A Jackson Investigator's Controversial Find
Mood:  loud
Topic: Prosecutor Press Release
Friday, September 03, 2004

Courtesy Getty Images Hector Mata


June 29, 2004

Accused of 10 felony counts stemming from child molestation allegations, MICHAEL JACKSON remains free on $3 million bail, awaiting a trial that is expected to begin September 13.

Tonight on ET, we have more with retired LAPD officer BILL DWORIN on Jackson's similar 1993 case!

Back in 1993, Jackson came close to facing another situation when similar accusations surfaced about alleged misconduct with a 13-year-old boy, although formal charges were never filed -- in part because the child wouldn't testify in court. At the time, the child spoke to the LAPD's Sexually Exploited Child Unit, headed by the now-retired Dworin.

"He was not angry at anything, he was just wanting to get this out of the way," Dworin tells ET. "And based upon what he told us, we then obtained a search warrant for Mr. Jackson's ranch in Santa Barbara as well as a townhouse in Century City."

At the Neverland ranch, Dworin claims he found "numerous photographs of young boys." "We knew Jackson surrounded himself with boys and girls. But we also learned that he did not allow girls to visit the bedroom. It was just boys. We also found in a locked file cabinet, within Jackson's bedroom closet, a ... book depicting photographs of nude boys. Nothing illegal about these photographs. They're art-type images."

In Jackson's bedroom, Dworin also describes an alarm that was installed that made "some type of electric sound and a musical tone" when anyone entered the room. "Jackson set it up for a specific reason," says Dworin. "My opinion is to warn him when somebody was approaching the bedroom door."

Dworin says he interviewed more than 3,500 alleged child victims of abuse and exploitation over the course of his career. In this particular case, he says he believed the 13-year-old was credible because he offered detailed descriptions of Jackson's body, including his genitalia. Dworin then obtained a search warrant to photograph Jackson's body and found specific discolorations of the skin that reportedly matched the boy's descriptions. The boy also reportedly described activities to Dworin that occurred on an alleged trip with Jackson to Monaco, which Dworin claims, "had expanded to more than just the touchy feeling. It began with the kissing."

Dworin says that two other boys the same age were interviewed who had alleged improper touching by Jackson. "It was over the clothing, not skin on skin," says the retired officer. "What we consider child annoying rather than child molestation."

But after the boy at the center of the 1993 case decided not to testify in court and Jackson settled that multi-million-dollar civil suit, the criminal pursuit of the self-proclaimed king of pop came to an end.

"Once the primary victim decided not to testify based upon a civil settlement, the other children no longer had an interest in going forward with it," says Dworin.