Cops hit wall in hunt for couple, landlord By JORGE FITZ-GIBBON, MIKE CLAFFEY and ALICE McQUILLAN Daily ! News Staff Writers Police hit legal roadblocks yesterday in their search for a missing lower Manhattan couple and their landlord - leaving detectives no closer to solving the mysterious disappearance. Citing lack of evidence, the Manhattan district attorney's office turned down a request by detectives to apply for a search warrant to enter the landlord's upstate home. "There is no legal basis to get a search warrant in this case at this time," said Barbara Thompson, a spokeswoman for Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau. A day earlier, cops probing the disappearance of actor Michael Sullivan Daughter on way a Jackson thriller King of Pop Michael Jackson reportedly will soon become dad to a daughter. The second child of Jackson and his wife, Debbie Rowe, will be a girl, according to syndicated columnist Liz Smith. The British tab The Mirror previously had reported the baby was due in December. The paper said Jackson was so thrilled to hear that Rowe would make him a father again that he gave her a $168,000 Mercedes S600. The couple already has a son, Prince, born Feb. 13 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. Jackson, 39, and Rowe, 37, a nurse, were married in November 1996 in a secret ceremony in Australia. Jackson had been divorced from his first wife, Lisa Marie Presley, for less than a year at the time. News wire services and real estate agent Camden Sylvia found a fake wall next to a storage space in a second-floor apartment of the landlord's Manhattan building. Yesterday, they were able to gain access to the space but found no clues that could help explain the mysterious disappearances, police sources said. No witnesses have stepped forward to shed light on the fate e of Sullivan, 54, and Sylvia, 36, who vanished Nov. 7 from their loft at 76 Pearl St. Nine days later, their landlord, Bob Rodriguez, 56, also disappeared, and his family stopped cooperating with investigators. Attorney Joseph Morro defended the Rodriguez family's decision not to allow police to search their Orange County home, which sits on six acres of woods in New Hampton. "We're not going to give them carte blanche to go through there and grab everything they want," Morro said. "If they have sufficient information to get a search warrant, that's fine by me. Given all the speculation and craziness out there, I have to protect my client and his family." A police helicopter had patrolled the skies over Rodriguez' home Tuesday, but authorities did not spot any signs of freshly dug earth or his missing green Honda Passport. Police boats also have been patrolling the East River and Battery Park areas where the couple was known to jog. The family's stance has raised suspicions among police, who have not labeled Rodriguez a suspect. At first, Rodriguez let cops search parts of the Pearl St. building, but he vanished on the day he was supposed to sit down with detectives. "We are puzzled by their lack of cooperation," said a police source. "They were cooperative up until recently and then had an abrupt change of mind, raising the question of whether they've been in contact with Mr. Rodriguez." Sullivan and Sylvia declared a rent strike the day they vanished in an ongoing argument with Rodriguez over lack of heat. With Barbara Ross and Michele McPhee
