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Defense in Jackson trial rests its case

BY TINA SUSMAN | STAFF CORRESPONDENT

May 26, 2005

SANTA MARIA, Calif. - The defense in Michael Jackson's child molestation trial rested its case Wednesday after comedian and actor Chris Tucker testified that he was so suspicious of Jackson's eventual accusers that he told the pop star, "Michael, something ain't right," and warned him to avoid them.

It was unclear, though, whether jurors would remember Tucker's testimony for that or for his evasive demeanor during cross-examination as prosecutor Tom Sneddon tried to show that Tucker happily included the accusers in his life, inviting them to a brother's wedding, offering them the use of his fiancee's old car after he bought her a new one, and riding with them to Jackson's Neverland Valley Ranch for his son's birthday party.

Tucker, a close Jackson friend, insisted he could not remember the day of the wedding, whether he had bought his fiancee a new Mercedes for Christmas in 2002, or how old his son would have been in September 2002, when the Neverland party took place.

In a telling sign of his loyalties, Tucker, the "Rush Hour" star known for his comic flair, stared coldly at Sneddon as the rest of the court laughed loudly at a verbal gaffe by the prosecutor. "It was just a joke!" Sneddon said as the laughter continued. Tucker just glared.

It seemed a somewhat deflating end to its case for the defense, which had hoped Tucker and "Tonight Show" host Jay Leno would offer blockbuster evidence that Jackson's accusers -- a mother and her three children -- used the eldest son's battle with cancer to con money from sympathetic entertainers. Leno on Tuesday, however, testified that the family never asked him for anything.

Tucker offered damaging testimony in his direct examination, telling defense attorney Thomas Mesereau Jr. that the family became alarmingly clingy after he befriended them as the boy battled cancer in 2001. Within months, he said they had joined him on the set of a movie he was filming in Las Vegas and would not leave. They hounded him for the keys to his then-fiancee's car, the "cunning" boy asked him for money, and the mother constantly gushed that he was "like a brother" to her children, Tucker said.

When he finally gave them the keys to the car, the mother was hysterical with gratitude, "like she was possessed," said Tucker.

It was during a trip to Florida in February 2003 that Tucker said he pulled his friend aside and told him he suspected the family's motives.

"I told him to watch out," said Tucker, who testified that the family had begged to be flown to Miami to join the pop star, who was already there and who had also met them during the boy's cancer struggle.

Prosecutors allege the family was forced to fly to Miami by Jackson, who wanted them to publicly rebut a damaging TV documentary that included Jackson's admission he shared his bed with children.

According to the accusers, the Miami trip was the start of several weeks of captivity at the hands of Jackson and his associates, which they say included molestation of the eldest son at Neverland.

Prosecutors immediately began calling rebuttal witnesses, including a former Neverland house manager, Jesus Salas, who contradicted defense witnesses' claims that Jackson doesn't drink by testifying he had seen him intoxicated at Neverland "quite a few times" in February and March 2003.

Among prosecutors' accusations are that Jackson plied his alleged victim with alcohol to weaken the boy's defenses.

Jurors could get the case sometime next week, unless the prosecution and defense keep going back and forth with rebuttals and sur-rebuttals -- something many say is entirely possible in this case.

"Nobody is going to let this end until they've had the last word," said former Connecticut prosecutor Susan Filan, who has been attending the trial.

Jackson, 46, faces nearly 20 years in prison if convicted on all 10 counts, which include four of child molestation and one of attempted molestation.