Saying they are worried about witnesses being intimidated, Santa Barbara County prosecutors asked a judge Thursday to seal recent search warrants in the Michael Jackson case.
Issued Jan. 22, the warrants seek billing records from seven unnamed "providers of telephone service to subscribers in California and elsewhere," according to the motion filed with Superior Court Judge Rodney S. Melville. In the court filing, Deputy Dist. Atty. Gerald McC. Franklin suggested that people whose telephone numbers are revealed might flee or refuse to talk. Representing Dist. Atty. Tom Sneddon, he said in the motion that "the prior experience of investigators in this matter" led him to believe that prospective witnesses "have sometimes been subjected to intimidation and have become reluctant to be forthcoming and candid."
