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Jackson trial reaches halftime

Prosecutors sought a last-minute slam dunk against pop star but wound up resting their case - uneasily

BY JOHN RILEY | STAFF CORRESPONDENT

May 5, 2005

SANTA MARIA, Calif. - Seventeen months after Michael Jackson was indicted on charges of child molesting and conspiracy, Santa Barbara County Det. Sgt. Craig Bonner spent last weekend scrambling to graph computer records of phone calls among the star's associates, bodyguards and hangers-on.

Presented in mind-numbing, day-by-day detail on spider-like charts in court here Monday, the phone records were designed to show a suspicious frenzy of activity in the wake of a 2003 documentary in which Jackson admitted sharing his bed with young boys. But Bonner's last-minute efforts and half-day of testimony were quickly punctured with a single question on cross-examination.

Could police, Jackson lawyer Robert Sanger asked, tell if Jackson himself was on even one of the hundreds of calls?

"No," answered Bonner.

That deflating moment reflected a prosecution case beset by questions about the credibility of its key witnesses and its own missteps, that drew to an end yesterday with as much whimper as bang. "There's an impression," said Jim Moret, a California lawyer monitoring the case, "that the prosecution is scrambling at the eleventh hour to shore up their case, which is worrisome."

And the prosecution performance, legal experts said, has raised questions about whether Jackson himself will testify as the defense begins presenting its case, despite indications from his lawyer during opening statements that the jury would hear from Jackson.

"If they put Michael on, it will be ugly," said Laurie Levenson, a former prosecutor and professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles. "The prosecutors will go after everything, and Michael Jackson can be his own worst enemy. He wouldn't be here if he hadn't said he likes to sleep with boys."

Santa Barbara County District Attorney Thomas Sneddon Jr. has presented more than 80 witnesses over more than two months. He is trying to prove that Jackson, panicked over the documentary, conspired with several aides to hold a 13-year-old cancer survivor - who appeared holding hands with Jackson in the film - prisoner at the Neverland ranch until the boy made a rebuttal video. Then, Jackson allegedly molested the boy.

In court, however, the case has really been two cases. The first part of the trial, weeks ago, focused on the molestation charges. Based on the testimony of the cancer survivor, and bolstered by a parade of witnesses who alleged other lurid molestation incidents during the 1990s, it was compelling and troubling, despite cross-examination that relentlessly focused on inconsistent earlier statements by the boy.

But it has been followed by weeks of convoluted testimony about the alleged conspiracy. It was, experts say, tricky on its face to try to prove that Jackson was so scared he conspired to cover up a molestation that hadn't happened yet - and then switched gears and committed it. And in court, the conspiracy charge has become more muddled.

Sneddon's star witness, the boy's mother, was volatile and frequently incoherent, trying to explain, for example, how she left Neverland for a leg wax while she was supposedly held against her will. Most of the testimony focused on the actions of Jackson's aides, all unindicted co-conspirators, but didn't tie in Jackson. Jackson's ex-wife, Debbie Rowe, undercut the case by saying aides frequently manipulated Jackson, and efforts to lash together the conspiracy with phone records and evidence about Jackson's financial problems seemed far afield.

"The weakest part of the case at this point is the conspiracy," said Craig Smith, a former Santa Barbara prosecutor. "The problem is that if the jury doesn't trust the prosecution's assessment of the conspiracy charge, it may not trust their assessment of the molestation charges."

Lead defense lawyer Thomas Mesereau Jr. contends the accuser and his family made up the molesting charges to squeeze money out of Jackson. The best defense, experts say, is a good offense, and they say Mesereau has plenty of ammunition to stay on offense as he begins his case.

He has signaled that he will call celebrities such as Jay Leno and Larry King to testify that the accuser's mother tried to use the boy's cancer to wangle money from them. He plans to offer evidence that she may have committed welfare fraud in seeking public assistance, and lied in previous civil litigation.

The dozens of names on his witness list also include child star Macaulay Culkin and other young men who were acquainted with Jackson as boys, and are expected to testify that he never misbehaved with them. Neverland workers are expected to take the stand and say they never witnessed inappropriate behavior.

The traditional rule in criminal trials is that defendants only take the stand if they have to. But some legal experts think that molesting is different - that jurors will want to hear Jackson, a public personality who has denied misbehaving on television, on the stand deny it in person.

"Since he's taken to the airwaves so many times, there will be an expectation that he will take the stand," said Robert Pugsley, a criminal law teacher at Southwestern Law School in Los Angeles.

Others, however, say that in a case that has gone well for the defense so far, the risks may be too great. If he takes the stand, Jackson will return the jury's focus to the seamy allegations at its core, rather than the foibles of his accusers. He will have to explain why he settled with two previous accusers in the 1990s.

And, with his Edwardian collars, armbands, soft voice and strange face, his performance will become the case. "All the jury has to do is get a sense that he is or isn't a child molester," said Levenson, "and this case is over."

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Prosecutors sought a last-minute slam dunk against pop star but wound up resting their case - uneasily

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