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Setbacks for Jackson prosecutors

BY TINA SUSMAN | STAFF CORRESPONDENT

9:39 PM EDT, April 21, 2005

Michael Jackson departs the courtroom during a break in his child molestation trial. (Getty Images / April 21, 2005)

SANTA MARIA, Calif. - Prosecutors in Michael Jackson's child molestation trial suffered a setback Thursday when the judge refused to allow testimony from an expert on battered women, who could have helped salvage the credibility of a key witness -- the alleged victim's mother.

Attorney Gordon Auchincloss said the expert could have told jurors why the woman "behaves the way she does," a reference to the seemingly erratic and illogical behavior she recounted during five days on the witness stand that ended Wednesday.

Her "beliefs, perceptions and behaviors were altered ... during those 16 years of being a battered wife," he said.

Auchincloss argued that the information would have helped explain why she was so "gullible," why she displayed an intense paranoia, and why she did not go to police and report Jackson after she claims he began menacing her and her family in February 2003.

The woman says the family was held virtually captive by Jackson from about Feb. 6, 2003, until mid-March and then menaced for months afterward to prevent them from saying anything that might tarnish the entertainer's reputation. Jackson, 46, has denied the accusations and says the woman invented them to extort money.

Jackson attorney Robert Sanger countered that allowing such evidence would amount to sending a message that "anyone who claims they were assaulted by their husband could come into court ... lie ... and say 'I get a pass.' "

One of the key points in the defense's cross-examination was getting her to admit to having lied under oath in a 1998 civil suit against J.C. Penney, which netted her family $152,000 and which the defense says was based on fraudulent claims.

"She doesn't do that because she's a battered woman. She does that because she lies for gain," Sanger said, referring to the lies and to what he called her other "preposterous" claims, which Auchincloss argued could be attributed to the damaging psychological effects of repeated assaults.

Judge Rodney Melville ruled that the battered-woman evidence was too peripheral.

Prosecutors were dealt an additional setback as they neared the end of their case. Melville disallowed testimony from a former travel coordinator for Jackson, who was expected to say that the alleged victim and his family were provided one-way tickets to Brazil in March 2003, when the mother says Jackson was trying to have them shipped out of the country to keep them quiet. The defense opposed the witness taking the stand because she wanted promises she would not have to answer questions about an ongoing lawsuit filed by Jackson alleging that she tried to sell videos that she secretly filmed of him.