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A new level of strange

Accuser's mother tells the jurors of her Neverland nightmare and asks: 'Who could possibly believe this?'

BY TINA SUSMAN | STAFF CORRESPONDENT

April 15, 2005

Michael Jackson departs Santa Barbara County courthouse after another day in his child molestation trial. (Getty Images / April 13, 2005)

SANTA MARIA, Calif. - The mother of a boy allegedly molested by Michael Jackson said yesterday that a goon squad of Jackson loyalists shadowed her for weeks, tapped her phones, confiscated her family's passports, pulled her children from school, filmed her and even tried to block her ill son from visiting the doctor, all in an elaborate scheme to prevent them from saying or doing anything that might tarnish the pop star's reputation.

The ultimate goal was to force the family to go to Brazil, something Jackson associates decided to do after concluding that the woman's performance in a video they had made to support Jackson was insufficient, she said in arguably the most bizarre day of testimony yet in Jackson's trial on child molestation, false imprisonment, and conspiracy charges.

That video was filmed the night of Feb. 19, 2003, and was intended to rebut a British-made documentary, "Living with Michael Jackson," which had shown on television earlier that month.

The documentary showed Jackson with the woman's son, whom he had come to know three years earlier while the boy was battling cancer, and it included the singer's comments that he often slept with young children.

In her second full day on the stand, the mother said she and her three children were forced to sit up all night while a crew worked on the rebuttal video and coached them to praise Jackson, now 46, as a "father figure" who had "healed" her son, then 13. But Jackson's men scolded her for being "not on script" and said the family had to leave the country, she said.

Under careful questioning by the prosecution, the woman, 37, began relating a tale of abduction by a team of Jackson aides.

She said they shuttled her and her children between hotels and Jackson's Neverland ranch in February and March 2003 and rushed her to obtain passports for the group, going so far as to help fill out the forms.

In countless phone calls to her boyfriend and parents during this time, she said she feared telling them what was going on because she knew the telephones were tapped and feared "killers" might get her parents or boyfriend.

Instead, "I tried to drop clues" into the conversations in hopes "one of these days this puzzle would be put together," she said in an agitated, almost breathless tone.

"Who could possibly believe this?" she blurted, when pressed to explain why she had not called for help.

Among the strangest accounts of the alleged captivity: that Jackson associates dumped out a container of her son's urine, which was being transported to his doctor for analysis, because they feared it contained evidence of alcohol Jackson allegedly gave to the boy. This followed their attempts to force her to cancel the appointment, she said.

In addition, the woman said a ruse she contrived in hopes of creating an opportunity to flee - saying she needed to take her children to the orthodontist to have their braces removed - backfired when Jackson's men insisted she go to an orthodontist of their choice and, as usual, accompanied her.

To prevent her ploy from being exposed, the woman said she went ahead and let the doctor remove the children's braces even though they were supposed to stay on another couple of years.

JACKSON TRIAL AT A GLANCE

In court

In her second day of testimony, the mother of Michael Jackson's accuser told jurors a bizarre story of weeks during which she was shuttled around by Jackson's associates.

Heard

"I was confused, I was sad, so, basically, I was acting."

- The mother, about her appearance on

Jackson's rebuttal film

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Accuser's mother tells the jurors of her Neverland nightmare and asks: 'Who could possibly believe this?'

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