Michael Jackson's Accuser In Hot Seat

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A33800-2005Mar14.html

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Jackson's Accuser in Hot Seat

Boy Told Educator He Wasn't Touched

By Hank Stuever

Washington Post Staff Writer

Tuesday, March 15, 2005; Page A01

SANTA MARIA, Calif., March 14 -- Since he first took the stand last Wednesday, the boy who has accused Michael Jackson of molesting him has gone from being portrayed by the prosecution as pop-idol-worshiping cancer survivor to -- in the defense's tack -- a classroom menace and star-struck manipulator who got angry when Jackson stopped calling or inviting him to Neverland.

During several hours of grilling by Jackson's attorney Monday, the 15-year-old boy admitted that he twice told a dean at his middle school that Jackson "didn't do anything to me" -- an apparent breakthrough for a defense that wants jurors to distrust anything the boy says.

Jackson attorney Thomas Mesereau Jr. worked aggressively to show the accuser contradicting his own earlier testimony, getting his dates confused and adjusting his account of what happened with Jackson whenever it suits him.

Mesereau brought up disciplinary problems the accuser had at a Los Angeles middle school, where he racked up complaints and detentions from nine teachers. "I wasn't that good of a kid then," the boy said. He testified that his conversation with the dean took place after his family visited Jackson's Neverland Ranch for the last time, in March 2003.

Though there's no way to predict how the day shaped jurors' feelings, the defense seemed to have taken more control of the sensational trial. "I don't think there's anything good today for prosecutors," said CBS News analyst Andrew Cohen, hired by the network to sit in on the trial and make observations to a pool of reporters. "And it's a good day for Michael Jackson."

Chronology is so far the most elusive element of the Jackson trial and Mesereau tried to confirm a sequence of events, beginning with the U.S. broadcast in February 2003 of a British documentary about Jackson, in which the boy is seen holding hands with the singer and talking about their friendship. At some point after that, the accuser has said, he and his family were flown to Miami for a news conference that never occurred, and were also interviewed on camera for a never-aired segment of a "rebuttal" documentary that Jackson was preparing.

The prosecution alleges that Jackson abused the boy twice in that same month, even as accusations and questions about his relationship with the boy were swirling around him. The prosecution also claims that Jackson and his employees intimidated and held the boy's family against their will at the ranch, and were conspiring to send them away to Brazil. Jackson, 46, has denied all 10 charges against him.

"You expected Michael Jackson to keep helping you, your mother, your brother, your sister," Mesereau said to the boy Monday afternoon. "That's why you got very angry when certain people wanted you to leave the country. It wasn't until you realized you were not going to be in Michael Jackson's family that you ever came up with these allegations, right?" Mesereau asked.

The boy mumbled an answer, saying, "I never wanted to be in his family."

"You never called the police [about the alleged abuse] until you saw two lawyers, right?" Mesereau asked.

"Correct," the boy answered.

In going over the boy's school discipline records, Mesereau was apparently reading from an account given by Jeffrey Alpert, a dean at John Burroughs Middle School, and quoted the dean as saying: "Look at me -- I can't help you unless you tell me the truth. Did any of this happen?"

The boy answered that he told the dean "no." He also testified that he didn't like most of his teachers' classroom methods.

"When I would stand up to teachers, the other students would congratulate me," he said, and added: "I was argumentative at times. I didn't like the way they taught me. I wasn't learning anything."

It is unclear when prosecutors first became aware of Alpert's account. Los Angeles attorney Thomas Flicker Forsyth said in an interview with the Associated Press late Monday that he was representing a potential witness who "was part of the school administration at the time he had contact with the victim." He said his client met with prosecution and defense attorneys Saturday, and that he believed his client would be called as a witness.

As the day wore on, Mesereau, through his questions, also accused the boy of sneaking alcoholic drinks at Jackson's Neverland home, stealing "a laminated $1,000 bill" ("Is there such a thing even as a $1,000 bill?" the boy retorted) and being caught sexually pleasuring himself.

Iranian President Mohammad Khatami, left, and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez held a joint news conference on Friday near Caracas. (Jorge Silva -- Reuters)

On details small and large, the boy contradicted testimony he'd already given to the grand jury, as well as interviews he gave Santa Barbara County detectives. He has also contradicted key parts of testimony given by his younger brother and older sister last week.

For the third time since the trial began, the court was shown about an hour's worth of raw footage on Monday of the rebuttal family members say they were coerced into making in the middle of the night, in which they smile and talk in effusive terms about how Jackson had been a positive influence in their life and a man they considered to be a father figure.

"The toughest part of this case is the false imprisonment charge," said Jim Hammer, a former prosecutor and Fox News analyst. "It's the Achilles' heel for the prosecutor." Every time jurors get another look at the rebuttal video, the family members "don't look like they're being held against their will."

Less worrisome for the prosecution, Hammer said, is the blurring of details the accuser has given about the alleged abuse compared to how his brother has described it. It's still unclear from testimony, analysts have noted, if the boys are talking about the same or separate incidents.

"Kids' memories do get mixed up," Hammer said. "It's not unusual for a child to deny it ever happened," even after giving testimony saying something did. "If I were the D.A. I would light votive candles at the local Catholic church [praying] that Michael Jackson will testify." (Mesereau hinted to jurors in his opening arguments that they would hear from Jackson himself about details in the case.)

At times during Monday's cross-examination, it seemed as if the boy and his family had become defendants and not accusers, and the exchange between the boy and Mesereau was frequently contentious. Santa Barbara Superior Court Judge Rodney S. Melville at one point told Mesereau to "Stop it. You're arguing with the witness. Start asking questions."

In other testimony Monday, the boy denied ever speaking to "Tonight Show" host Jay Leno. Leno is on the list of potential defense witnesses.

"He testified that he never called Leno. If [Leno] is called [to testify] and says [he] did, that alone will decimate the boy's credibility," Hammer said. "It could come down to that."

According to his publicist Raymone Bain, Jackson is still recovering from a back injury suffered last Thursday, which led him to appear at court an hour late, wearing pajama bottoms. On Monday, a much more collected Jackson showed up promptly and wore a blazing red sportcoat with one his crest insignias on the left breast pocket and his customary black armband on the right, paired with black trousers. The air conditioning in the courtroom aggravates the stiffness in Jackson's back, Bain told reporters, and makes his days "painful."

In considering several motions Friday, Melville said it was permissible for Jackson to make, and even sell, any rebuttals to testimony so far, so long as the judge has some form of script approval before any such statement is released or broadcast. Bain said, "There has not been any activity on that, but [Jackson] is glad that he can have that option."

After the judge clarified Friday that potential witness Leno is free to make jokes about Jackson on his show, the comedian told dozens that night. Asked how her client likes being made fun of, Bain replied: "What he has consistently said is, it is not a good feeling to be the butt of all these jokes."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.