You guys are sick

update

MICHAEL Jackson's accuser would not have invented sex allegations against the singer for fear of being branded gay, the court heard yesterday.

Psychologist Dr Stan Katz said it would be “unusual” for a boy of 13, as his accuser was at the time, to make claims of inappropriate sexual relations.

The doctor — the first person to whom the boy claimed that Jackson had molested him — added: “These children are so protective and guilt-ridden and ashamed.”

Dr Katz, a TV celebrity in America, saw the lad twice in 2003.

He told the court in Santa Maria, California, he did not believe the boy’s claims were false even though his story changed.

He said: “Stories changing can indicate the child is telling the truth. Their memory storage facilities are not that good.”

The singer, 46, denies ten charges including child molestation and giving minors alcohol.

JACKSON paid tribute to lawyer Johnnie Cochran, the man who famously defended actor OJ Simpson against murder charges, after he died at 67 on Tuesday.

The star said Cochran, who reportedly helped line up Jackson’s defence team, was a friend who fought for justice.

Update

The attorney who secured a multimillion-dollar sexual-molestation settlement against Michael Jackson 12 years ago on behalf of a teenage boy testified Friday about how he came to be involved with Jackson's current accuser, who says Jackson sexually fondled him at the Neverland Ranch.

Attorney Larry Feldman, who was contacted by the accuser's civil attorney in 2003, told jurors that within weeks of meeting with the boy and his family, he hired a psychologist "to let an expert figure it out, what had happened."

"I had to make heads or tails out of what was being said to me by [the accuser, his mother and his siblings]," said Feldman.

Based on the interviews Dr. Stan Katz conducted, Feldman said, the two men went to the LA County Department of Children and Family Services to file a report of sexual molestation against Jackson. The next day, they went to the police.

Katz reviewed another doctor's interview with Jackson's 1993 accuser, Jordie Chandler, who is now in his 20s.

"He was adorable," Feldman said Friday, as he identified a photo of a teenage Chandler, who, at the time, bore a resemblance to Jackson's latest accuser. The accuser's name is currently being withheld by Court TV.

While Feldman maintained that there is no pending civil suit for monetary damages against Jackson, he and the accuser's civil attorney, Bill Dickerman, are engaged in a fee-sharing agreement, so that if a suit is pursued and won, they would reap any reward.

Feldman also conceded that the accuser and his brother, who claims to have witnessed some of the alleged molestation, have until the age of 20 to decide whether to sue Jackson.

"If at the end of this trial, they decide they'd like to sue, they'd have plenty of time, wouldn't they?" defense attorney Thomas Mesereau asked the witness.

"If they'd like to, sure," Feldman replied.

Jackson claims he is innocent and is being targeted by greedy civil attorneys and an opportunistic family he once invited into his home. He faces up to 20 years if convicted.

Meseareau insinuated that Feldman's experience in the Chandler case made him wise to the high cost of pursuing a civil trial before a criminal one.

"Did you tell a grand jury in Santa Barbara County that you incurred tremendous costs and expenses in the 1993 case?" Mesereau asked.

Feldman gave guarded answers, ultimately denying Mesereau's suggestion that he was letting the county incur investigative costs in the criminal trial only to save money on a future civil trial, in which the burden of proof is much lower.

"If there were a conviction in this case, essentially the only question remaining would be how much money you get?" Mesereau asked.

"I think that's close," Feldman said. "But nothing is ever as simple as you've stated it. You and I both know that."

Mixed messages

Because the judge allowed prosecutors to present some testimony about previous alleged bad acts by Jackson, they had greater latitude in questioning Feldman about the 1993 Chandler case, but he was not allowed to discuss the dollar amount of the settlement.

"With regard to Jordan Chandler vs. Michael Jackson," District Attorney Thomas Sneddon asked the witness, "was that resolved in Mr. Chandler's favor?"

"It was absolutely resolved in Jordie Chandler's favor," Feldman said with a triumphant intonation.

In a "confession of judgment" settlement, in which neither side admitted wrongdoing, Jackson agreed to pay the boy more than $20 million.

The suit, according to Feldman, was based on seven causes of action, relating to Jackson's alleged sexual molestation of Chandler, who was then 13 years old.

Jurors also heard briefly from Jesus Salas, a former house manager at Neverland Ranch who had daily contact with Jackson, supervised the singer's maids and cooks and kept the home and kitchen well-stocked.

Salas, who said he typically worked from 7 a.m. until 1 or 2 a.m., left his position in May or June 2003 because it was "time to move on" from the very stressful job.

Prosecutors contend that Jackson held the accuser and his family against their will in 2003. Salas, who testified to a grand jury that the accuser's family was not allowed to leave Neverland without approval from Jackson's aides, will likely be questioned about the alleged imprisonment when he returns to the stand Monday.

Jackson, who says he is still suffering from back pain due to a recent slip in the shower, appeared tired and wan as he arrived for the 24th day of his child-molestation trial Friday morning.



Jackson wore a slightly rumpled black suit and chocolate-colored armband. He produced a pained smile and waved to screaming fans, who were separated from him by a chain-link fence and a host of armed deputies.

Joining the usual Jackson supporters and detractors Friday morning were a small group of war protesters, who chanted and picketed for the TV cameras, adding to the pastiche of homemade posters sharing sidewalk space.

"Save the children, stop the war," signs mingled alongside "We've had enough of child molesters," which were met by "Leave the Man in the Mirror Alone" placards.

At one point, the Jackson supporters and the anti-war set found a harmonious connection, when one group's chants of "Innocent, Innocent" was followed by the other's "Bush is not, Bush is not."

Does anyone watch the "recreation" of the trial on the "E" channel?? They have actors portraying everyone, and real life lawyers commenting and follow the court transcripts?

It's only my opinion of course, but so far I don't think the prosecution has the edge. We'll see. It would kill me to be on jury to acquit if I thought someone was guilty, but wouldn't have a choice if it wasn't proven.

TIS

Update

A YOUNG man wept in the witness box yesterday as he told how Michael Jackson abused him from the age of seven while they watched cartoons.

Jason Francia told how Jacko “tickled his privates” as they looked at the TV.

Holding tissues to his face as he gave evidence he admitted: “This is so much tougher than I thought. It was embarrassing then, it’s embarrassing now and I’m 24 years old.”

Jason said Jackson, 46, abused him three times when he was visiting homes owned by the star.

He said the singer stuffed a $100 bill into his pants when he molested him, adding: “It was a kind of, ‘don’t tell your mum about the money’.”

Jason told the court in Santa Maria, California, the first incident happened when he was seven at a flat in Hollywood his mum Blanca — a cleaner for Jackson — dubbed The Hideout.

He said: “I was sitting on his lap. My back was to his chest. I think we were watching cartoons. He started tickling me, I tickled him back. Then we went to the floor, tickling still. It eventually moved down to my private region. Around my crotch.”

He said the fondling had lasted “more than three minutes, less than 10 minutes”.

Jason said the second incident also happened at The Hideout when he was between eight and nine as his mum cleaned another room. Again it occurred while they watched cartoons.

Asked how long it took, Jason replied: “Two cartoons worth. Say a Woody Woodpecker, four to five minutes.

“He reached up on my leg, I was still laughing, he reached up to my privates.”

Tearful Jason said Jackson abused him a third time around the age of ten as he played video games at the star’s Neverland ranch.

Jason said Jackson tickled him again. He added: “There was a couch, we somehow managed to end up on the couch.”

Earlier, Jason told the court how he loved visiting Jackson’s homes, saying: “There were toys, old karate games. It was fun for kids. I think there was even a laser tag thing.”

He said he once shared a bed with Jacko and “a bunch of other kids, seven to six”.

Police interviewed Jason around the time. He said he had lied to them because he was embarrassed about what occurred being made public.

Jason — now a car parts salesman who also helps troubled youngsters — was given counselling soon after which lasted until he was 18.

His mum was given an out-of-court settlement by the star 11 years ago — believed to be £2million.

He added: “To this day she does not know I was molested three times. She does now and that sucks.”

As Jason went into his allegations, Jackson rocked back and forth in his chair with his glare fixed on Jason. At the end of the hearing the star stood up, still staring at the witness box.

The singer gazed at Jason for several minutes before leaving court with his defence team.

An emotional Jason was comforted in the box by prosecutors and a female friend.

Jackson denies ten charges, including child molestation and kidnapping. Trial continues.

He certainly is in a big pickle.

I hear they had the other boy who settled on the stand and that he was a very good witness who seemed sincere and drew sympathy. We'll see.



TIS

I just hope to God none of this is true

Update

A FORMER security guard for Michael Jackson told a court yesterday that he saw the star give a boy oral sex.

Ralph Chacon said Jackson and Jordy Chandler, then aged nine or ten, were standing naked in a changing room near a Jacuzzi at the singer’s Neverland ranch.

He said: “I saw them standing in the nude. They were facing each other. I saw Mr Jackson was caressing the boy’s hair. He was kissing him on his face and lips.

“He went down, he started sucking his nipples. He started going down to his penis and started putting it in his mouth.”

Mr Chacon was asked by District Attorney Tom Sneddon how Jackson was kissing Jordy. He replied: “Very passionate. In his mouth.”

Asked where the singer’s hands were at the time, he said: “They were all over his body.”

Mr Chacon, who worked at Neverland from 1991 to 1994, told the court in Santa Maria. California, that the incident occurred in late 1992 to early 1993.

He said he saw Jackson and Jordy going to the Jacuzzi and later to the changing room.

Mr Chacon added that, half an hour later, he could hear Jackson and the boy in the shower together. He said: “I recognised Mr Jackson and Jordy’s voices.

“I was thinking, ‘What’s going on, this is a grown man in a shower’.” He said he had walked away but decided to go back because “what was going on in there wasn’t right”.

He said he had peeped in a window and saw a naked Jackson fondle the boy — and that later, he saw Jackson giving Jordy a piggy-back to the main house, both of them in towelling robes.

Mr Chacon was shown photos of Jordy, including one of him sitting on Jackson’s lap, and asked if that was the boy he saw with the singer that night. He said it was.

He said he had seen another “inappropriate” incident at Neverland several weeks later.

He said: “Mr Jackson and the boy were in front of the Peter Pan display. It’s a window where Peter Pan lights up. Jordy was in front and Mr Jackson was in back. He (Jackson) turned him around and kissed him.”

Mr Chacon said he had given the same testimony in 1994 to a grand jury investigating claims by Jordy that Jackson molested him.

But no criminal charges were brought after the boy’s family were paid £12million by Jackson.

Later, a former maid at Neverland told the court she had seen Jackson fondle Hollywood child star Macaulay Culkin.

Adrian McManus said she had been cleaning Jacko’s bedroom and could see him and Macaulay sitting in a library nearby.

She said: “Mr Jackson was kissing him on his cheek and had his hand on his leg, at his rear.”

Jackson denies molesting a cancer victim, 15, and false imprisonment. The trial continues.

Update

MICHAEL Jackson “wept, shook and trembled” as he begged Jordy Chandler’s mum to let her son share his bed, a court heard yesterday.

June Chandler told for the first time of Jordy’s relationship with Jacko as she gave evidence at the pop superstar’s child molestation trial.

She told jurors in Santa Maria, California, how the singer arrived late at night with Jordy, then 13, at a Las Vegas hotel where she was staying in 1993.

Mrs Chandler, 51, said: “He was sobbing, shaking, trembling. He said, ‘Why don’t you trust me? We’re family. Why aren’t you allowing Jordy to be with me’?

“I said I was allowing Jordy to be with him.

“He said, ‘In my bedroom, why not in my bedroom? We have fun, we all fall asleep, the boys’.

“I said, ‘This is not anything I want. This is not right’. Michael said, ‘We’re a family, Jordy is having fun, why can’t he sleep in my bed? There is nothing going on’.”

Mrs Chandler told the jury the exchange lasted up to 40 minutes and she finally relented.

She said she saw them in bed together — and that Jacko stayed in Jordy’s room in her home even though it had just one bed.

Mrs Chandler said she saw Jackson in bed with Jordy in Monte Carlo and that they also shared a bed on trips to Florida’s Disney World, France and New York.

In Monaco she began to notice she was being kept away from the pair when Jackson boarded up his room. But she said her son’s behaviour soon deteriorated and he grew “sullen”.

And she said she had another tearful confrontation with Jacko when she said the sleep-overs were “out of hand”.

Jordy got a £12million pay-off after claiming the singer molested him.

Under cross-examination, Mrs Chandler admitted she had not spoken to her son — now 25 — for 11 years.

She also said that at the time she did not suspect anything “improper” was going on between the lad and Jackson.

June told the court that throughout her son’s relationship with Jackson, the singer had given her a host of gifts.

These included a £3,700 gift certificate to a boutique and jewellery.

Jackson, 46, denies molesting a 15-year-old cancer victim and false imprisonment. The trial continues.

Has anyone been watching the reinactments to this trial? Of course they are actors, but the court transcript is followed. Very interesting.

Jackson's attorney does know how to "discredit" the witnesses I must say. It's a tough call, because much of the testimony applies to boys that are not bringing a case against Jackson. And a few have admitted to selling their story to tabloids, which is a definite minus. However, on the other hand, none of these witnesses (or at least most of them), don't know each other, but their testimony of Jackson's "behavior" is consistent, so it's hard to believe every single one them is lying.

That being said, so far, as an obsever, I am not convinced that Jackson will get a guilty verdict.

TIS

Update

MICHAEL Jackson offered the lad he is accused of molesting a house if he agreed to make a film praising him, a court heard yesterday.

The stepfather of the 13-year-old cancer victim said Jacko’s advisers wanted to make the film as a rebuttal to the damaging documentary by ITV’s Martin Bashir.

The stepdad said when he asked the star’s aide Frank Tyson what the boy would get in return for cooperation he was offered a college education and a house.

He said he turned the offer down and asked about money, but was accused of blackmail.

Bashir’s documentary outlined the star’s worrying relationship with young boys at Neverland — and led to the current charges.

The man also told the court in Santa Maria, California, how the boy's mum sat in a closet sobbing as she spoke to the star’s aides on the phone about the film.

He said she was “distressed” at allegedly being pressured into taking part in the film.

Jacko, 46, denies abusing the boy. The trial continues.

I'll tell you, I've been listening to the reinactment of the court testimony. True or not, some of the claims made against Jackson are totally disgusting and given in very graphic detail.


TIS

from what ive posted and read it's not looking good for him

I'm not really sure DeNiro. I've followed several commentaries on it, along with the reinactment of the trial. Usually there are both prosecuting attorneys and defense attorneys commenting. It always seems the defense attorneys think there's "no case" and the prosecuting attorneys think there is.

What I'd like to know is the exact charges. Are there "levels" of molestation? Can he be charged with a lesser charge if not Child Molestation??? There are many "unrelated" witnesses who testified to witnessing face licking and fondling, and more than a few have testified to Jackson and victim showering together (which of course the defense attorney says that in itself proves nothing.) If there is a lesser charge, what would that fall under?

TIS

Update

THE mum of Michael Jackson’s accuser says she caught the singer licking her sleeping son.

The woman, 37, claimed the incident happened on a jet from Miami in 2003.

She sobbed as she told the court: “At that time when everyone had fallen asleep, I had gotten up, I thought this was my chance to look and see what was going on back there.

“I saw Michael licking his head, over and over. I thought I was seeing things.”

The woman added that her son, then 13, “was sleeping” with his head on the chest of Jacko, who had his arm around the boy.

She said: “When we’d got there, I asked my son, I said: ‘Are you OK?’ He said, ‘Yes’.”

She then mimicked the licking she claimed to have seen, saying: “He was licking, like this, over and over”.

The woman said she had not said anything at the time, adding: “I was not going to tell nobody.” She later told police.

She also claimed she was threatened by Jacko’s security men in a row over the Martin Bashir documentary.

Earlier, the woman agreed to testify only if she was not asked about alleged benefit fraud.

Jacko, 46, denies ten charges including molesting the boy. The case continues.

Update

A MUM whose son accused Michael Jackson of sex abuse said yesterday a Jacko aide warned he could have her “erased”.


The mother said the threat came when she queried scripted answers to questions in a TV documentary about the singer.

She also said she praised Jackson when quizzed by social workers because she feared something might happen to her mum and dad.

Janet said an aide made it clear “if I put Michael in a bad light they knew where my parents live”.

She also said a lawyer of Jackson’s told her to “only say positive things”.

The mother said she was told later she had not praised him enough and would have to go to Brazil.

She said she was warned that her boyfriend and parents would be killed if she refused.

The meeting with three social workers took place in 2003 after Martin Bashir’s show on Jackson was aired.

There were complaints after the mother's teenage son was shown snuggling up to the singer.

Jackson denies child abuse. Trial continues in Santa Maria, California.

Update

The mother of Michael Jackson's accuser spent her fourth tireless day on the stand Monday, wagging her finger at the pop star as she told jurors she had the real dirt on the "Man in the Mirror."

"He's managed to fool the world," she said indignantly. "I was one woman on the inside. What he puts out to the world is not who he really is. And now because of this criminal case, people now know who he really is."

She testified that Jackson coerced her and her three children into false imprisonment at his ranch, Neverland, by convincing her during a "lovey dovey" conversation that she needed his protection from "the killers."

"He told me that my family was going to be killed," the mother said, adding, "I believed everything Michael told me."

In time, however, she said she came to see that Jackson's aides and unindicted co-conspirators — the men who chaperoned her to and from Neverland, beauty salons and shopping trips — were the real killers.

"They had many ways to make my family disappear," the witness said. One of the ways she believed they might erase her family, she later shared with investigators, was to launch them far away from Neverland in a hot air balloon.

When defense attorney Thomas Mesereau reminded her of that lofty idea Monday, she confirmed it. She also insisted that she never contacted police during her alleged two-month long imprisonment because she feared Jackson would have her family killed.

Jackson is on trial for allegedly holding the woman and her three children against their will at his Neverland ranch after a damaging documentary showed Jackson in a loving embrace with the accuser, a 13-year-old cancer survivor who was a frequent sleepover guest.

Prosecutors say that after spiriting the accuser and his family away from the public eye, Jackson molested the boy repeatedly in February or March 2003.

According to the witness, she did not know her son was being molested until many months after the alleged escape.

"You claim you first learned about any alleged molestation in September of 2003, correct?" Mesereau asked her before concluding his cross-examination.

"I don't understand what he's saying," the witness told jurors, "but I came to learn little by little ..."

Mesereau interrupted her and forcefully repeated the question: "You claim you first learned about any alleged molestation in September of 2003, from [district attorney] Tom Sneddon, [lead investigator] Steven Robell and [lieutenant] Jeff Klapakis?"

"Yes," she said.

Jackson claims he is being victimized by a family he once treated like his own. His defense has attempted to paint the mother as a litigious, celebrityobsessed woman who has her sights set on the pop star's riches.

She repeatedly denied having any intention of filing a civil suit against the singer.

Jackson faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted.

'Escape' from Neverland

By the end of cross-examination, the mother's demeanor on the stand seemed more subdued and lethargic compared to last week's feisty testimony, which was marked by laughter, tears, mania and solemnity.

Some of her habits remained, however. She often addresses jurors in a conversational tone. She greets the panel with a "good morning" when she first takes her seat. She offered a "bless you" when one sneezed and alerted a bailiff when another appeared to need his attention.

Unfailingly, she turns to face the jurors when answering.

Jackson has remained expressionless. At one point, he shook his head slowly and peered over at the jurors as if to gauge whether they were believing the witness.

She was forced again Monday to answer to her own inconsistent statements. "They told me this would appease the killers," she said to explain why she continually heaped praise on Jackson in taped interviews and written statements made during her alleged captivity.

When confronted with receipts showing the mother was treated to a body wax, clothing and luggage for her and her children, she answered with a phrase she has repeatedly used during trial: "It was all part of the choreography" of Michael Jackson's "positive PR people."

The prosecutor objected to his own witness's testimony as nonresponsive about a half dozen times Monday when she strayed into tangents about Jackson's "positive PR people."

According to the witness, the positive PR people — namely four of Jackson's five unindicted co-conspirators Frank Tyson, Vincent Amen, Ronald Konitzer and Dieter Wiesner — constantly monitored her phone conversations, watched her and her parents, and planned to send her and her children to Brazil in early March 2003 to silence them.

When asked by Mesereau if she truly believed that Jackson, the most famous person in the world, was arranging to have her family kidnapped, she replied, "All I know is what I saw and what I knew. They were making me and my children leave the country."

"You were leaving the country for one week, isn't that correct?" Mesereau asked.

"No. Until they said," she replied.

Although the mother has been an uneven witness, she has not faltered in her conviction during two days of intense cross-examination that she and her three children were falsely imprisoned by Jackson and his aides.

She told jurors that Jackson, a man who has publicly claimed to identify most with Peter Pan, had effectively stolen away her children's affections.

"They were separating me from my children. By the end, I had no control over them, I lost them," she said.

When they finally escaped from Neverland, the mother said, she began "the process of deprogramming my children from being brainwashed."

Update

THE grandmother of the teenage boy in the Michael Jackson trial told yesterday how Neverland affected her family.
She said her grandchildren’s personalities had changed when they returned from the singer’s home.

And she claimed that she had to LIE to Jackson’s staff that she was ill to be allowed to see the kids at all.

The woman, who called Jackson “Miguel”, said one of his people brought her grandchildren to her home in Los Angeles.

One grandchild has accused Jackson of molesting him.

His grandmother told the jury: “Those children were not my grandkids. When they came back they didn’t talk to me the same. They were different kids.

“Even up to now he is not the same child.”

Michael Davy, a counsellor, said the boy became disruptive at school after meeting the singer.

Jackson denies molesting him when he was 13, attempted molestation and giving alcohol to a minor.

He also denies conspiracy to commit false imprisonment, extortion and abduction.

Prosecutor Tom Sneddon expects to finish presenting his case to the court in Santa Maria, California, by the end of next week.

Jackson said: “I think it’s going well.”

Well DeNiro, it looks like you and I are the only ones following this trial. Don't know exactly why, but I have been following most of it. It's so distrubing.

So far, I still have the feeling that it's going more in Jackson's favor, as far as "clear" evidence. The mother is so "off the wall" (if you'll pardon the expression :p ). Commentators are saying she is soooo unbelieveable and has lied before, so why not now??? Yet I pose a different theory. Yes, she's weird, and, I think, could very well be out for the money.

However, consider the possibility, that this mother turned a blind eye to the molestation of her child, never questioning, nor calling the police, simply to get what she could.

TIS

I'm actually extremely interested in the trial. But honestly, who can't find a trial such as this even mildly interesting? A celebrity trial is interesting enough as it is, let alone one with such - lets call it "mythology" - behind it as such!

After all the pedophile jokes and wise-cracks, Jackson is finally being trialed of what he has been being accused of for the past ten years.

Update

A POTENTIAL witness in the Michael Jackson child abuse trial has been charged with having sex with a 14-year-old girl.

The teenager claims Ahmad Elatab, 18, forced her into sex acts at her home while her parents slept upstairs.

She says he bragged about being at Jackson’s house while the star seduced a girl. And she told police he “learned how to be that way from Michael Jackson”.

The 14-year-old says she and Elatab watched computer porn before the assaults. Elatab, who is being held in jail in New Jersey, denies all charges.

Police say the girl told them she consented to some parts of the sexual encounter. But Detective Captain Robert Rowan said: “At 14, she’s not legally in the position to give consent.”

Elatab is one of 500 possible defence witnesses at Jackson’s trial in Santa Maria, California.

He stayed at Jackson’s Neverland Ranch dozens of times and in 2003 defended the singer against sex abuse claims

Update

A former Neverland Ranch guard testified Wednesday that he once saw a security directive instructing guards that Michael Jackson's accuser was not to leave Neverland.

"It simply stated [the boy] is not allowed off the property," said police officer Brian Barron, who moonlighted at Jackson's ranch for almost five years.

The order, Barron said, was scribbled on a white grease board, which hung inside a security office near the main house. The order remained there, he said, for about a week in February 2003, when prosecutors claim Jackson held the accuser and his family captive.

"What did that directive mean to you?" Deputy District Attorney Gordon Auchincloss asked.

We weren't to allow him off the property without some sort of permission from a supervisor," Barron said.

The officer was also asked to identify about a gate-activity log from Feb. 19, 2003. Among line-item notations such as "Front door found unsecured," someone had also noted: "The kids are not to leave, per Joe. Kids meaning [the boy, his brother], etc."

Joe, presumably, referred to Neverland manager, Joe Marcus.

Prosecutors say Jackson sexually molested the boy, a 13-year-old cancer survivor, in February or March 2003. He is also charged with plying the child with alcohol as a means to molest him, and conspiring to falsely imprison the accuser and his family at Neverland after a damaging documentary aired, showing the singer embracing the boy and discussing the joy of sharing his bed with children.

While the seemingly ominous directive may have bolstered the state's allegation that Jackson squired the boy away for his insidious purposes, the evidence quickly lost its oomph during cross-examination of the police officer.

Barron agreed with defense attorney Robert Sanger that it was Neverland policy to not allow children to leave by themselves when their parents were not present.

The accuser's mother, in fact, testified that she was in Los Angeles on Feb. 19, staying at her boyfriend's Koreatown apartment.

"It would not be out of the ordinary then to not let children, such as [the boy and his brother], leave the property?" Sanger asked.

"That's correct," Barron said.

Barron, a City of Guadalupe officer who was hired to keep intruders out of Jackson's sprawling Santa Ynez Valley property, said he worked about two or three days a week at Neverland, on and off from late 1997 until April 2004.

He was on vacation, however, when investigators conducted the Nov. 18, 2003, raid at the ranch, seizing pornography and other materials.

Barron said he spoke to the chief of police shortly after the search and they decided he should begin to disentangle himself from his famous employer due to the continuing criminal investigation.

Still, he affirmed during cross-examination that he never saw any unlawful conduct at Neverland, and told jurors that it was no secret during his tenure that he was a police officer, duty-bound to report any illegal activity he might witness.

Barron testified that he was approached by a Santa Barbara County detective in December 2003, and asked to go undercover at Neverland as an informant.

He said he refused.

Defense attorney Sanger also asked the witness to identify a seemingly endless book of guest logs, paperwork indicating the names of visitors, including their arrival and departure times.

The names of the accuser, his brother, sister and mother were logged alongside dozens of other guests who came to Neverland during the alleged captivity period.

The defense's point, it seemed, was to show jurors that the family's comings and goings were logged the same as all other guests, and that they were not secreted in and out under false cover.

Guarding Neverland

Barron gave jurors a brief glimpse of life inside Neverland, where as many as three to four guards were on watch at all times.

He said he conducted hourly checks of all doors, kept track of everyone and everything that entered or left the gates, and made new visitors fill out confidentiality agreements, forbidding them to discuss what goes on inside the palatial estate.

He described two main guard posts, one at the front wooden gates, which are flanked by stone walls, and another near the main house, where the greaseboard hung.

He said he had a key to the back door of the main residence, but did not know the secret code to the security keypad to gain entrance to Jackson's private suite.

The King of Pop traveled often, but when he was home, according to Barron, the employees were "on pins and needles."

"He's a perfectionist, and everything has to be right," he said of the singer.

Children, however, ruled the roost at Neverland, where other witnesses have described seeing kids running free among chimpanzees and exotic pets, playing in the arcade late at night, having food fights in the theater, and even finding their way into Jackson's secret wine cellar.

"It was a fun place to go. They got to do pretty much whatever they wanted, most of them," Barron said. "They were treated quite well."

I read yesterday that Debbie Rowe, the mother of Jackson's kids will be testifying for the Prosecution either today or tomorrow. They say, that she is going to confirm the accuser's mother's story that the tv interview they did a couple years ago was scripted and that they were told what to say. We'll see what happens.


TIS

Update

MICHAEL Jackson’s travel agent yesterday told a court how she was asked to book one-way tickets to Brazil for his accuser’s family.

Cynthia Montgomery said Jacko sidekick Marc Schaffel requested the seats on a flight to Sao Paulo on March 1, 2003.

It adds weight to claims made by his accuser’s mum that Jackson’s people said they would have to flee to Brazil to hide from “killers” they claimed were after them.

Montgomery said for visa reasons she had to book a return ticket for the family — with a return date of her choosing, which she said she ran by Schaffel.

But she added there was no requirement for them to fly back to the US on the date specified.

Jackson, 46, denies ten charges including child molestation. The trial in Santa Maria, California, continues.


JACKSON has mysteriously axed lawyer Brian Oxman, 53, who has represented Jackson family members since 1989, from his defence team.

Update

A former sex crimes investigator told jurors Friday about the lurid reading material she discovered in a locked filing cabinet in Michael Jackson's master bedroom.

Two hardcover books "depicting images of adolescent boys in various stages of dress" were seized during a search of Jackson's Neverland ranch in August 1993, according to detective Rosibel Smith.

The bright, cheery cover of "Boys Will Be Boys," published in 1966, featured young blond boys in retro-style swim trunks doing cannonballs into a body of water.

The second book, a hardcover titled "The Boy: A Photographic Essay," depicted preteen boys "in various poses, playing, swimming, jumping," Smith said.

Jackson was under investigation in 1993 for the alleged sexual abuse of Jordie Chandler, a young boy whose family later agreed to payments of more than $20 million from the singer in exchange for their silence.

Jackson never admitted to any wrongdoing in that case and he was never charged.

However, the judge of his current child molestation case has allowed prosecutors to introduce evidence, like the sexually explicit books, which may demonstrate Jackson's alleged pattern of grooming his potential victims, including showing them pornography to arouse them and engage them in felonious acts.

Jackson's current accuser, a 13-year-old cancer survivor, testified that the King of Pop showed him pornographic materials before he masturbated the boy.

Jackson, 46, is charged with 10 counts, including plying his accuser with alcohol, sexually molesting him, and conspiring to falsely imprison his family.

This boy's life

Jackson's defense chose an open-book approach with the prurient materials during cross-examination of Smith. As he projected the cover and inside leaf page for jurors, defense attorney Robert Sanger asked Smith to read the inscriptions on both books.

One appeared to have been written by Jackson.

"Look at the true spirit of joy and happiness in these boy's faces," was penned on the inside page of "Boys Will Be Boys."

"This is the spirit of boyhood, a life I never had and will always dream of. This is the life I want for my children. M.J."

Jotted above the inscription in pencil were the words "OP," or out of print, "1988, very scarce MJ."

The second book, presumably a gift from a fan, had a smattering of hearts scribbled around the inscription, which read: "To Michael, from your fan XXXOOO 'Rhonda.'" A note of "1983 Chicago" was inked at the bottom of the page

Smith conceded that it was not illegal to own either book.

Although the books were admitted into evidence and jurors will be allowed to examine them when they begin deliberations, the photos were not shown in court on Friday.

'Escaping' the stand

Prosecutors announced they expect to complete their case by Tuesday. And they appeared to be fighting for every word, as they spent hours Friday arguing before the judge over one word in particular: "escape."

It was a fight prosecutors lost.

At the heart of the battle was a writer, Ian Drew. Now an editor at Us Weekly, Drew was questioned outside the presence of jurors about something Jackson's alleged co-conspirator uttered to him during the time the accuser's family was allegedly being held against their will at Neverland.

Drew stated that he was set to interview the family for a story meant to show "how Mr. Jackson did not do anything inappropriate with them."

But the interview never took place. Drew said Jackson aide, and alleged co-conspirator, Ronald Konitzer explained suddenly that "the family was unavailable."

"I was told that they disappeared, that they couldn't keep them there anymore. I believe the word 'escape' was used," Drew told attorneys.

Prosecutor Ronald Zonen argued that Konitzer's use of the word "escape" indicated that Jackson's aides were knowingly holding the family captive.

But when questioned in greater detail by the judge, Drew clarified that it was the tone of Konitzer's voice he recalled more than the exact word "escape."

Drew's attorney, Kelly Sager, also vociferously objected to his client having to testify, citing California's Shield Law protecting journalists from divulging confidential information.

Judge Rodney Melville agreed that the Shield law applied, and that its use by Drew prevented the defense from effectively cross-examining him.

Drew appeared pleased as he left the courtroom, having successfully escaped the prospect of testifying at the Jackson trial.

Update

The man who recorded a video featuring the family of Michael Jackson's young accuser testified Wednesday at the pop star's child molestation trial that he did not see them reading or rehearsing from a script.

The testimony of Hamid Moslehi did not support an account by the boy's mother, who alleges she was forced to closely follow a script praising Jackson as part of a scheme in which her family was held captive to get their help in rebutting a damaging television documentary about Jackson.

Moslehi testified that the boy, his brother and sister were at his house for two or three hours before the taping began and he saw them playing but not rehearsing. He said the mother was there for about an hour before the taping and that he did not see her reading or rehearsing either.

Moslehi, Jackson's former videographer, also said he did not see anyone coaching the mother as she applied her makeup for the taping in his bathroom.

The woman has testified that Jackson associate Dieter Wiesner coached her on what to say.

Moslehi left the stand Wednesday and was followed by a woman who is a phone records custodian, but he was ordered to remain at the court pending an expected defense motion. Attorney Robert Sanger did not explain what was at issue.

Prosecutors were expected to soon call Jackson's ex-wife Debbie Rowe, who is in a family court battle with him over visitation of their two children. She is expected to say that a video in which she praised Jackson was scripted.

On Monday, the judge overruled defense objections to allowing Rowe to testify but said he would "look to ways to restrict that testimony."

Wiesner and associate Ronald Konitzer, who are named as unindicted co-conspirators in the case, were also the subject of Moslehi's testimony on Tuesday.

He said the two men became Jackson's managers in late 2002, a few months before they allegedly took part in a conspiracy to hold the family captive.

Prosecutors asked Moslehi about Wiesner and Konitzer to try to link them more closely to the singer. The mother of the accuser has testified that the German businessmen intimidated her family.

On cross-examination, Jackson defense attorney Thomas Mesereau Jr. tried to show that Jackson was a victim of Wiesner and Konitzer, not a close associate.

Mesereau asked Moslehi if he knew that Wiesner and Konitzer had stolen close to $1 million from Jackson. The question drew a prosecution objection, and the judge did not allow a direct answer. When Mesereau repeated it without the dollar figure, the witness answered no.

Questioned further about the two men on Wednesday, Moslehi testified that Konitzer once said he and Wiesner were going to clean up mismanagement of Jackson's affairs. "They were going to take over and make things smoother," he said.

Jackson is accused of molesting a 13-year-old boy in February or March 2003, giving him alcohol, and conspiring to hold his family captive to get them to rebut the TV documentary "Living With Michael Jackson."

Thats sick

Update

Michael Jackson's defense team got off to a rocky start Thursday with the shaky testimony of two men who claimed they were never sexually molested as children despite spending dozens of nights alone with the singer in his bed.

"Did Mr. Jackson ever molest you at any time?" defense attorney Thomas Mesereau asked Wade Robson, a 22-year-old choreographer for pop stars such as Britney Spears and *NSYNC.

"Absolutely not," Robson said.

"Did Mr. Jackson ever touch you in a sexual way?"

Never, no," Robson replied.

Robson brought his fiancée to court Thursday, holding her close as he entered the courtroom.

But the soft-spoken witness's voice cracked at times and he appeared to grow more uncomfortable during prosecutor Ronald Zonen's rapid-fire cross-examination.

"The first time you slept with Michael Jackson you were seven years old is that correct?' Zonen asked during cross-examination.

"I slept in the same bed," Robson said defensively, confirming that he shared Jackson's bed 15 to 20 times from the ages of 7 to 13, and he likened the arrangement to sleeping in the bedroom of a best friend.

"Had you ever crawled into the bed of a 30-year-old man prior to that?" Zonen asked.

"My father's," Robson replied after some thought.

And while a former Neverland maid testified that she saw Jackson and Robson taking a shower together in the early 1990s, with their underpants lying side by side on the bathroom floor, Robson denied ever having showered with the King of Pop.

He also said that Jackson never kissed him on the lips or ran his hands through his hair, only hugs and kisses on the cheek.

"Did you cuddle in bed?" Zonen asked.

"No."

"Did you lie next to one another?"

"Yes."

"Did you touch?"

"No."

"Would you have considered it inappropriate to cuddle in bed?"

"No."

Questioning reached a fever pitch as the attorneys took turns engaging Robson in a pornography show-down, with Zonen trying to shock the witness by showing him page after page of sexually explicit materials found during a search of Neverland, and Mesereau trying to lessen the suggestion of pedophilia by focusing on the heterosexual nature of most of the images.

"This is a young boy with his legs open and he's naked," Robson replied when asked by Zonen to describe a photo in a picture book, "Boys Will Be Boys."

"Just take a second to strum through the balance of the book," Zonen ordered the witness, before asking him hypothetically, "Would you be concerned about your 12-year-old child sleeping in bed with a person who possesses a book like that?"

"No," Robson said. "To me, it's not a pornographic book, it's just a book."

Zonen walked over to the clerk's desk and retrieved another book, seemingly upping the ante with the unfazed witness.

As Robson thumbed through "A Sexual Study of Man, Illustrated with Photographs and Art Prints" — another tome seized from Jackson's collection — he confirmed that it contained images of men engaged in oral sex and sodomy.

"Would you be concerned about a man who possesses that book crawling into bed with a 10-year-old boy?" Zonen asked.

"Yes, I guess so," Robson replied, somewhat defeated.

Robson was forced to look at more magazines, and to read the titles "Double-Dicking Caroline," and "Stiff Dick for Lynn" out loud.

"I can't believe I have a world of people watching me do this," he said at one point, withering on the stand as he turned the pages.

But Robson said he never saw any pornographic magazines at Jackson's home, and despite the graphic nature of the magazines he reviewed, he held firm to his position that he would allow his own children to sleep with Michael Jackson.

Jackson is on trial for allegedly sexually molesting a 13-year-old cancer survivor, plying the boy with alcohol to weaken his defenses, and conspiring to falsely imprison the child and his family at Neverland in February and March of 2003.

Robson is one of five boys, including actor Macaulay Culkin, who prosecutors claim were the victims of similar inappropriate sexual advances by Jackson more than a decade ago.

Only one of those boys testified for the prosecution that he had been molested during "tickling games" with Jackson. The mother of another alleged victim, Jordie Chandler, testified that Jackson spent up to 30 nights at her home, sleeping in her child's bed. FOR WHICH SIDE?

Chandler and the boy who claimed to be inappropriately tickled were paid millions of dollars by Jackson in exchange for their silence.

Jackson was never charged in the prior cases, although the judge ruled that prosecutors could introduce testimony that might indicate a criminal pattern.

Culkin is expected to testify for the defense early next week that he was never groped, despite the claims of state witnesses who say they saw Jackson with his hands on the then-child actor's private parts.

Pillow fights at Neverland

The fifth alleged victim of past bad acts, Brett Barnes, was the defense's second witness Thursday.

Barnes, unlike Robson, was spared perusing through porn magazines in front of the jury.

The 23-year-old roulette dealer from Melbourne, Australia, testified that he met Jackson when he was only 5 years old.

His mother, he said, got a letter through to the singer during his Australian leg of the "Bad" tour. By the age of 9, Barnes and his family were making frequent visits to see Jackson at Neverland.

Barnes, like Robson and like Jackson's current accuser, said he always slept in Jackson's bedroom — sometimes alone, sometimes with other boys.

He said they would stay up until all hours watching movies, playing video games and having pillow fights. Everyone kept their pajamas on, according to the witness.

Former Neverland employees have testified that Jackson gave Barnes inappropriate kisses on his face and pats on his rear end.

"Has Mr. Jackson ever molested you?" Mesereau asked him.

"Absolutely not, and I can tell you right now, if he had, I wouldn't be here right now," Barnes said in a thick Australian accent. "It's not the type of thing I stand for."

Like Robson, Barnes said he never discussed with his family about whether it was appropriate to sleep in bed with a grown man.

But he had trouble recalling basic details during cross-examination, such as whether his mother was present during trips he took with Jackson or how many times he shared the singer's bed.

He did recall, however, that the last time he slept at Neverland and spent the night in Jackson's bedroom was at the age of 19.

You know, obviously we are not in the courtroom and can only speculate, but I have been watching the reinactments with commentary by both defense/prosecuting attorneys. I realize that it's the attorneys job to defend or get a conviction, but I'm beginning to believe that both sides are prejudiced and neither wants to admit a "point" for the other. So maybe lawyers aren't the ones to listen to for commentary.

From what I've seen, it would "appear" that the prosecutors haven't made a good enough case, and yet I wonder what the "average" juror is thinking. Looking at it in that respect, and knowing that most children who are molested deny it, why should it be any surprise that any of these witnessed who say they were never touched/molested by Jackson, deny it? In other testimony by witnesses (with baggage I might add), have testified to seeing inappropriate behavior (although not molestation)on Jackson's part. As a juror you must decided who to believe or not believe and I think this requires a unanamous vote. I really doubt that the prosecutor will get that, but we'll see.


TIS

Just a sidenote: Last October I was on jury duty in a murder trial, which had almost all "ify" witnesses. The most believeable (to all of us jurors), was the one gal who came out of prison to testify, handcuffed and in jail uniform. Go figure!!! :p

Update

Family members of two boys who were Michael Jackson's "special friends" more than a decade ago testified Friday that there was nothing wrong with letting children sleep in the entertainer's bed.

"I've known Michael for a long time. I've spent many hours talking to him about everything. I trust him. I trust him with my children," said Joy Robson, the mother of 22-year-old Wade Robson, a choreographer who denied Thursday that he showered naked with Jackson, as a prosecution witness claimed.

Robson said she, Wade, and 10-year-old daughter Chantal, stayed at Jackson's Neverland ranch in 1990 and have visited about four times a year ever since.

She said she let Wade, who was then 7, and Chantal sleep in Jackson's bedroom from the first visit.

You have no idea, once you left that room, what went on, do you? No personal knowledge?" District Attorney Thomas Sneddon asked the witness during cross-examination.

"I know what my son tells me," Robson replied.

Lisbeth Barnes testified she had never seen Jackson touch her son Brett Barnes inappropriately, despite the claims of previous witnesses.

"I have total trust in him," Barnes told jurors.

"Had your son slept with any other men, other than relatives, adult grown men?" the prosecutor asked.

Barnes could not recall any men other than relatives with whom her son shared a bed.

Karlee Barnes and Chantal Robson, sisters to Brett and Wade, also testified that nothing untoward ever happened during their frequent Neverland sleepovers in the early 1990s.

Both girls said they chose not to sleep in Jackson's bedroom after the second or third visit.

"I'm a girl and I prefer to have a little privacy," said Chantal Robson. "I was developing into an adult."

Prosecutors contend that Jackson discouraged girls from sleeping in his room. But the constant refrain from the parade of female witnesses was that Jackson was like any other new best friend a boy could have, and that there was nothing wrong with the boys sleeping in his bed.

"It didn't seem odd to you that a 35-year-old man was sleeping with a 10-year-old boy?" prosecutor Gordon Auchincloss asked Chantal.

"No. Not at all," she replied.

Karlee Barnes described her and Wade "skipping, jumping and doing silly dances" late at night with the singer in his bedroom.

Joy Robson said she even spent a couple evenings lying in Jackson's bed watching movies and talking.

Robson said the family met Jackson in 1987 after Wade won a dance contest in Australia. Jackson believed in her son's talent, she said, and he ultimately helped the family move to the U.S., where he played a role in launching Robson's dance career.

Robson is now a successful celebrity choreographer and recently entered into a film-directing deal with Disney.

Sneddon suggested that Robson's ambition for her son's career blinded her to Jackson's salacious intentions.

"You thought your having a good relationship with the defendant would help?" Sneddon asked.

"You're putting words in my mouth," she shot back. "You're trying to say that's the basis for our friendship, and that's not true."

But Robson was forced to answer to statements she made in a 1993 deposition, when Jackson was being investigated for allegedly molesting a boy named Jordie Chandler.

At the time, Robson said she told Jordie's mother that Jackson had "special friends" — boys with whom he spent extra time — and that he replaced them year after year with new special friends.

Jackson's special friends according to Robson, included her son Wade in 1990, child actor Macaulay Culkin in 1991, Brett in 1992, and Jordie in 1993.

Robson downplayed the remark Friday, saying that the friendships were innocent.

Prosecutors believe that Jackson inappropriately touched all of those boys. But when the Chandler family received more than $20 million in exchange for their silence, the investigation was dropped, and Jackson was never charged with any wrongdoing.

Still, prosecutors argue that Jackson exhibited a criminal pattern with those young boys, similar to a pattern he engaged in with his current accuser, a 13-year-old cancer survivor, whom he is charged with molesting in spring of 2003.

To that end, prosecutors attempted to draw out details about the witnesses' relationships with Jackson that tended to mirror his relationship with the current accuser's family.

For instance, all of the mothers allowed their children to sleep in Jackson's bedroom from the start, some of them suffered instances in which they felt their boys preferred Jackson's company to their own, and all of them benefited from Jackson's financial help.

Robson conceded that she broke down in tears one Mother's Day because Wade spent the entire day with Jackson instead of her.

But like the other defense witnesses Friday, she insisted that Jackson was part of her family, and someone she unequivocally trusted with her children. She said they continue to visit him at Neverland to this day.

When asked to describe the 2,700-acre ranch, she described it as a place where she used to go to escape her troubles.

"I would have once said it was the happiest place on earth," Robson said, wistfully. "I particularly liked the chimpanzees."