Geragos: Jackson 'Not a Freak'
Jan. 17 -- Despite his client's eccentricities and bizarre appearance, defense attorney Mark Geragos told ABCNEWS' Good Morning America he does not consider Michael Jackson a "freak" and he is not concerned about how the pop star's image might affect the criminal case against him.
Watch ABCNEWS' Good Morning America Monday morning for the complete interview.
"I have sat and talked with him," Geragos told ABCNEWS senior legal correspondent Cynthia McFadden in an exclusive interview scheduled to air Monday on Good Morning America. "He's not a freak in any sense of the word. All I can tell you is that a day does not go by that I do not get inundated at my office with e-mails, letters of support, from people who think he's the greatest thing since sliced bread."
Geragos gave the interview before a judge placed a gag order on prosecutors and defense attorneys at Jackson's arraignment hearing on Friday. Jackson, 45, has pleaded not guilty to seven counts of child molestation and two counts of administering an intoxicating agent to a child under 14. Santa Barbara County, Calif., prosecutors allege Jackson molested a 12-year-old boy who spent time at his Neverland Ranch.
Jackson, who was first accused of child molestation in 1993 but never charged, has raised eyebrows by repeatedly saying in interviews — first in a British documentary, Living With Michael Jackson, and then in an interview with CBS' 60 Minutes last month — that he has allowed other people's children to sleep in his bed at Neverland Ranch.
Geragos told McFadden he does not see anything wrong with parents letting their children spend the night at other people's houses. He has allowed it with his own children.
"My children spend the night at other 45-year-old men's houses — a single male who's roughly my age, who's got a son, and my son spends the night at his house," Geragos said.
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