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Star fondled him, man tells court

Defense takes hit as witness tearfully cites three occasions that Jackson allegedly touched him as a child

BY DIONNE SEARCEY | STAFF CORRESPONDENT

April 5, 2005

SANTA MARIA, Calif. - His voice shaking, the 24-year-old son of Michael Jackson's personal maid cried yesterday as he testified the singer fondled him three times years ago when the two watched cartoons and played video games.

Jackson was never charged criminally for the allegations, and the man and his mother received a settlement from the star. But the testimony was powerful, uttered to a hushed courtroom only after the man, now a car parts salesman and church youth mentor, asked for a break so he could blow his nose and wipe away tears.

The first incident occurred when he was 7 years old, the man said, as he accompanied his mother to clean Jackson's small "hide-out" apartment in Los Angeles. He was sitting on Jackson's lap watching cartoons when the star began tickling him. The two dropped to the floor in laughter.

"I'm tickling and he's tickling and it eventually moved down to my little private region ... around my crotch area," the man said, adding that the touching was only on the outside of his shorts.

The second time about a year later was also at the apartment, he said, and occurred as the two were "spooning" on the floor watching Woody Woodpecker cartoons. Again Jackson tickled him and fondled his genital area outside his shorts, he said.

When prosecutor Ron Zonen asked the man how long the touching lasted, he said, "Two cartoon's worth. ... About four or five minutes."

The third time took place at Neverland ranch when the man was 10 after the two played Sega video games in the loft above Jackson's arcade. As Jackson tickled him on a couch, the entertainer reached inside his shorts and fondled him, the man said.

Jackson gave the child a $100 bill after each of the first two incidents, he said. Later, under cross examination, the man muttered that the singer put the bills "down my pants," but he did not elaborate.

Testimony from the man was a boon to the prosecution, which had argued successfully to present the allegations under a controversial California law designed to crack down on alleged sex offenders by offering evidence intended to show a pattern of abuse. Jackson is on trial for charges that he similarly molested a teenage cancer survivor.

Legal analyst Jim Hammer called the man's testimony "radioactive" for the defense. "If the jury believes him, this alone could win the case," said Hammer, who works for Fox News and is a former San Francisco prosecutor.

The man first aired the allegations in the early 1990s as police were investigating similar claims from another boy.

In interviews with detectives back then, when the man was 13, he initially denied the abuse out of shame, he said.

"It's embarrassing now and I'm 24 years old," said the man who testified he underwent five years of counseling after airing his allegations.

But defense attorney Thomas Mesereau pounced on the inconsistencies in the statements to police back then. His success was limited, however, because the man couldn't recall many of the statements he made so long ago.

Still, Mesereau forged ahead, raising the specter that the man made the allegations only after detectives pushed him. He also pointed out the man's mother once was paid $20,000 to discuss the allegations on the TV tabloid show, "Hard Copy."

Mesereau and the man were testy with one another, prompting rebuke from Judge Rodney S. Melville, who ordered the witness to stop objecting to questions from the defense.