without his cooperation they had no case.
Two Grand Juries, which consisted of 24 peers in two dif-
ferent counties, an extensive search of Michael Jackson's
Neverland Ranch, Century City condo, his parent's Encino
home, and even Michael Jackson's body search, interviews with
over 200 men, women, boys and girls, and even traveling out
of the country to interview witnesses, did not produce any
evidence to support a criminal indictment for child molesta-
tion.
Criminal cases deal primarily with the issue of guilt or in-
nocence and a jury must come to an unanimous decision that
a crime was committed beyond a reasonable doubt. The out-
come in a criminal proceeding, if a party is found guilty, is
primarily about punishment, and/or fines, or both. This dif-
fers from the civil proceeding... which is about money.
Although civil and criminal cases are distinctly different
areas of law and play by a different set of rules, as mentioned
previously, an individual can be charged in both venues. The
criminal case is usually tried first, and once a determination of
guilt has been established, the harmed party files a civil law-
suit to collect damages for said crime.

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