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Jackson witness testifies on inaccuracies

BY TINA SUSMAN | STAFF CORRESPONDENT

May 20, 2005

Pop star Michael Jacksonleaves Santa Barbara County Superior Court in Santa Maria, Calif., Thursday, after another day of testimony in his child molestation trial. (AFP/Getty Images Photo / May 19, 2005)

SANTA MARIA, Calif. - A woman who was friends with a family that later accused Michael Jackson of molestation and false imprisonment provided more ammunition to his defense Thursday, testifying that the accusers spoke often of their "beautiful friendship" with the pop star and were angry over a 2003 documentary that suggested he behaved improperly with boys.

Azja Pryor smiled and stifled a laugh when asked if the family ever said they were trying to escape Jackson's Neverland Valley Ranch, where they spent much of their time in February and March 2003. "It's Neverland. I don't really know who would ever want to escape Neverland," she told defense attorney Thomas Mesereau Jr.

Pryor said she met the family in 2000 through her then-boyfriend, comedian Chris Tucker, after he became acquainted with them through a children's comedy camp in which they participated.

The mother, in her testimony for the prosecution, repeatedly described Pryor as one of her closest friends, but Pryor indicated that were it not for the woman's three children, there would not have been a relationship. "I'm a mother myself. That's how we became -- I wouldn't say friends, but there was a mutual feeling that she could talk to me," Pryor said of the woman, who has accused Jackson and his associates of holding her family captive in February and March 2003, and of molesting her eldest son during that time.

Prosecutors say Jackson's aim was to force them to take part in a so-called rebuttal video to the 2003 documentary, in which Jackson talked about sharing his bed with children. Pryor, like other defense witnesses, said there was no sign the family had to be pushed to praise Jackson. Pryor also cast doubts on prosecution claims that Jackson was plotting to ship the family off to Brazil if they didn't do as he wished, saying that the Brazil trip planned for March 2003 was to attend Carnival, and that the family invited her along. The trip never took place.

Pryor was the latest in a long line of witnesses the defense has called to hammer away at its argument that the accusers -- particularly the mother -- were swindlers who latched onto Hollywood types in hopes of getting expensive gifts and money. Mesereau had hoped to call talk show host Larry King to testify that the woman's attorney confided to King that the woman was "whacko" after Jackson's money.

After King took the stand out of the jury's presence Thursday and gave his recollection of the conversation with the lawyer, the judge ruled it was inadmissable because King could not remember the lawyers' exact words.

However, the judge did allow the defense to take jurors on a virtual tour of Neverland, in lieu of permitting an actual visit to the estate, over prosecution objections. Prosecutor Tom Sneddon argued that if the video were shown, some parts should be edited out.

The most notable thing about the video was the large presence of clocks that it showed at the ranch. The accusers have said they lost track of the time and dates at Neverland because they had trouble finding clocks.