Jackson's Lawyer's Denied

A California judge rejected Michael Jackson's lawyer's requests to remove district attorney Tom Sneddon from Jackson's child molestation case.

While the trial has not yet started, Jackson's lawyers want to rid the courtroom of Sneddon before it starts. Jackson's attorney Thomas Mesereau argued that Sneddon bore a grudge against the singer that stretched back to 1993. Still, the judge has ruled that Jackson's lawyers have failed to prove that Sneddon acted improperly or overzealously.

"If he appears excessively zealous during the trial, I will see that it is taken care of," said the judge.

Jackson's team believes Sneddon "improperly inserted himself in the current case by meeting with the mother of Jackson's accuser and conducting surveillance on a private investigator working for the defense."

Jackson, who is currently free on $3 million dollar bail, has been indited with 10 counts of charges of child molestation, and reached a settlement in 1993 with the family of a boy who accused him of molestation. The trial is scheduled to stand trial beginning January 31.