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Mothers let boys in Jackson's bed

BY JOHN RILEY | STAFF CORRESPONDENT

May 7, 2005

SANTA MARIA, Calif. - Two mothers who benefited from Michael Jackson's largesse testified at his molestation and conspiracy trial Fridday that they let their young sons begin sharing his bed shortly after meeting him because of a special bond they immediately formed with the pop star.

The testimony came a day after the now-grown boys Wade Robson and Brett Barnes testified that Jackson never molested them during hundreds of sleepovers. It was offered by the defense to rebut testimony from Neverland Ranch employees that they had witnessed inappropriate behavior by Jackson toward each boy.

But after weeks in which prosecutors struggled to prove that Jackson conspired in 2003 to coerce a 13-year-old boy he later allegedly molested into rebutting a film that raised questions of molestation, it marked the second straight day on which the defense seemed, unwittingly, to have returned the case to troubling questions about Jackson's attraction for little boys.

Experts warned conservative Santa Maria jurors might question the mothers' permissiveness. "They've now opened up the case again, and the jury is looking at it through the lens of 'Is Michael Jackson a pedophile?'" said Jim Moret, a legal analyst following the trial.

Robson's mother, Joy, said she let her son, then a 7-year-old dancer who had won a Jackson look-alike contest, sleep with Jackson on his first visit to Neverland in 1990, after the singer flew the family over from Australia.

"I think there's a certain trust we developed immediately," she said, describing him later as a "very special person" with "a very pure love for children."

On cross-examination, Robson admitted that Jackson sponsored her family for a work visa after she separated from her husband, provided assistance to her son's dance and choreography career, and gave or loaned her $10,000 twice.

"You're trying to make me say that was my basis for my friendship, and that's not true," Robson told prosecutor Tom Sneddon.

She also acknowledged that her son was the first of four successive young boys Jackson became close to, and that she once warned another boy's mother, "Some day, [that boy] will be replaced by another one of Michael's special friends."

Barnes' mother, Marie Lisbeth, said Jackson paid her family's way to California from Australia in 1991 after a fan letter had led to a lengthy telephonic relationship with the star. Her son began sleeping with Jackson a few days later. "Implicitly, I've always trusted him, and I still trust him," she said.

The singer paid for the family to accompany him on South American and European tours, while sharing his hotel room with Brett. In 1992, Barnes said, she hurt Jackson's feelings during the European tour and offered in a letter to leave, noting, "We will not leave without Brett, and that could be a bit of a problem." She only meant, she said, that her son might throw a tantrum.

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Mothers let boys in Jackson's bed

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