Jolie Rouge

Jackson Accuser's Poor Performance
March 14, 2005

If prosecutors were hoping that Michael Jackson's accuser would come to the witness stand Monday and cement into place their case, they surely are disappointed, and perhaps even mortified, by the young man's courtroom demeanor and testimony. The alleged molestation victim did not talk or act like one in court. And on Monday, during the heart of the prosecution's case, no part of his story was immune from serious and substantial questions about its accuracy or reliability.

At times sullen and combative, cheeky and evasive, acting more like a punk than a crime victim, and often mumbling so badly that the court reporter had to ask him to repeat his answers, the young man did little to persuade jurors that he is telling the truth and Jackson is lying about their alleged encounters together. And it wasn't because Jackson's attorney, Thomas Mesereau, went after the complaining witness like the pit bull attorney we all know he can be. Indeed, part of the reason why Monday was such a devastating day for prosecutors is because the accuser so often during the course of the cross-examination did himself in through word and deed. Calling the young man "Mister," Mesereau was subtle and soft because he didn't have to be blunt and firm. The witness was doing his dirty work for him.

By far the most important revelation from the day's testimony is that the young man apparently told a former middle school dean of his that Jackson had not molested him. "I told him that Michael didn't do anything to me," the young man told jurors after Mesereau asked him what he had told the dean. And what had the dean said to the young man to elicit that response?

Mesereau said the school official asked the young man: "Look at me, look at me. I can't help you unless you tell me the truth." Powerful stuff for the defense, especially since it appears that prosecutors were unaware of the dean's purported testimony until this past weekend.

If the dean does testify, and if he says what Mesereau says he will, that testimony alone could easily create the reasonable doubt Jackson needs to be acquitted of the charges against him. What possible incentive would the dean have to lie? Why would he want to help Jackson? Why would he want to sink the prosecution's case? And even if the young man eventually says on re-direct examination that he didn't want to level with his dean because he was embarrassed, the fact is that then he's lied to a person of authority when asked him to tell the truth about molestation -- which is exactly what this trial is all about.


If this were the only problem prosecutors faced with their most important witness, it might be enough to sink the case. But it is not. On point after point, the alleged victim came across as incredible, at worst, and just plain confused at best. During the afternoon, he even seemed to suggest that he was unclear about when the molestation took place; whether it took place before or after the family made a "rebuttal" video designed to respond to the infamous network video of Jackson at Neverland; the one in which he admitted to the world that he enjoyed sleeping in the same bed with boys not related to him. This, too, is the essence of reasonable doubt.


The timing of the alleged molestation is so important to the case that the defense Monday afternoon trotted out for a third time the rebuttal videotape. If the alleged molestation took place before this rebuttal video was made, its floridly pro-Jackson tone makes even less sense than it did last week, when jurors were told that the alleged molestation took place after the rebuttal video. But no matter when jurors are told the molestation occurred, the rebuttal video is powerful evidence for Jackson and his lawyer made great use of it with the accuser in the courtroom. Over and over again, Mesereau stopped the videotape to ask the young man if he and his family were lying or telling the truth in it. Sometimes the answer was yes; sometimes it was no.


Long hours before the rebuttal video graced the courtroom again came the first question of the day. Before jurors even got settled in their seats, Mesereau was talking about the young man's comments about masturbation. Mesereau asked the accuser why he had ascribed the same words about masturbation to both Jackson and his grandmother. In other words, the alleged victim apparently told some people that Jackson had told him that masturbation was necessary because it prevented rape while telling others that his grandmother had said that. The young man tried to explain away the inconsistency but it wasn't persuasive. And from that icky start it went downhill quickly. It got so bad, in fact, that the young man's answers to questions about his cancer made it seem like he often used the disease as a sword, not a shield, and had unrealistic and sometimes even offensive expectations about what Jackson and the rest of the world owed him.


Then there were moments where the young man's testimony simply defied belief. For example, the young man told jurors that his mother was "scared the whole time" he spent at Neverland toward the end of his relationship with Jackson. Fair enough. But he also told the jury that he never told her that he was sleeping in Jackson's bed during that whole time. How can that be? How could a mother scared about her son's relationship with Jackson either not ask where they were sleeping or not do anything about it? Mesereau repeated that line of questions several times in order to ensure that the jury understood the lack of logic. It's not an issue that breaks the case wide open against Jackson but it surely doesn't help prosecutors, either.


Jackson's attorney also focused during the day on portraying the young man as a poor student with a long history of discipline problems; a mercenary punk who was renown for talking back to his teachers and defying authority. The alleged victim told jurors that he lost respect for one of his teachers because that teacher had brought himself "down to my level." One teacher wrote about the alleged victim's "good acting skills" and the young man himself told the jury that he "wasn't that good of a kid then." Now, as the parent of most young teenagers might tell you, some of this behavior is typical. But Mesereau listed at least nine teachers who all complained in one way or another about the young man. This jury has a few teachers on it and you can bet that this testimony in particular resonates with them.

But Mesereau wasn't trying to get jurors to "tut-tut" the witness for his bad school behavior. He was trying to get them to buy into the notion that the accuser in this case is capable of deceit, of defiance in the face of authority, of not suffering fools gladly even at a tender age. In a case where the young man ought to be appear wholly as a victim, Jackson's attorney Monday may him seek more like a punk, like a tough street kid who would be more likely to torment Jackson than vice versa. None of this means that the alleged molestation didn't take place, of course, but in a case about perceptions, about who was more likely to be victimizing who, it's a big deal. Simply put, it is harder tonight for me to believe that the young man would have allowed Jackson to molest him.

__________________
Laissez les bon temps rouler! Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.** a 4 day work week & sex slaves ~ I say Tyt for PRESIDENT! Not to be taken internally, literally or seriously ....Suki ebaynni IS THAT BETTER ?