So Michael Jackson has his passport back, and it wasn’t missing or lost after all.

That’s the word from Santa Barbara Sheriff’s Department spokesman Sgt. Eric Rainey — although there’s still no confirmation from Jackson’s camp, despite repeated calls.

Rainey says the passport was turned over last Friday, June 17, to Jesus Castillo, a private investigator for Jackson’s defense attorney Thomas Mesereau. Earlier that day, four days after Jackson’s June 13 acquittal, Judge Rodney Melville signed an order that the passport be returned to Jackson.

Sources close to Jackson complained about the time lag when the passport was not immediately turned over after his acquittal. At least two of them claimed the passport had been lost by the District Attorney’s office.

The DA’s office says it didn’t have the passport, and Sgt. Rainey has confirmed that. We defer to the sergeant on this one.

There had been some confusion about who had the passport when the trial ended and who had had it throughout the trial. Rainey told me he wasn’t sure whose possession it had been in before his office turned it over to Castillo.

Sources say the passport was kept in the District Attorney’s office as part of evidence, although the DA’s spokeswoman says it was not.

Source: Roger Friedman / Fox News