End of week 1

Michael Jackson's child-molestation trial resumes on Monday after an opening week of testimony that was packed with lurid details and mutual accusations of conspiracy and deceit.

Currently on the witness stand is the elder sister of the then 13-year-old cancer victim Jackson stands accused of molesting at his fantasy-style Neverland Ranch two years ago.

The first member of the accuser's family to testify, the young woman, now 18, faces further cross-examination from Jackson's imposing lead lawyer, Thomas Mesereau.

In a trial in which so much hangs on witness credibility, Mesereau scored key points on Friday as he got the sister to concede that she and her mother had lied about key details of the case in an interview with social workers.

Heaping scorn on the prosecution claim that the family was held captive at Neverland, Mesereau also made her acknowledge that they never tried to alert anyone to their alleged plight during visits to a passport office and a crowded shopping mall.

Jackson, 46, is charged with molesting the boy, now 15, plying him with alcohol and conspiring to abduct him, his younger brother, sister and mother. If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in prison.

The battle lines in the trial, which is expected to last several months, were drawn on the very first day, in opening arguments that painted starkly contrasting portraits of a defendant who, even before his arrest, polarised public opinion.

While prosecutors portrayed Jackson as a scheming sexual predator, his defence countered with the image of misunderstood man-child, whose naive good intentions were exploited by his accuser's family and his own aides.

According to District Attorney Tom Sneddon, Jackson showed the alleged victim and his brother pornographic magazines and websites, once walked in on them "stark naked with an erection," and simulated sex with a mannequin as they watched.

Mesereau, meanwhile, claimed the accuser's mother was a rapacious financial predator with a history of trying to con celebrities.

The kidnap conspiracy charge took a hit on Friday when jurors watched a video -- made during the period of the alleged abduction -- of the accuser's family praising Jackson as a loving, compassionate, humble father figure who they called "daddy Michael."

The prosecution claims the family was held captive and intimidated into making the video as a rebuttal to a damaging documentary, by British journalist Martin Bashir, that showed Jackson holding hands with his alleged victim and admitting to sharing his bed with children.

However, the unedited version presented to the jury showed the family members looking relaxed and joking between takes.

"God elected to work through Michael at a very traumatic time in our life," the boy's mother said in the video, recorded three months before the family made their molestation allegations.

"The video was a disaster for the prosecution," said Anne Bremner, a legal analyst and criminal defence attorney.

"There was no sign of coercion or that they were being held against their will and that casts doubt on the whole conspiracy charge," Bremner said. "In this kind of case, you want to start and end with a bang. So far, for the prosecution, it's been more of a whimper."

Asked for his opinion on the week's proceedings as he left court on Friday, Jackson replied: "It went very good, very good."

Earlier in the week, however, Jackson had spoken of feeling "angry" as jurors were shown the explosive Bashir documentary that triggered the police investigation into his relationship with his young accuser.

He also showed discomfort at the playing of a police video shot during a raid of Neverland, that took the jury on a visual tour through the inner sanctums of the obsessively private pop star's home, including the master bedroom where the alleged molestation took place.

On Thursday, the accuser's sister testified to Jackson serving her and her two brothers wine at the ranch.

While not a witness to any molestation, she also recalled seeing the pop star and her brothers lying together on his bed with empty and half-full bottles of alcohol ranged around the room.

The key prosecution witness in the case remains the alleged victim himself, with Jackson's fate resting in large part on how credible the boy comes across in the witness box.

"Sex abuse cases nearly always come down to the claimant," said Bremner. "Corroboration is important, but his performance is crucial."

Update

THE brother of Michael Jackson’s accuser yesterday told a jury how he twice saw the singer molest the teenager.

The boy, 14, also told how Jackson showed PORN to him and the alleged victim, gave them WINE called “Jesus juice” and paraded NAKED in front of them in an aroused state.

He said that Jackson first molested the cancer sufferer in the bedroom of his Neverland ranch in February 2003.

The boy alleged he saw Jackson laying on his bed next to his brother — then aged 13 — who was asleep.

He said: “His left hand was in my brother’s pants and his right hand was in his (own) pants. He was jerking it up and down.”

The court heard a similar incident happened in the same room three days later, with Jackson laying on his back dressed in his underwear.

The boy also told how the brothers were shown porn by Jackson, claiming that on one occasion he and his brother — now 15 — joined the singer and aide Frank Tyson to look at internet images of naked women.

He claimed Jackson’s son Prince and daughter Paris — then aged six and three — were asleep in the room at the time.

He said: “It was Michael’s idea to go on the internet. On one site a lady had her shirt up and Michael said, ‘Got milk!’

“He leaned over to Prince and whispered, ‘You’re missing some p****’. He was still asleep. Michael told us not to tell our parents.”

The boy said he and his brother slept in the same bed that night as Jackson slept on the floor with Tyson.

The alleged internet incident happened on the first of several visits to the ranch three years ago, when the pair were joined by their sister and parents.

The trial in Santa Maria, California, heard a tape of the accuser made by Jackson’s private investigator in which the youngster admitted the singer slept in bed with the boys.

He said on the tape: “It was like a father-son thing.”

His mum said on tape that the boy spent most nights in Jackson’s room because he was safer there than with her husband.

Her daughter, 18, cried in court yesterday as she told of her father’s history of violence.

Later the accuser's brother said Jackson paraded around naked while aroused. He added: “We were grossed out.”

During a flight on his private jet, the boy told how he saw Jackson lick his brother’s head before handing him a can of Sprite. He said: “I thought it was soda and didn’t like to be rude. The smell was like alcohol.”

He said afterwards Jackson told them it was wine — which he sometimes called “Jesus juice”.

During one visit to Neverland, he claimed Jackson made crank calls to women.

He said Jackson told them: “He was having a census and he wanted to know how big her p**** was.”

He added: “If the phone number didn’t exist he would have us drink wine.”

The boy then testified how Jackson had simulated sex with a young girl mannequin in his bedroom.

Jackson seemed to feel unwell in court and was escorted to a loo by a bodyguard.

He denies molesting a boy, giving him alcohol, plotting to abduct him and false imprisonment. The trial continues.

Update

MICHAEL Jackson told his teen accuser to keep silent “even if they put a gun to your head,” a jury heard yesterday.

The youngster, who claims he saw Jackson twice molest his brother, said he warned them and a third boy as they all lay on the singer’s bed.

The 14-year-old said: “Michael Jackson told me, my brother and another boy not to tell anything that happened. Not even if they put a gun to your head.

“Michael told us not to tell no one what we did, not to tell our parents what we did.”

Earlier, the boy said he saw Jackson lying on his bed at his sprawling Neverland ranch touching himself and the then 13-year-old — while his brother was asleep.

He also alleged the entertainer showed them porn, gave them wine, simulated sex with a mannequin and walked around naked and aroused.

Under cross-examination, the boy admitted he lied in evidence in a separate civil case brought by his mum against a shop five years ago.

Jackson, 46, denies molesting a teen, giving him alcohol, plotting to abduct him and false imprisonment.

The trial continues in Santa Maria, California.

Update

THE boy Michael Jackson is accused of sexually molesting, faced the singer across court for the first time yesterday.
Jackson never took his eyes off the 15-year-old, as he told the jury how he slept in the singer’s bedroom on his FIRST visit to Neverland.

The boy — in a blue shirt, white T-shirt and dark trousers — ignored the singer, who sat only feet away.

He told the jury how, when he was suffering from cancer, he had received a phone call from the singer “inviting me up to his ranch.”

The alleged victim, 13 at the time, said the family went to the guest cottages before touring the fairground but he claimed Jackson, now 46, asked him and his brother to sleep in his bedroom that night.

He said: “We were all talking. Michael said we should sleep in his room. And I was ‘ok, right’, because we wanted to sleep in his room.”

He had asked his parents if they could stay in Michael’s room. He added: “They said, ‘Yes’.”

He said when the boys first went up to Michael’s bedroom, they were watching video cartoons.

But he said an aide of Jackson’s, called Frank Tyson, then started surfing the internet.

The teen said: “Frank started looking up adult material. Michael was looking at girls saying, ‘I like her’.”

He said the group had called up several sites for between 15 to 30 minutes, looking at females.

He said at one stage they were looking at a young girl holding up her T-shirt and flashing her boobs.

Jackson's accuser also said that Jackson’s children, Paris and Prince, were asleep on a bed in the room and Michael had leant over to Prince and “whispered into his ear ‘Prince, you’re missing all the p***y’.”

He was asked about the Martin Bashir documentary Living With Michael Jackson, which was filmed in 2002 and showed the boy snuggling up to Jackson and holding his hand.

The boy said the singer “told me to ‘talk about how you call me dad, daddy or Daddy Michael’.”

“He told me he wanted me to say things on the video. He wanted me to say he had helped me and he pretty much cured me of cancer.”

Prosecutor Tom Sneddon asked the lad about his schooling and family life — specifically the relationship between his mother and father.

The teenager replied: “They fought every day, about bills and his family or our family.

“My dad would hit my mum sometimes. I was not hit as much as my mum was but I got hit sometimes.”

Earlier the jury heard Jackson had a camera over the door of his bedroom to let him know whether anyone was approaching.

The boy's brother, 14, also claimed Jackson had sexually molested the cancer-stricken lad three times rather than the two he had told the court earlier.

The brother, who was 11 at the time, had told the jury on Tuesday he saw Jackson fondling his sleeping brother in the bedroom.

Jackson, booed as he arrived at court in Santa Maria, California, yesterday, is accused of molesting the boy, attempted molestation, administering alcohol to a minor, conspiracy to commit false imprisonment, abduction and extortion.

I'm sure you all know by now, but I hear it's on every station right now. MJ didn't show for court, and judge issued a bench warrant for his arrest. He finally showed up in pajama bottoms and slippers I hear :rolleyes: Claimed he had a bad back (sounds like song lyrics I know :p )

TIS


web page

Pssht, if they would've actually arrested him, he would've bruised too easily and bled to death. :p

Besides, why am I not surprised that he wore PJ's? It's probably the most normal outfit he's worn throughout the entire saga.

Update

MICHAEL Jackson's accuser yesterday told a stunned court in graphic detail how the singer molested him in bed when he was just 13.

Jacko, who had caused a sensation earlier in the day by turning up to court more than ONE HOUR late and wearing PYJAMAS, stared at the teenager as he gave his evidence.

The boy revealed: “I was under his covers, he put his hands on my penis — and he started masturbating me.”

The youngster spoke clearly as he said the fondling in Jacko’s bedroom at his Neverland Ranch had gone on for five minutes.

The teenager explained how Jackson, 46, had coaxed him into sex.

He said: “We had just come back from drinking in the arcade. We went up to his room and we were sitting there for a while and Michael started talking about masturbation. He said that if a man didn’t masturbate they could get to some level where they might rape a girl or become unstable.

“He said he saw a boy one time who didn’t masturbate having sex with a dog. He told me that all males had to masturbate.

He asked if I masturbated. If I didn’t know how to, he would do it for me. I said I didn’t really want to. He said it was OK and it was natural for boys.

“I was under his covers, he put his hands on my penis — and he started masturbating me.”

When DA Tom Sneddon asked the boy if he knew what Jackson was doing at the time, he replied: “I was not really looking at him.”

He said that, afterwards: “I kinda felt weird. I was embarrassed about it. He said it was OK, it was natural and he tried to say it was OK to comfort me. After a while, we went to sleep.”

He then revealed the second time he remembered Jackson fondling him.

He said: “We came back from the arcade again. We were watching TV on top of his covers and he did it again.

“The same thing, he said he wanted to teach me. We were laying there and he started doing it to me and then he grabbed my hand and tried to make me do it to him — but I didn’t want to.

“He always said it was natural and not to be scared.”

It was a dramatic ending to an amazing day. Jackson had shuffled into court after a race to avoid being hurled in jail.

His 4x4 convoy roared up to the entrance in a frantic dash from hospital where the star had been treated for an injured back.

Judge Rodney Melville had arrived at 8.35am, only to find Jackson absent.

The judge issued an arrest warrant and warned defence lawyer Thomas Mesereau that the singer would forfeit his £1.6million bail — but delayed the order for an hour.

When Jacko finally made it into court at 9.37am, he sat crying as he waited to see if the furious judge would carry out his threat.

The judge later revealed that he had confiscated Jacko’s bail — but then had returned it.

As proceedings got under way, the boy also said the star plied him with BOOZE, showed him explicit PORN and gave him a £40,000 watch to keep quiet about the drink.

Jacko — who hurt his back getting dressed — faced the accusations after a faltering walk from a car to the court in Santa Maria.

He was wearing blue hospital pyjama bottoms and slippers.

Giving evidence, the boy said that between February and April 2003 he always slept in Jackson’s bedroom if the star was at Neverland.

He was then shown photographs in an exhibits bag. One of the pictures was of a young female mannequin.

he was having sex with the mannequin.”

The teenager was then shown a black briefcase, which he said he had seen in Jackson’s bedroom. The boy said: “He said ‘Look at the good stuff’. It was adult materials. He showed me just one.

“He showed me this girl, she had her legs spread open.”

He said Jackson paraded nude in front of him and his brother, who was 11, adding: “He came up the stairs, he was naked.”

He also told how the star gave him “Jesus Juice” — his name for wine — VODKA, Jim Beam BOURBON and Bacardi RUM.
The boy said he and Jackson had alcohol constantly. He said Jackson persisted in giving him drinks even when he warned it was bad for his health.

The lad lost one of his kidneys during treatment for cancer.

Prosecutor Sneddon asked: “During your time at Neverland did you ever have any alcohol?” The boy: “Yes, every night when Michael was there. My brother and Michael would drink in the arcade.”

He said he also drank wine on Jackson’s private jet on a flight from Miami to California.

Jacko denies molesting the teenager, giving him alcohol, plotting to abduct him and false imprisonment. The trial continues.

Update

EXPERTS yesterday claimed to have spotted the bald truth about Michael Jackson — he wears a WIG.

Wacko Jacko’s mad dash to court in his pyjamas is said to have let the cat out of the bag on his syrup.

Photos of the star’s bonce appeared to show a mesh cap with false hair sewn in.

Top British hairdresser Feleny Georghiou — whose clients include Victoria Beckham and the Duchess of York — declared: “It is definitely a wig ... and one of the worst I have ever seen.”

Feleny, who works at swanky North London salon Connect, explained: “The big giveaway is at the top of the forehead where you can quite clearly see where the hair has been sewn in.

“When he turned up in court from his hospital bed on Thursday his hair was just too perfect to be his own.

“It was pristine. Only hair from a wig falls in that way.”

Hair experts in the US — where Jacko, 46, is on trial accused of child abuse — agreed with her.

Top stylist Yolanda Perez, 42, said: “It is absolutely a wig.”

Fellow New York crimper Mario Carrasco said: “It’s possible he might have hair.

“But these are pieces — hair extensions. The wind was blowing, and his hair was moving, but just the outer layer. Human hair would open up and fly all over the place.”

Wig consultant Alexis Rodriguez, 34, said Jacko appeared to have shelled out hundreds of pounds on what she described as a “lace-front wig with a microfilament cap”.

Jacko normally gets up at 4.30am to get ready for court — but on Thursday he was in a tearing hurry after being treated for an injured back.

He was an hour late arriving for his trial and was threatened with jail.

US TV reporter Diane Dimond said: “He looked worse than I’ve ever seen him.”

JACKSON’S pals fear the pressures of the trial may cause him to kill himself. Sources close to the singer said his back problem was really a symptom of his fragile mental state.

He WEARS a wig? Hell, he FLIPPED it a long time ago!

Did anyone see the spoof Jay Leno did the other night? Outside was a "newsman" saying that Leno was an hour late for the show, and that there was a warrant out for his arrest. Up pulls a limo with two "guards" coming out, and there's Jay in pajamas and fuzzy slippers.

I guess they ruled he can make jokes about Jackson. For a while he had someone else come out every night, making the jokes for him, as Leno stood by.

TIS

Update

MICHAEL Jackson was blasted by British Army veterans last night for wearing military badges while on trial for child abuse.

The 46-year-old singer has appeared virtually every day with either an Army motif on his breast pocket or a cap badge tied around his neck.

They have included symbols from the Royal Engineers, the Welch Regiment, the Sherwood Foresters, the Wiltshire and Cheshire Regiments, the Royal Corps of Transport and the Royal Warwickshire Regiment

One was the distinctive motif of an antelope sewn into a black frock coat. The Warwickshires adopted the animal as their symbol in the 18th century.

The badges can be bought from military dealers for as little as £4.

Des Mawby, 73, who served for ten years with the Warwickshires, said: “I’m disgusted. It is totally inappropriate. He is not entitled to wear it and it is wrong that something that means so much to so many brave men should be used as a fashion statement.

It is an emblem that belongs solely to our regiment.”

Regimental secretary, Major Richard Mills, 58, who has been flooded with calls from outraged soldiers, said: “It shows immaturity that Michael Jackson wears this without thinking what it means to our men. It devalues it.”

Jackson denies charges of child molestation, administering an intoxicating agent, conspiracy involving child abduction, false imprisonment and extortion.

The case resumes today.

Update

The teenager who accuses Michael Jackson of sex abuse has stayed cool under tough cross-examination, although he has admitted he was disruptive at school and confused about sexuality.

The 15-year-old told jurors last week that Jackson, 46, masturbated him at least twice in February or March of 2003 after nights of heavy drinking at the singer's Neverland Valley Ranch.

Jackson is charged with molesting the boy, who was 13 at the time, plying him with alcohol in order to abuse him and conspiring to commit child abduction, extortion and false imprisonment.

Before grilling the boy on his central accusations against Jackson, lead defence lawyer Tom Mesereau confronted him on Monday with a string of complaints from teachers about disciplinary problems when he was younger, including getting into fights, disruption in class and bad grades.

"You had a meeting with (the school principal) because of allegations you had disciplinary problems," Mesereau said.

"No," the boy replied. "I had a meeting with him because I was a disciplinary problem. ... I wasn't that good of a kid then. I argued with teachers and stuff like that."

After causing a stir last week by arriving at court late, dressed in pyjamas and looking shaky, Jackson was back to his pop star self on Monday, arriving on time in a bright red jacket and smart black pants with silver piping.

Jackson's lawyers, who say the boy's mother dreamed up the sex abuse to extort money from the self-proclaimed "King of Pop," are expected to do their utmost to undermine the boy's credibility.

Mesereau said the school principal had at one time asked the boy directly if Jackson had ever molested him. According to the transcript of the interview, the boy replied "No," the lawyer said. The boy acknowledged on the stand that he had responded no.

Mesereau also confronted the boy, who met Jackson when he was recovering from cancer, with an interview he gave to police around the time of his alleged molestation by the singer.

In that interview, the boy told police that his grandmother had told him that if men do not masturbate they end up raping women -- almost exactly the comment that Jackson is alleged to have made to the teen.

Standing firm, the boy told Mesereau he discussed masturbation with both Jackson and his grandmother. "Michael tried to explain to me first. He was more pushing it on me ... I guess my grandmother saw I was very confused about sexuality. She didn't make the identical quote."

The boy started his direct testimony last Thursday on a wild day that began with Jackson nearly jailed for missing court. The performer hobbled into the courthouse more than an hour after the scheduled trial start time -- in pyjamas, appearing dazed and walking gingerly, as if in pain.

A Jackson attorney said the entertainer had tripped and injured his back while getting dressed, and gone to a hospital for treatment.

"Please, mr. pasty white girlie man...touch me so I don't rape a woman." ???

:rolleyes:

Update

THE lad at the centre of the Michael Jackson child abuse trial yesterday admitted telling his head teacher the star had NEVER touched him.

The cancer victim, 15, said he had twice assured Jeffrey Alpert he had not been molested by the singer.

Jacko’s lawyer Thomas Mesereau told the jury the boy had chatted with Mr Alpert, head of his Los Angeles school, shortly after his final visit to the singer’s Neverland ranch.

The lawyer then turned to the lad and asked: “He said, ‘Look at me. I can’t help you if you don’t tell me the truth. Did anything bad happen?’

“Your response was, ‘No, nothing bad happened’.” The boy said that was correct.

Mr Mesereau again asked: “You told Mr Alpert twice that Mr Jackson had never done anything to you of a sexual nature, is that true?” The boy said: “Yes”.

The admission came just days after the boy told the court how Jacko molested him in bed when he was a 13-year-old. Jacko, 46, denies the charges.

Surprise witness Mr Alpert will give evidence himself later this week to confirm the story.

But prosecutors are expected to claim that sex abuse victims rarely tell authority figures the truth.

Yesterday the boy also admitted sending Jacko adoring letters that read: “I love you, Daddy — signing some “your son.”

Mr Mesereau asked him: “Do you remember sending this card ... ‘I love you Daddy. Thank you for being my Daddy, Michael’? The boy said: “I remember it.”

Mr Mesereau added: “You called him the nicest, most loving person in the world and wrote, ‘Thank you for being my best, best friend ever. I love you Daddy Michael’?” The boy said: “Yes.”

Mr Mesereau also claimed the boy had changed his story about when Jacko allegedly fondled him.

He said the teenager had told the court it happened AFTER telly reporter Martin Bashir made a damaging documentary on the singer’s bizarre lifestyle.

But, Mr Mesereau said, the boy previously told cops he was molested BEFORE the video was filmed.

JACKO is cashing in on his sex abuse trial — by selling videos of himself denying the charges.
Judge Rodney Melville has ruled he can flog the films to foreign TV to ease his £140million debts — but banned them from being screened in the US.

I just wanna comment here. We've had, at my school, two years ago a teacher accused of child molestation. He is still waiting trial. One of the victims was a son of another of our teachers. This boy (and there are others), vehemently denied that this teacher abused them sexually, for the same reasons that this boy in the Jackson trial claims. My point being, that this "is" common for a child to deny these accusations. Hopefully, they'll get some professionals on the stand to attest to that fact.

As a juror, you always have to "sift out" the hoopla, because Lawyers are much like salesman, and look at the facts. My opinion.

TIS

Anyone watched Jay Leno's show on Friday night? Man, after he heard he could tell jokes about Jacko, you should have seen him.

Update

MICHAEL Jackson’s accuser told yesterday how he was bullied at school after appearing in a TV documentary with the star.


The cancer victim, 15, said he was taunted and got into fights over his relationship with Jackson.

He told the jury: “All the kids would laugh at me and push me around, saying, ‘That’s the kid that got raped by Michael Jackson’.”

Martin Bashir’s documentary, Living With Michael Jackson, was screened in the US and UK in February 2003.

The boy, then 13, was shown snuggling up to the singer on a sofa.

The star talked about their “special friendship” before admitting he still shared his bed with young boys — sparking outrage.

The youngster admitted that when asked by his head teacher at his LA school if Jackson had molested him, he had told him no.

Asked by prosecutor Tom Sneddon in Santa Maria, California, why he said that, he said: “Because all the kids were making fun of me.”

He told Jackson’s lawyer Tom Mesereau how he loved being at the Neverland ranch until the star allegedly fondled him.

Jacko 47, denies the charges.

Asked by Mr Mesereau whether he had known he would automatically win a civil claim if Jackson is convicted, the boy replied: “No.”

The alleged victim also said he had stopped thinking Jackson was “cool” and that the singer did not “deserve any respect” now.

Cop Steve Robel told jurors how he found a box of porn magazines of teenage girls headlined “Barely legal, total filth” at the foot of Jackson’s bed.

The trial continues.

Update

The lead investigator in the Michael Jackson case testified Wednesday that the young accuser slumped down in his seat and became "choked up" when first interviewed about allegedly being molested by the pop star.

Sheriff's Sgt. Steve Robel also testified that the boy told him he was molested between five and seven times, but could not recall what happened every time.

"He was fine with talking to us," Robel said of the teenage boy's initial interview. "When I got into the molestation acts I noticed a change in (his) demeanor. He became very quiet, folded his arms and sank down into his chair. ... He even became choked up."

Robel's questioning by District Attorney Tom Sneddon and cross-examination by Jackson attorney Robert Sanger also delved into differences in the number of alleged molestation incidents that have emerged in testimony.

The boy himself testified in the trial to only two molestations but said he believed there may have been more. Despite the statements about five to seven incidents, the investigator said that since the first interviews of the boy in July 2003 he has been able to provide detailed accounts of only two alleged molestations.

The possibility of the accuser not being aware or fully aware at certain times has been raised in testimony by the boy's brother, who said he twice witnessed his brother being molested while asleep.

Jackson, 46, is accused of molesting the boy, giving him alcohol and conspiring to hold the boy's family captive to get them to rebut a TV documentary in which Jackson appeared with the boy and said he let children sleep in his bed but it was non-sexual and innocent. Jackson's defense contends the family has a history of filing false claims to get money.

The defense cross-examined Robel about what he knew of the rebuttal video, in which the family praised Jackson as a father figure.

Robel testified that before obtaining an arrest warrant for Jackson, none of the investigators had seen the rebuttal video.

"And it did not appear to you to be consistent with what you had been hearing from the family?" Sanger asked.

"I was not alarmed," said Robel, "because I recalled what (the mother) said to me in her initial interview."

Robel said the mother indicated she was instructed by a Jackson associate to do the video.

Robel also acknowledged he had not seen a collection of cards and letters written by the family to Jackson, calling him "daddy" and effusively paying tribute to him.

Another detective, Paul Zelis, testified about adult magazines found at Neverland, including one found in a nightstand drawer that also contained a studio photograph of the accuser, his brother and sister.

He acknowledged under cross-examination that the magazines were not tested for fingerprints until after grand jury hearings in March and April 2004.

Zelis did not say whether any fingerprints were found on the magazines, but prosecutors said in opening statements that some magazines had Jackson's and the accuser's fingerprints.

The defense contends Jackson once caught the boy and his brother going through his magazines and took them away.

Update

MICHAEL Jackson got into the St Patrick’s Day spirit yesterday — by wearing a green shirt.


The singer arrived at court for his child abuse trial wearing the traditional Irish colour.

It is traditional for many Americans to don green on March 17.

Jackson teamed it with a burgundy suit and gold waistcoat as he sat through revelations by a former housekeeper.

Kiki Fournier said “a lot” of young boys would stay overnight at his Neverland ranch and often slept in the same room as Jackson.

The ex-worker, who was employed from 1991 to 2003, named several lads aged from ten to 13 with whom 46-year-old Jackson formed “especially close relationships”.

They included his accuser, now 15, and film star Macaulay Culkin.

Miss Fournier told the trial in Santa Maria, California, that the children could do as they wanted.

She said: “You could watch movies, play video games, eat whatever you wanted, stay up as late as you wanted, ride rides.”

The ex-worker also said she had seen some children drunk at Neverland while dining with Jackson.

She added: “In the absence of an authority figure the children became wild, and without their families there, it became like Pinocchio’s Pleasure Island.”

Judge Rodney Melville has ordered former alleged victims of Jackson to attend court next week.

They will give evidence before the judge decides if they can be called as prosecution witnesses.

One is expected to be Jordy Chandler, 25 — who said he was groped aged 12.

Jackson denies molesting the boy. The trial continues.

"Ride rides"? :p

Update

The judge in the Michael Jackson trial has set a March 28 hearing to decide whether jurors can hear about past sex offence allegations against the singer in what could be a turning point in an already sensational case.

Santa Barbara Superior Court Judge Rodney Melville also dismissed a motion for a mistrial brought by the defence as the trial ended its third week of testimony.

With jurors having a day off, lawyers for both sides conferred with the judge on several other key issues -- the admissibility of the pop superstar's finances and how the fingerprints of Jackson's teen accuser got onto pornographic magazines.

Melville ruled that the prosecution, which has alleged Jackson is on the brink of bankruptcy, could subpoena the entertainer's financial records. But he said they would not be opened in the trial unless he heard testimony that made the details relevant.

Jackson, 46, is charged with molesting a then 13-year-old boy at his Neverland ranch in February or March of 2003, and with plying him with alcohol in order to abuse him. He is also charged with conspiring to commit extortion, false imprisonment and child abduction.

The pop star, who was not in court on Friday, has pleaded innocent. He faces more than 20 years in prison if he is convicted on all 10 counts.

Looming in the background are the well-publicized 1993 accusations of molestation made against Jackson by another 13-year-old, which were settled out of court for a reported $23 million.

'CLOSE FRIENDSHIPS'

Jackson was never criminally charged in the 1993 case but the prosecution has battled for months to be allowed to call the youth involved as a witness in the current case.

Melville said he would hold a March 28 hearing on the issue with both defence and prosecution lawyers, but without the jury, to determine what is seen as one of the most important rulings in the current case.

The boy was mentioned in court on Thursday by a former Neverland housekeeper, who named him as one of a number of children who had "close friendships" with Jackson and who were allowed to run wild at the singer's ranch.

Jackson's defence lawyer on Friday asked for a mistrial because of that testimony. Melville denied the motion, saying; "This isn't the first time the jury has heard that name ... 1993 has been mentioned by other witnesses."

The jury has already been shown stacks of pornographic magazines seized from Jackson's bedroom. His young accuser, a recovering cancer patient, has testified that Jackson showed him porn both in magazines and on the Internet.

The fingerprints of the boy have been found on some of the magazines but the defence maintains they got there during secret grand jury hearings last year.

Both sides agreed on Friday to settle the dispute by calling as a witness one of the prosecutors in the closed-door grand jury hearings for testimony and cross examination.

The trial, which has already heard from Jackson's accuser, his younger brother and older sister, resumes on Monday. Other key testimony in what is expected to be a five-month trial is awaited from the boy's mother and the child psychologist who was the first to hear the boy say he had been groped and masturbated by the entertainer.

update

The judge in Michael Jackson's child molestation trial rejected a defense request for a mistrial Friday after a witness mentioned the name of a youngster who leveled sex allegations against the pop star a decade ago.

On Thursday, a former housekeeper at Jackson's Neverland ranch mentioned the boy who received a multimillion-dollar civil settlement after claiming in 1993 that Jackson molested him.

The defense argued the testimony violated Superior Court Judge Rodney Melville's ruling that no evidence of past sexual crimes could be admitted unless the judge said so.

In denying the request for a mistrial, Melville said prosecutors elicited the testimony to establish how much contact Jackson had with boys who visited Neverland, not to suggest any impropriety by the singer.

The judge also set a March 28 date for a hearing on the prosecution request to allow evidence of alleged prior offenses into Jackson's trial.

Jackson has never been convicted of a sexual offense, but prosecutors want to present witnesses they believe will show that the current case is part of a pattern.

Jackson, 46, is charged with molesting a 13-year-old cancer patient at Neverland in 2003. No testimony was heart Friday; it will resume on Monday.

Update

FRAIL Michael Jackson virtually had to be carried into court yesterday.

The singer needed support from minders after arriving five minutes late for the 16th day of his child abuse trial.

Shaking all over, Jackson, 46, shuffled to the defence table and had to be helped into his seat.

His brother Jackie whispered to him: “Come on, it will be all right, it will be OK.”

But Jackson sat for four minutes, weeping all the time, before asking to go to the toilet.

He spent half an hour there, sobbing, but after a 45-minute delay the trial in Santa Maria, California, resumed.

Sources said he had been given painkillers in hospital after complaining of severe back pain before the hearing.

Court ushers handed out tissues to shocked fans who burst into tears over Jackson’s plight.

When proceedings ended, he was helped to his car by a bodyguard and his father Joe.

Asked if he was hurting at all, Jackson, struggling to speak, said: “Yes, very much hurt” and then groaned: “In pain, in pain.”

He's in pain? Maybe it was his turn to get it in the rear.

I just want to know why he can never carry his own freakin' umbrella. Are his arms broke too?

Update

The focus of Michael Jackson's child molestation trial shifted Tuesday from the entertainer's character to that of his alleged accuser's parents.

A Los Angeles comedian and benefactor of the family testified that the teenage boy's father was a hot-tempered freeloader who seemed to coach his children to scam celebrities, while his mother was a kind if overemotional woman beaten down by years of her husband's abuse and later terrified by Jackson and his associates.

The portrait Louise Palanker painted is problematic for Jackson because his lawyers have demonized the 15-year-old cancer survivor's mother as a powerful puppet-master behind false allegations designed to extort money.

Bad behavior by the accuser's father has less bearing because the couple had separated by the time of the alleged abuse and the boy and his siblings had no contact with him.

For more than two hours on the stand, Palanker described a woman incapable of such grand manipulation.

"I feel that she's a lovely, caring person," said the comedian, who first befriended the boy, his older sister and young brother at a summer comedy camp run by the Laugh Factory comedy club for underprivileged children.

Palanker said she never knew the accuser to lie and that, in fact, "he's been honest in the face of others wishing not to be."

Palanker recounted the mother calling her in 2003, when the abuse allegedly occurred at Jackson's Neverland Ranch, and hysterically begged for help in dealing with the music legend and his employees, saying, "These people are evil."

"I felt like they were being held against their will," Palanker told jurors, adding that she asked her lawyer to consult with the woman.

In addition to molestation, Jackson, 46, is accused of conspiring to kidnap and imprison the family. He faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted.



Emergency medical technicians removed a fan from the courtroom after she fainted.

Palanker also contradicted several claims defense attorney Thomas Mesereau Jr. made about her in his opening statement. He told jurors that Palanker would testify the mother approached her for money to pay medical bills and that, when she later found out they'd spent a portion of the $20,000 on a flat-screen television and DVD player, she felt robbed.

"She was upset," Mesereau said during openings.

But on the witness stand Tuesday, Palanker said it was her idea to give the money and that she gave it knowing insurance was covering the medical expenses.

She said she anticipated the family would use it to cover living expenses while the father took time off to be at the hospital with his son. However, she said she put no restrictions on the gift and was not angry when she found out about the entertainment system.

She also said the mother never asked her for money, while the father "continually" badgered her, even after the $20,000 gift.

"He kept telling me they didn't have any money to live on, no food, clothing," Palanker said, adding that when she asked what had happened to her gift, the father said his wife "spent the money on votive candles and things of that nature."

Scams of the father

She also related an incident in which comedian and television actor George Lopez, an acquaintance from the Laugh Factory, believed the father was coaching his children to lie.

Lopez met the boy at the comedy camp and, after he became ill, invited him to his home. Later, Palanker said, the father called Lopez and said the boy left a wallet with $300 at the home. When Lopez found it, the wallet only contained $3 and the actor "became irate," believing himself the target of a scam, Palanker said.

She said that, when the father tried to get his son to tell her there was $300 in the wallet, the boy was uncomfortable and refused to say anything.

The father "got enraged" with the accuser, and "we never solved the mystery of the wallet," she testified.

She also told jurors she believed the father had instructed his children not to reveal Christmas gifts they received from other benefactors. Only when the father left the room did the accuser tell her that Michael Jackson had given him a PlayStation2.

Under cross-examination by Mesereau, Palanker acknowledged that she thought there was something strange about the family, including the mother, who she felt might be bipolar.

"I couldn't really put my finger on what was out of balance with this family, certainly not the children, never the children," she said.

She also conceded that "Tonight Show" host Jay Leno called her and complained that the accuser and his family had left him three voice mails and he wanted them to stop. She told the father to stop calling him, she said.

Both Lopez and Leno might be called as witnesses.

Improving health

Jackson stared toward the witness stand as Palanker testified. The pop icon appeared in better health than Monday, when he arrived late to court and in the company of a physician.

Dressed in a black suit with a red and white ribbon as an armband, he walked more quickly from his SUV to the courthouse than Monday but leaned on a security guard for assistance.



A fan who spoke with a court officer later fainted, then screamed when she was taken away.

A defense lawyer, Brian Oxman, said Jackson was still in pain, but "he's holding up and bearing through it."

During a break in testimony, a fan who had been sitting in the public gallery fainted. When court officers approached to offer assistance, she began screaming, "Michael! Michael!" and kicking at the officers. Court was briefly delayed while the woman was removed on a stretcher, but her screams were heard in the courtroom for several minutes.

Judge Rodney Melville recessed court for the day at 11:30 a.m. so he could attend the dedication of a new juvenile justice facility.

The trial will resume Wednesday morning.

Update

Actor George Lopez, expected to be a witness for Michael Jackson's defense, instead will take the stand against him next week, prosecutors said Thursday.

The comedian and star of the ABC sitcom "The George Lopez Show" is expected in the witness box at Jackson's child molestation trial Monday to testify about his dealings with the music legend's teenage accuser, prosecutor Ronald Zonen told Judge Rodney Melville.

Lopez was among several celebrities, including Jackson, actor Chris Tucker and comedians Adam Sandler and Jay Leno, whom the boy met or sought to meet while he was being treated for cancer in 2000.

Jackson's defense has portrayed the accuser and his family as a pack of grifters who used the boy's cancer to scam money from the rich and famous. His lawyers have highlighted Lopez in particular, eliciting testimony from several witnesses about an incident where the comedian apparently believed the family was trying to hustle him.

The prosecutor's announcement, however, indicates Lopez will offer positive testimony about the accuser, now a 15-year-old high school student. Zonen noted that Lopez, who fought a defense subpoena for his testimony, had withdrawn any opposition to taking the stand and would come to court of his own free will.

Another comedian and acquaintance of Lopez, Louise Palanker, testified Tuesday about one unpleasant incident between the family and the actor: Lopez, who met the family through a comedy camp for underprivileged children, invited the teenager to his home. Later, either the boy or his father called Lopez and said the teenager had left a wallet containing $300 behind. Lopez and his wife, Ann, found the wallet, but it contained only $3.

Palanker testified that Lopez was "irate" and ended his relations with the family. Palanker also said the boy's father later tried to get the boy to tell some of Lopez's comedy club associates that the wallet had $300 in it, but the boy refused, enraging his father.

The boy's credibility is a key issue in the case. Prosecutors have all but conceded that the father was a con artist, but he had lost his parental rights and was not in contact with the boy in February and March 2003, when Jackson allegedly fondled him in the bedroom of his Neverland Ranch.

The defense, however, has said the boy's mother coached him to lie about the molestation.

Porn prints

The surprise announcement about Lopez came at the close of a day of testimony about fingerprints found on pornographic magazines sheriff's officers seized from Jackson's bedroom.

A forensic examiner testified that Jackson's prints, as well as prints matching two children — including the accuser's 11-year-old brother — were on the publications.

The brother's prints were discovered on pages of a magazine called Barely Legal Hardcore. The prints of another minor were lifted from an issue of Finally Legal.

The examiner, Lisa Hemman of the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Department, was not permitted to identify the child.

Another fingerprint examiner scheduled to take the stand Friday is expected to testify that he lifted the accuser's prints from other pornographic magazines, including one in which he also found Jackson's prints.

The prosecution alleges that Jackson used the pornography to "groom" the boy for molestation.

Prosecutors, who displayed nearly 75 images of adult material from the bedroom Wednesday, showed jurors an additional dozen pages from inside the magazines, many extremely explicit. The pages, on which examiners detected prints, included photos of women and men in sex acts and close-ups of female genitalia.

An attorney for Jackson grilled Hemman and three other fingerprint specialists who testified Thursday about potential problems with the field. He noted that an Oregon lawyer was arrested as a suspect in the Madrid train bombings on the strength of a fingerprint match, only to be exonerated later when the print was shown to be a "false positive."

"So, fingerprint identification is really subjective?" lawyer Robert Sanger asked.

"Yes," Hemman said.

She later acknowledged that she and another examiner were at odds over whether a print was Jackson's and that they had changed their opinion on the brother's print from an initial finding of "inconclusive."

The defense has implied that the accuser's prints may have ended up on a magazine when he identified items at the grand jury. A state forensic technician appeared to deal a blow to that theory when she testified Thursday that many of the pornographic images were in her evidence locker at the time of the proceeding and could not have been handled by the accuser.

Jackson, who is being treated for back pain, sat motionless during the testimony, but appeared more upbeat leaving court than he has in weeks.

"I'd like to say hello to the people of Santa Maria, my friends," he said as he walked toward his chauffeured SUV.

Asked about his health, he replied, "Still in a lot of pain."

The 46-year-old pop icon faces upwards of 20 years in prison if convicted.

Testimony is set to resume Friday morning.

I also heard that the judge will soon make a decision as to whether or not to let in the incident of the first boy that accused Jackson of molestation. Apparently to show a pattern on Jackson's part, as opposed to re-opening the case of the first boy, who was paid off.

Btw, I also heard that the prosecution would wrap up shortly. What happened to Corey Feldman and others who were to testify?

TIS

Ive not heard on Corey Feldom testify as yet

Michael doesn't cop a feel.

http://toccionline.kizash.com/films/1001/139/