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 Zonen noted that Lopez, who fought a defense subpoena for his testimony, had withdrawn any opposition to taking the stand and would come to court of his own free will.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.