Jackson Home Searched in Molestation Probe

Nov. 18, 2003 -- Authorities searched Michael Jackson's ranch today as part of a criminal investigation, while the pop superstar's spokesman lashed out at "media hounds" who claimed the case involved child molestation allegations.

Between 60 and 70 investigators from the Santa Barbara County, Calf., Sheriff's Department and the district attorney's office carried out a search warrant this morning at the 45-year-old singer's home in the Santa Ynez Valley, officials said. They spent several hours at the ranch.

The search was part of an "ongoing criminal investigation," Sgt. Chris Pappas said in a statement, but authorities declined to elaborate. They planned to hold a news conference Wednesday.

Brian Oxman, an attorney who has represented Jackson family members in the past, said the investigation involved a molestation allegation.

"The investigation is about a 12-year-old boy. This involves a molestation allegation," Oxman said in a statement. "Sheriff's deputies have been investigating this case for months. There's been an ambulance that has already come and gone. And there is a forensics van, on the scene. Here we go again. This is insane."

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Jackson spokesman Stuart Backerman told ABCNEWS that Oxman was not authorized to make official statements on the singer's behalf. In a statement released this evening, Jackson's official representative said he did not know what the investigation was about, but that the entertainer would cooperate with authorities.

Backerman condemned the "malignant horde of media hounds" who claimed to have the inside scoop.

"A rogue's gallery of hucksters and self-styled 'inside sources' have dominated the airwaves since reports of a search of Neverland broke, speculating, guessing and fabricating information about an investigation they couldn't possibly know about," Backerman's statement said.

Backerman said Jackson himself said: "'I've seen lawyers who do not represent me and spokespeople who do not know me speaking for me. These characters always seem to surface with a dreadful allegation just as another project, an album, a video, is being released.' "