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Mom: Jackson begged to sleep with son

BY TINA SUSMAN | STAFF CORRESPONDENT

April 12, 2005

SANTA MARIA, Calif. - Trembling and sobbing, pop star Michael Jackson begged the mother of a young boy to let the youngster sleep with him and then presented her with a Cartier bracelet after she finally said yes, the woman testified yesterday in Jackson's child molestation trial.

The woman, whose son went on to sue Jackson for molestation in a 1993 lawsuit, was not asked about any sexual acts she may have witnessed involving the boy and the singer, now 46. However, her testimony provided an unflattering image of Jackson as a man infatuated with a 13-year-old boy and determined to spend every free moment with him, even if that meant coming between him and his family. At one point when she objected to the amount of time her son was spending with Jackson during a trip they made together to Monaco, she was barred from the hotel room where Jackson was holed up with the youngster, she said.

"The room was boarded up. I couldn't get in. Things started to get weird," said the woman, whose son met Jackson in the summer of 1992.

By early 1993, Jackson was regularly inviting him, his mother and younger sister to his Neverland ranch for visits and showering him with gifts from Toys "R" Us. On those trips, she said the boy slept in a guesthouse with her and her daughter, but spent virtually every waking hour with Jackson. It was during a trip to Las Vegas with Jackson in 1993 that the singer's desire to sleep with her son became clear, she said.

Jackson allegedly appeared at her room at the Mirage, where they were all staying, late one night. "He was sobbing. He was crying, shaking trembling," and accusing her of not allowing him to be with her son, she said. When she replied that Jackson was spending a lot of time with her son, he allegedly replied: "But my bedroom -- not in my bedroom!"

After about 45 minutes of arguing, the woman agreed to let the boy share Jackson's bedroom. The following evening, she said Jackson presented her with a gold Cartier bracelet. In subsequent months, Jackson gave her a necklace, earrings, a $7,000 gift certificate to an expensive boutique, and the use of his credit card to go shopping in Monaco, she said. All the while, she said her son -- always a huge Jackson fan -- began dressing and dancing like the pop star, and that Jackson began spending many nights at their family's home in Santa Monica and sharing the boy's bed.

On cross-examination, defense attorney Tom Mesereau accused the woman of trying to finagle money from Jackson and implied that if she were genuinely worried about her son, she would have called police. The woman said she called the Department of Children's Services in Los Angeles and denied being interested only in money.

She and her son eventually received millions of dollars from the son's 1993 suit against Jackson, without Jackson admitting wrongdoing. The son, now 25, refused to cooperate with police for a criminal investigation, but prosecutors are using his story to bolster their criminal case against Jackson for the alleged molestation of another boy two years ago.

Earlier, Jackson's former public relations manager, Bob Jones, took the stand and testified that he saw Jackson licking the head of the woman's son during the Monaco trip, and embracing him "almost in a romantic sense" as they slept beside each other. Jones was fired last year after 16½ years with Jackson.

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Mom: Jackson begged to sleep with son

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