Jackson Accuser's Mom Refuses to Answer
By TIM MOLLOY
SANTA MARIA, Calif. (AP) - The mother of Michael Jackson's young accuser cited attorney-client privilege Monday in refusing to say whether she was represented by a lawyer at a time she and her children were allegedly held captive by the pop star.
Resuming a tough cross-examination that began last week, Jackson attorney Thomas Mesereau asked the woman if she had been represented by lawyer Michael Manning from 2001 through 2004 on issues involving her divorce.
The woman said Manning had helped her on several issues involving the divorce. She added that Manning worked for her for free and that as a result she was one of his low-priority clients. Superior Court Judge Rodney S. Melville ordered the latter comments stricken from the record. When Mesereau asked the woman if Manning was her attorney at the time of the alleged captivity, the woman asked, ``Is that attorney-client privilege?''
Mesereau said he would drop the question if she was citing her privilege, and she said she was doing so.
Jackson, 46, is accused of molesting one of the woman's sons, plying the boy with alcohol, and holding his family captive in February and March 2003 to get them to help rebut the ``Living With Michael Jackson'' documentary in which Jackson said he allowed children to sleep in his bed, a practice he called innocent. The woman alleges that Jackson and his associates held her family captive, shuttling them between locations until they made a rebuttal video in which they praised Jackson.
Mesereau also asked the woman about her reasons for mentioning Jackson, Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant and Los Angeles TV weather forecaster Fritz Coleman in an interview with police involving domestic abuse allegations against her former husband. She said her former husband falsely accused her of having sex with Jackson, Bryant and Coleman. She said she gave investigators their names so they could contact them and verify that the ex-husband's claims were not true.
Mesereau noted that the police report did not include any mention of alleged false claims by her ex-husband that she was having sex with celebrities. ``I don't think it was considered a crime,'' she said.
Jackson's attorneys contend the woman is the mastermind of a scheme to get money from the singer by having her son falsely accuse him of molestation. She testified last week, however, that she has no plans to sue him.
But last week she also admitted under Mesereau's questioning that she twice lied under oath in a lawsuit against department store J.C. Penney.
The family received a settlement of more than $150,000 after alleging that guards beat them. But the woman acknowledged she lied when she testified in the case that her then-husband was an honest person and that he had never beaten her.
The woman said she asked her attorneys to correct her testimony after her husband was arrested, accused of domestic abuse. She said she felt ``liberated'' to change the record but that her attorneys never did.
On Friday, Mesereau played the rebuttal video for the fourth time in the trial. It includes the woman and her children repeatedly calling Jackson a father figure. Mesereau asked if the woman was lying when she made the comments, and she said the entire video was scripted by Jackson's associates. ``I was acting,'' she testified.
The woman testified that Jackson's associates told her the family had to stay with them because ``killers'' wanted to hurt the family. She said she was never told who the killers were.
The prosecution has introduced video and audio tapes to corroborate her account.
On one recorded phone call, a Jackson associate was heard telling her the family might be in danger because of the broadcast of the ``Living With Michael Jackson'' documentary.
04/18/05 15:51
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