Las Vegas police confirm an arrest warrant has been issued for pop star Michael Jackson whose home was searched yesterday. Lawyers are negotiating the details of his surrender. Santa Barbara police will hold a press conference at 2pm EST.

We'll miss the conference as we are about to board a flight to go to court in Durango. We'll be back here tonight with updates on this and other news of the day.

Authorities in Florida are looking into whether Rush Limbaugh violated state money laundering laws by repeatedly withdrawing amounts of $9,900.00 from his bank account, presumably to pay to his pill dealer.

His lawyers say Rush was acting on the advice of his bank, which has since paid millions in fines for its erroneous advice to Rush and others to withdraw sums in that amount. Amounts over $10,000.00 trigger a reporting requirement and Rush didn't file the reports.

Amounts close to $10,000.00 are viewed as suspicious because authorites surmise that the person engaging in the transaction is structuring it to avoid the reporting requirement. Under Florida state law, knowingly structuring transactions can amount to money laundering.

This comes as a surprise....police executed a search warrant today at Michael Jackson's Neverland Ranch in California.

Police won't disclose the reasons for the search or what they are searching for, but there is speculation it could be connected to the investigation into the alleged illegal wiretapping activities of private investigator Anthony Pellicano. Pellicano worked for Jackson during Jackson's past abuse investigation. He began serving a jail sentence on unrelated charges yesterday.

Update: Court TV now reports that the search is related to a new sexual abuse investigation recently lodged by a 13 year old boy. Fox says the boy is 12 and there is an ambulance at the scene.

Update: Court TV's Diane Dimond is reporting on the scene. The ranch isn't in midtown Manhattan--or downtown LA. It's outside Santa Barbara. How did she get there so fast? She must have known the raid was going to happen. Court TV is billing her reports as "exlcusive." Here's another connection: Diane disclosed last week that she had told federal investigators about Pellicano's illegal taping of her calls when she was covering the 1993 Michael Jackson sex abuse investigation for Hard Copy.

Update: This article says that Jackson and his kids have been in Las Vegas for the past three weeks.

Update: Jackson's attorney Brian Oxman confirms the search involves molestation accusations by a 12 year old boy and that the investigation has been ongoing for months:

"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."

For our latest update on Pellicano, go here.

Update: We'll be discussing the Michael Jackson search on Hannity and Colmes tonight, following the discussion on the Scott Peterson case.

The four week long preliminary hearing of Scott Peterson ended today with a Judge ruling Peterson must stand trial for the murder of his wife Laci and the couple's unborn child.

We're not impressed with the State's case. The forensic evidence consists of a single hair of Laci's found in a pair of pliers on Scott's boat. There's no evidence as to when or how the hair got there or as to whether Laci was ever in the boat.

The police failed to follow up on leads of people sighting Laci after the time police say she disappeared. There's been no evidence that anything untoward happened in the home, as the prosecution contends.

We see a cheating husband whom police immediately tagged as a suspect and then followed and focused on relentlessly, until he became so uncomfortable with the scrutiny he moved back to his parents home in San Diego and changed his appearance to stop being recognized by the public.

We find no evidentiary value in his telling Amber Frey he was unmarried and a widower. There's no evidence to suggest he would intentionally harm his wife or unborn child.

It's not surprising the case was bound over for trial. Most cases are because the burden of proof is so low and the rules of evidence are so relaxed that untested hearsay is routinely admitted and considered by the Court.

We're scheduled to debate the evidence with former OJ cop Mark Fuhrman and Westchester DA Jeannine Pirro tonight on Hannity and Colmes.

The death penalty phase is underway in the trial of convicted sniper John Muhammad. Trying to convince jurors to vote for life after a conviction for a heinous crime is always difficult. It is even more so when the defense does not acknowledge committing the crime during the guilt phase. Here's how Muhammad's lawyers plan to proceed:

Jonathan Shapiro, one of Muhammad's attorneys, pleaded for his client's life with a short, somber statement to jurors. Shapiro said that nothing the attorneys say can excuse the crimes, that the defense will explain how Muhammad's life experiences affected him.

Shapiro said evidence will show that Muhammad took the loss of his children "extremely hard" and that he used to live a productive life as a "solid, hard-working guy" who was very attentive to his children. He asked jurors to find something in Muhammad worth saving. "You will put him in a box of one sort or the other," Shapiro said. "One is made of concrete, and one is made of pine."

On one capital count, Muhammad was convicted under Virginia's new terrorism statute. Years of appeals will follow, first in the state and then in the federal courts, over whether this law is unconstitutionally vague and whether it was intended to apply to the kind of crime spree Muhammad and Malvo engaged in. Also, under the terrorism statute, the community at large is the victim. We think that makes everyone in Virginia ineligible to sit on the jury. Another grounds for appeal.

Anthony Pellicano, the high-profile LA private investigator, entered prison today to begin serving a likely 27 to 33 month term for possession of illegal explosives. He also got married this weekend--for the fifth time.

Pellicano volunteered to begin serving his sentence today. He pleaded guilty in October to two felony counts of possessing hand grenades and C-4 explosives. He is not scheduled to be sentenced until January.

Meanwhile, the FBI probe continues into whether major Hollywood lawyers who retained Pellicano knew he was illegally wiretapping people on their behalf. Pellicano has refused to cooperate in the probe.

"My clients and the lawyers who hired me are completely innocent," Pellicano said in a telephone interview Sunday night — his first public comment on the investigation since its scope became known. Pellicano's attorney, Donald Re, took part in the interview.

"They did nothing wrong," Pellicano said, referring to his clients and employers. "The government should leave them alone. And me, I'm going to take this punishment like a man. I will not participate in any way, shape or form with this investigation."

Background on the story is here and here.

Dick DeGuerin and Mike Ramsey, the team of Texas lawyers that obtained an acquittal for NY real estate heir Robert Durst this week, are profiled in the Houston Chronicle. Here's what they say about the availablity of legal fees in the case:

Neither DeGuerin nor Ramsey, however, downplay the role that money in general and Durst's millions in particular play in mounting a good defense. In the days following the Durst decision, there were howls of outrage on local radio talk shows and in New York tabloids that Durst escaped punishment with his wallet.

"I recognize that the general public thinks that justice is for sale and that the general public looks on criminal defense attorneys as being slightly better than street sweepers," DeGuerin said. "It's a shame that they think that way. We did get adequately compensated and the only advantage it gave us was that we were able to level the playing field with the state, which has unlimited resources."

Ramsey was more blunt. "In this case there was plenty of money. It wasn't a problem," he said. "The inevitable conclusion is that if a case is properly funded you can prepare better. You can hire the proper staff, you can hire investigators, you can better prepare for what amounts to a Broadway production."

Rather than resenting the rich for being able to afford an effective defense, why don't we insist that our Government provide the same resources to indigent defendants?

Jury Consultant Bob Hirschhorn said today that he was a part of the Robert Durst defense jury selection effort and that the defense utilized a shadow jury during the trial. The shadow jury came back with a "not guilty" after only one hour of deliberation--four days before the real jury did.

Shadow juries and mock juries are incredible assets to a defense team. They are also very expensive. In indigent defense cases, we can't think of any judge that has authorized the use of either.

We've sat through a few mock juries before our trials....we watched via a one way glass mirror as the jurors discuss the evidence in the case and our intended defense. They are a valuable tool in aiding the defense in determining whether a specific defense will gain traction or whether they need to change horses.

Bob Hirschhorn is one of the country's top trial consultants. He worked with Mike Tigar in selecting the federal jury in the Terry Nichols case. That jury came back with a life verdict instead of death.

We wish all our clients could afford trial consultants.

Closing arguments are ongoing today in the trial of accused sniper suspect John Muhammad. Opening arguments are underway in the trial of younger suspect John Lee Malvo.

Yesterday, the Associated Press released details of an earlier FBI investigation into one of the state's forensic chemists who testified at Muhammad's trial. The prosecution claims it didn't know any of this stuff. Clearly, it is Brady material that should have been turned over. If the AP located the material, the Prosecution could have obtained it as well.

A government chemist who testified in the Washington sniper case kept a "sloppy" office that raised concerns of contaminated evidence and has made numerous racially insensitive remarks, according to evidence the government has had for more than a decade.

The Virginia prosecutor handling the trial of sniper defendant John Allen Muhammad said Thursday he wasn't aware of the information, obtained by The Associated Press, before he put government chemist Edward Bender on the witness stand last week. "And I'm not aware of it today," Paul Ebert said.

....FBI and Justice Department documents obtained by AP detail testimony from colleagues and supervisors that Bender made racist comments that were pervasive enough to raise concerns among at least one colleague about his impartiality in cases. A supervisor and "Bender continually and loudly expressed strong racial prejudice using such words as 'jungle bunnies' and 'niggers' repeatedly," a 1991 FBI memo stated, recounting allegations from one of Bender's lab colleagues.

There's more, go read. As to "Brady,"

The government and prosecutors are required under a Supreme Court ruling known as Brady v. Maryland to provide defendants with all "material" information affecting their case, including derogatory information that could impact the credibility of prosecution witnesses.

Another Supreme Court case, Kyles v. Whitley, 514 U.S. 419 (1995) held that the duty of disclosure is not limited to evidence in the actual possession of the prosecutor. Rather, it extends to evidence in the possession of the entire prosecution team, which includes investigative and other government agencies. See also Strickler v. Greene, 119 S.Ct. 1936, at n.12 (1999).

Update: The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) has had Bender on its list of the Ten Most Unwanted Government Forensic Witnesses for a few years. Here's the Bender information NACDL obtained from the Inspector General's report and the FBI files:

The jury has been selected in the trial of accused sniper suspect John Lee Malvo. Including alternates, there are eight men and eight women, four blacks one Asian and 11 whites.

The Judge denied several defense motions today. The trial is recessed until tomorrow.

Here's the latest of the FBI probe of top Hollywood lawyers resulting from a criminal case against private investigator Anthony Pellicano.

Bert Fields, the prominent entertainment lawyer whose celebrity clientele has included Tom Cruise, Michael Jackson and Kevin Costner, said Tuesday that he has formally been notified that he is a subject of a federal grand jury investigation into illegal wiretapping.

"I've been told that I am a subject, not a target, of the investigation," Fields said. "But I have never in any case had anything to do with illegal wiretapping. I don't do that."

Investigators in the wiretapping case have questioned a broad range of entertainment industry figures, including Warren Beatty and comedian Garry Shandling, according to attorneys involved in the probe. Beatty declined to return calls, as did Shandling.

Authorities suspect Pellicano illegally wiretapped people while working for the lawyers, perhaps with the assistance one or more law enforcement agents. They are trying to figure out whether the lawyers Pellicano was working for knew of the illegal taps, ordered them or condoned them. We suspect the answer is going to be "no," but that it will keep a lot of lawyers on edge for a while, wondering just what was on all those tapes seized from Pellicano's computers.

Update: TV news reporter and Court TV Anchor Diane Dimond is the latest to be advised her phones were tapped by Pellicano--back in '93 when she was covering the Michael Jackson scandal for Hard Copy.

Congrats to Houston lawyer Dick DeGuerin whose client, NY real estate heir Robert Durst, was found innocent of murder by a Texas jury today.

Durst, 60, who is under suspicion in two other killings and who posed for a time as a mute woman, testified in his own defense for nearly four days. He insisted that Black was shot accidentally during a struggle over a gun, and said he used two saws and an ax to cut up the body. The victim's head has never been found.

After the killing in late September 2001, Durst was a fugitive for six weeks until he was caught in Pennsylvania when he tried to shoplift a $5 sandwich even though he had $500 in his pocket.

At defense attorneys' request, jurors considered only a murder charge. They could have asked that jurors consider a lesser charge, such as manslaughter, in addition to murder, but opted for an all-or-nothing strategy.