Jackson Trial : Defense gets accuser's brother to admit lies - Page 3 - Big Big Forums

Jolie Rouge · 04-28-2005, 10:14 AM

Jackson's Ex-Wife Sets Back Prosecution
By LINDA DEUTSCH

SANTA MARIA, Calif. (AP) - In a startling setback to the prosecution, Michael Jackson's ex-wife took the stand at his child molestation trial Wednesday and said through tears how she was never scripted or rehearsed to say positive things about him to rebut a damaging TV documentary.

Prosecutors called Deborah Rowe to bolster their argument that Jackson conspired to hold the accuser's family captive to get them to rebut the documentary, in which the singer said he lets children sleep in his bed. The accuser's mother claims a video she recorded praising Jackson was made under duress and that every word was from a script.

The prosecution has said Rowe would offer similar testimony - that she was also pressured to praise Jackson in a video - but her testimony Wednesday did not reflect that.

``I didn't want anyone to be able to come back to me and say my interview was rehearsed,'' Rowe said. ``As Mr. Jackson knows, no one can tell me what to say.''

She reiterated that she had been offered a list of questions by her interviewers but she declined to look at them before she talked. ``It was a cold interview and I wanted to keep it that way,'' she said.

Rowe glanced at Jackson as she spoke. The pop star, dressed in a maroon suit, showed no obvious reaction to her testimony.

Rowe was a nurse for one of Jackson's plastic surgeons when they married in 1996, and they had two children together - 8-year-old Prince Michael and a 7-year-old daughter named Paris. The couple filed for divorce three years later, and Rowe is currently in a family court dispute over visitation with their children. Jackson has a third child, Prince Michael II, whose mother has remained anonymous.

Rowe appeared nervous at first as she told jurors ``we've been friends and we were married.'' Asked about her domestic arrangements, she said, ``We never shared a home.''

Deputy District Attorney Ron Zonen asked her what she expected after she gave the video interview. A teary-eyed Rowe said, ``To be reunited with the children and be reacquainted with their dad.''

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

In 2003, Rowe said she spoke with Jackson over the phone and he said ``there was a video coming out and it was full of lies and would I help. I said, as always, yes.''

Rowe said her conversation with Jackson lasted perhaps 2 1/2 minutes and there was no discussion of what he wanted her to do other than to work with his associates.

She said all she could recall him saying was, ``There was a bad video coming out.''

``Did he tell you with any specificity what he wanted you to do?'' asked Zonen.

``No,'' she said.

Asked why she would help Jackson, she said, ``I promised him I would always be there for Michael and the children.''

She did not give any details of her private life with Jackson and made it clear that she did not want to discuss it. ``My personal life was my personal life and no one's business,'' she said when asked by the prosecution if she had talked completely truthfully on the video.

She said the videotaped interview lasted nine hours and that she recently saw a two-hour version of it which was shown to her by prosecutors. She said she found it ``very boring and dull'' and didn't really pay attention while she was watching it.

Rowe said she did not see the ``Living With Michael Jackson'' documentary before her interview was taped. ``All I knew is what was being put out about Michael was hurtful to Michael and the children,'' she said.

In his opening statement, District Attorney Tom Sneddon told the jury they would hear Rowe tell a story similar to that of the accuser's mother. `Debbie Rowe will tell you her interview also was completely scripted,'' Sneddon said on Feb. 28. ``They scripted that interview just like they scripted the (accuser's mother's) interview.''

Rowe was expected back on the stand Thursday for more questioning.

Earlier in the day, Jackson's attorneys asked for a mistrial but were turned down by Judge Rodney S. Melville during a controversy involving testimony about the television documentary.

Associated Press Writer Tim Molloy contributed to this report.

04/27/05 22:07

http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/news/sto...p_news_jackson

Bud_Girl76 · 04-29-2005, 09:47 AM

I really don't think he did it.. I think he's innocent..

Jolie Rouge · 05-16-2005, 11:09 PM

Jackson defense focuses on trips to spa, orthodontist
Attorneys seek to undercut charge family was held captive
Monday, May 16, 2005

SANTA MARIA, California (CNN) -- Michael Jackson's defense tried to undercut the conspiracy charge against him Monday by calling witnesses who disputed claims by his accuser's mother that she and her children were held against their will at Neverland Ranch.

Witnesses told jurors in Jackson's child molestation trial they saw no signs the mother was fearful or wanted to escape during the family's stay at Jackson's ranch in February 2003. They also said they didn't hear her complain about how the family was being treated.

A housekeeper, Maria Gomez, said the mother told her Jackson "was like a father, and she wanted her children to call him 'Dad.' " She said the woman told her at one point that she wanted to leave the ranch because three Jackson associates were "interfering" in her relationship with him.

Gomez and two other witnesses also said the accuser, then 13, and his younger brother -- who claim they were introduced to alcohol and pornography by Jackson -- had both in their possession independently of him.

The housekeeper said that while she was cleaning a guest cottage where the brother stayed, she saw sexually explicit materials in an open backpack.

Angel Vivanco, a chef's assistant, said the boys showed him adult materials when he brought food to them in one of the guest cottages.

Jackson, 46, was indicted last year on 10 felony counts for incidents that include a lewd act on a child; conspiracy to commit abduction, false imprisonment and extortion; and the use of an intoxicant before the commission of a felony. Jackson pleaded not guilty to the charges.

He arrived in the rain at the Santa Maria courthouse Monday morning, accompanied by his mother, Katherine. He wore a black suit with a tan vest and a tan-and-white armband festooned with stars.

Another witness, Shane Meridith, a former ranch security guard, said he once caught the accuser and his brother alone in Jackson's wine cellar in possession of a half empty bottle of wine. Jackson was on the property at the time but was not with them, he said.

Meridith said, however, he did not see the boys drinking and could not recall smelling alcohol on their breath.

Vivanco said the accuser's brother once demanded that he put a liqueur into a milkshake he was preparing for the boy. "He told me if I didn't do it, he would tell Michael, and I would get fired," Vivanco testified.

The defense, which maintains Vivanco developed a relationship with the accuser's older sister, also wanted to question him about comments she allegedly made to him critical of her mother and other family members.

But Santa Barbara County Superior Court Judge Rodney Melville severely limited that line of inquiry, agreeing with the prosecution that it was inadmissible hearsay.

Orthodontist refutes captivity tale

Monday's first witness, Dr. Jean Seamount, an orthodontist in the nearby town of Solvang, testified that she removed braces from the accuser and his brother on February 24, 2003, during the time frame the mother says the family was being held by Jackson's associates.

The mother earlier testified that the appointment with the orthodontist was a ruse to get the family away from Neverland so it could seek help, which she abandoned because the family was being watched. But Seamount said none of the family members asked for help or attempted to call for help, they didn't try to leave the office, and she saw no bodyguards.

Asked if members of the family appeared afraid, Seamount answered, "Not at all."

Seamount said the accuser's mother told her she wanted the braces removed so she could send them back to the Los Angeles orthodontist who had put them on the boys. She said the woman told her she was upset with the other dentist because she believed he wanted to charge her more after discovering who the family was -- an apparent reference to their connection to Jackson.

"I spent quite some time explaining to her the need for treatment," Seamount said. But the mother insisted on removing the braces, she said.

Kathryn Bernard, a former Neverland employee who handled requests from guests, said the mother told her that she needed to take the boys to a new orthodontist because "she was being hassled" by the Los Angeles dentist and "couldn't afford to pay" for the braces.

Seamount's assistant, Tiffany Hayes, described the accuser as "rude" and "kind of a brat." She said she got the impression he believed he was "better than us."

Hayes said Neverland's property manager, Joe Marcus, who called to make the boys' appointment, waited in the lobby for the family. She said Neverland was billed for the treatment.

Day at the spa

Also testifying Monday was Carole McCoy, who said she gave the accuser's mother a "full body" wax at a day spa in Los Olivos, a town near Neverland, on February 11, 2003. Her legs, brow, lip and face were waxed, and she also got a bikini wax, McCoy said.

During her earlier testimony, the mother insisted she had only her legs waxed.

Bernard testified she took the mother to the waxing appointment and arranged to pay the bill. During a conversation on the way, Bernard said the mother, whom she barely knew, began divulging personal information. She said the woman told her she was "trying to get away" from her estranged husband and commented on "how well Michael was treating her" at Neverland.

Bernard said the mother described Jackson as a father figure who had helped her family. She said she "never" complained that she and her children were being held against their will.

Monday's witnesses also said they did not see a film crew following the family during their trips from the ranch. That disputed testimony by the mother that the crew was there to shoot "positive" footage for public relations purposes.

CNN's Dree De Clamecy and Stan Wilson contributed to this report.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/05/16/ja...ial/index.html

schsa · 05-17-2005, 10:51 AM

Honestly, I think everyone is lying and we are never going to know what really happened. Too many contridictions and too many stories that don't make sense.

Jolie Rouge · 05-19-2005, 03:11 PM

King Not Allowed to Testify
By TIM MOLLOY

SANTA MARIA, Calif. (AP) - The judge in Michael Jackson's child molestation trial ruled Thursday against allowing CNN host Larry King to testify for the defense, saying his testimony would be irrelevant.

Judge Rodney S. Melville ruled after listening to King's account of a conversation with an attorney, Larry Feldman, who represented the accuser's family.

Without the jury present, King said that Feldman told him the accuser's mother was out for money and referred to her as ``wacko.''

Feldman testified earlier for the prosecution and denied saying such things about his clients.

After listening to King's account, the judge ruled that King's testimony would not impeach Feldman's own testimony and King left the court.

Feldman was contacted by the accuser's family members after they left Jackson's Neverland estate for the last time in 2003. He referred them to Stan Katz, a psychologist who reported suspicions of child molestation to authorities after interviewing the family members.

On the stand and without jurors present, King said he spoke to Feldman at a Beverly Hills restaurant before the trial began. He said he and a producer were trying to get Feldman to appear on ``Larry King Live.''

He said Feldman told him he didn't take the mother's case because he didn't find her credible and thought she was only after money.

``The mother was a 'wacko' was the term he used,'' King said.

``He said he thinks she wants money. ... He said 'wacko' a couple of times and he said 'she's in this for the money,''' King told the judge.

Jackson defense attorney Thomas Mesereau Jr. asked King if he asked Feldman to clarify what he meant by wacko.

``No, I think that's self-explanatory,'' King said.

Jackson, 46, is accused of molesting a 13-year-old boy in February or March 2003 and plying him with wine. He is also charged with conspiring to hold the boy's family captive to get them to rebut a damaging documentary in which Jackson said he let children sleep in his bed but that it was non-sexual.

Feldman testified in early April. The prosecution had called him as part of its explanation to the jury of how the alleged molestation came to the attention of authorities. But the defense used his appearance to pursue its contention that the accuser and his family were out to get money from Jackson.

Feldman acknowled under cross-examination that the boy, now 15, could file a civil lawsuit against Jackson until he turns 20 years old.

05/19/05 12:22

http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/news/sto...p_news_jackson

Jolie Rouge · 05-19-2005, 11:59 PM

Jackson Witness Testifies on Inaccuracies
By LINDA DEUTSCH, AP Special Correspondent
May 19, 2005

SANTA MARIA, Calif. - The mother of Michael Jackson's accuser complained that she and her children were being kept away from the pop star during the time period prosecutors say one of her sons was being molested, a witness testified Thursday.

The testimony came after the judge refused to allow the defense to call CNN's Larry King as a witness. The talk show host was in court but left without taking the stand.

The defense wanted to present testimony by King that attorney Larry Feldman, who once represented the accuser's mother, had told him the mother was "wacko" and out for money.

The highlight from Thursday's testimony was that of Azja Pryor, a Hollywood casting assistant and the girlfriend of movie star Chris Tucker. She told the jury that the accuser's mother complained to her in early March 2003 that two German associates of Jackson had stepped in to keep her family away.

"I asked, 'Does Michael know anything about this?' She said, 'They won't let us around him because they know the children tug at his heart strings,'" Pryor testified.

The time period she cited is critical because prosecutors allege Jackson molested the then-13-year-old accuser between Feb. 20 and March 12, 2003.

When the accuser's mother testified in the trial, she bitterly spoke out against "the Germans" and claimed they were conspiring with Jackson to hold her family captive.

Pryor began her testimony with a few tears, talking about how she met the family at the Laugh Factory club in Hollywood in 2001 when the boy was battling cancer. The owner of the club and comedians there had become involved in fundraising efforts for the family.

Pryor said she and Tucker, who is expected to testify next week, began taking the children places. Tucker took them by private jet to an Oakland Raiders game and invited them to his brother's wedding, she said.

Pryor testified that she and the boy's mother would talk for hours at a time on the phone, but the mother never complained to her about Jackson.

The judge later handed the defense a victory when he allowed jurors to see a video tour of the singer's Neverland ranch.

Besides the ranch's amusement park rides and zoo animals, the video shows numerous clocks, countering testimony by members of the accuser's family that they were not able to keep track of time while Jackson allegedly held them against their will.

District Attorney Tom Sneddon vehemently opposed the video, saying much of it was "propaganda." He cited in particular a scene that showed a note written on a chalkboard by one of Jackson's children, saying "I love you daddy."

In addition to molestation, Jackson, 46, is accused of giving the boy wine and conspiring to hold his family captive to get them to rebut a TV documentary in which Jackson said he let children sleep in his bed but that it was non-sexual.

Pryor smiled as she told Jackson attorney Thomas Mesereau Jr. that the accuser's mother never told her she had tried to escape from Neverland.

"Why are you smiling?" Mesereau asked.

"It's Neverland," the witness said. "I don't know who would ever want to escape Neverland."

Pryor also testified that she gave the family money and that the accuser's mother and sister tried to pressure her to give them a car. The defense contends that the accuser's mother tried to bilk celebrities by exploiting her son's fight against cancer.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/s/ap/200...ichael_jackson

Jolie Rouge · 05-25-2005, 03:58 PM

Jackson defense rests without calling singer

SANTA MARIA, Calif. (Reuters) - Lawyers for Michael Jackson rested their case on Wednesday without calling the entertainer to testify in defense of the child molestation accusations against him. "Your Honor, the defense rests," said lead Jackson attorney Tom Mesereau after calling some 50 witnesses over 15 days intended to cast doubt on the motives and background of Jackson's accuser and family.

The final defense witness was comedian Chris Tucker, who said he had warned Jackson about the mother of the boy before the charges were brought.

Tucker, a friend of the 46-year-old entertainer, said he befriended the boy after meeting him in 2000 at a time when the youth was battling cancer.

But Tucker, who co-starred with Jackie Chan in the "Rush Hour" movies, said he became concerned about the mother and about the boy's own wheedling, "cunning" ways.

The mother of the boy was so emotional and overwrought at one point when she was calling him about a truck that he had promised to provide the family that she seemed "possessed," Tucker said.

Defense lawyers have sought to portray the mother of Jackson's accuser as a grifter who tried to wheedle money from celebrities and coached her son to lie about the molestation charges against Jackson.

Relating an incident at a Los Angeles comedy club where he had helped in a fund raiser for the boy, Tucker said the boy approached him and said the event had not raised enough money.

"He was just real sad looking. He said they didn't raise any money and they really needed some money." Tucker said, adding that he subsequently wired him $1,500. "He was really smart and he was cunning, but at the time I always overlooked it," Tucker said of the boy. "He was always saying stuff like, Chris, let me have this, let me have that. Come on, I'm not feeling good."

CRITICAL DOCUMENTARY

Tucker said he took Jackson aside in February 2003 to warn him about the boy's mother. At the time Jackson, Tucker and the family were staying at a hotel in Miami.

The comedian also said that the boy's family had been eager to travel with him to Miami to be with Jackson, countering prosecution claims that the trip had been a ploy by Jackson's camp to keep the family from seeing a critical documentary featuring the pop star holding hands with the boy and defending his practice of sharing his bed with children. "Something in my spirit didn't feel right about her. She started acting frantic, like mentally something wasn't right."

Tucker said he took Jackson into a room away from the family. "I told him to watch out for (the mother) because I felt suspicious about her. I took him in the room and I was trying to talk to him, I said, 'Michael, something ain't right."'

Tucker was the final witness to be called by Jackson's defense team over 15 days, a much shorter case than originally projected.

At the start of the trial in January Lead defense lawyer Tom Mesereau said he had a witness list of some 300 people, including a galaxy of stars such as Elizabeth Taylor, Stevie Wonder, Diana Ross and basketball player Kobe Bryant.

In the end, only a handful of stars, including Tucker and comedians Jay Leno and George Lopez, took the witness stand.

Jackson is charged with molesting the boy, then 13, at his Neverland Valley Ranch in California in early 2003, plying the youth with alcohol in order to abuse him and conspiring to commit child abduction, extortion and false imprisonment.

Tucker said before the Miami incident the family once showed up unannounced on a movie set in Las Vegas set where he was working and would not leave.

He said while in Las Vegas the mother "was always saying I was their brother and all that stuff and she loved me. I was getting a little nervous because my whole thing was just to help the kid, not get involved with the whole family."

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...ime_jackson_dc

3lilpigs · 05-30-2005, 07:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by schsa

Honestly, I think everyone is lying and we are never going to know what really happened. Too many contridictions and too many stories that don't make sense.

i agree!

...its going to turn out to be like the OJ trial. (although in my personal opinion,OJ was guilty)

I think Michaeal is guilty too. He is too much of a freak to not be guilty. what kind of 'normal' man PAYS a woman to have his children, sign a waiver to agree to never see them again, holds a baby over a balcony for the press to see (and who's baby is that anyhow?? where did it come from??), he hangs out with little boys, thinks its 'ok' to sleep in a bed with them, he's trying to change the color of his skin, and reconstructed his whole face, they found all kinds of porno material in his rooms........jeez......i'll stop here cause im making myself sick!

the man (??) is just a freak plain and simple.

didnt some of these accusers already describe certain parts of his body that could only be seen if he was naked?

i never did like Michael as a performer.....but i will give him credit that he was very talented, and its a shame to see things have gone this way for him.....but i believe he brought it on himself.

Jolie Rouge · 06-08-2005, 10:36 PM

6/4/2005 3:01 PM

Case turned into weirdness contest between Michael Jackson and boy's mother

SANTA MARIA, Calif. (AP) — The jury deliberating the fate of Michael Jackson may have to decide who's weirder: Jackson or the mother of his accuser.

Much of Jackson's defense came down to trying to prove the mother was the winner of the strange contest — even though Jackson's eccentricities long ago earned him the tabloid tag "Wacko Jacko." His 2003 admission that he shared his bed with children — non-sexually, he explained — didn't do much to mitigate that notion. His lawyers tried to make their client look sympathetic by portraying the mother of his accuser as more out of touch with social norms than he is.

Was his hobby of spending weeks with children creepier than her habit of sucking up to celebrities? Was his insistence that there was nothing wrong with letting children in his bed odder than her habit of saying near-strangers were like family?

Trial analyst Ann Bremner, a former prosecutor, was at a loss when asked if Jackson or the mother came off looking stranger to jurors. "Boy," she said. "That's a contest."

The 46-year-old singer is charged with molesting a 13-year-old boy in February or March 2003. He is accused of plying him with wine and conspiring to hold his family captive to get them to rebut damaging aspects of the documentary "Living With Michael Jackson," in which Jackson appeared holding hands with the boy as he talked of allowing children into his bed for what he said were innocent sleepovers.

The jury received the case Friday afternoon and deliberated for about two hours before adjourning for the weekend.

Defense attorneys ran a risk by focusing on the mother's oddities, Bremner said, explaining that her behavior — and even alleged history of fraud — didn't really relate to whether Jackson had molested her child. "In a lot of ways she's ancillary," Bremner said. "The sins of the mother — do they stick to the son? There has not been a lot of evidence that he would lie at the behest of his mother."

Prosecutors suggested that Jackson's behavior was not only weird but criminal, arguing that sleepovers turned into molestations.

The defense tried to paint the mother as criminally odd as well, arguing that she smothered celebrities with affection to con them. One defense witness testified that the mother also fraudulently underreported income on a welfare application.

Jackson's attorneys tried to make their client's oddity an asset. In his closing statement, lead defense attorney Thomas Mesereau Jr. played excerpts of an interview with Jackson to suggest that he was anything but a criminal mastermind.

In the wide-ranging interview, Jackson described writing songs in his "giving tree," his dream of a holiday for children and his desire to hold a party for animal celebrities, including Cheetah from the Tarzan movies and Lassie.

He also was shown holding his infant son over a balcony and claiming to have had only two plastic surgeries, both on his nose. "Does he look like the kind of person who is even capable of orchestrating a criminal conspiracy of this magnitude?" Mesereau asked.

Prosecutors tried to prop up the mother's testimony with outside corroboration. After she said she feared Jackson's people would hurt her parents and boyfriend, prosecutors presented surveillance tapes of them found in the office of a private investigator who worked for former Jackson attorney Mark Geragos.

They also seized on the mother's erratic behavior on the witness stand to suggest that she couldn't possibly have orchestrated false allegations against Jackson.

The mother "frankly can't string two consecutive sentences together that make sense," prosecutor Ron Zonen said.

The woman repeatedly ignored the typical rules of courtroom decorum by directly addressing jurors, telling them that Jackson's attorney was being unfair or dishonest. She even spoke to reporters covering the trial at one point, saying she had once thought ill of them but now considered them good people.

She said she once feared Jackson's posse of associates would make her and her family disappear in a balloon.

Another trial analyst, defense attorney Ivan Golde, said he was surprised prosecutors would bring a case against Jackson based on testimony from such flawed witnesses. "The D.A. wanted to get Michael Jackson, so he went along with this witness who's got all this baggage," Golde said.

http://www.usatoday.com/life/people/...M_Exclude=Juno