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Brazil trip booking detailed

BY TINA SUSMAN | STAFF CORRESPONDENT

April 27, 2005

SANTA MARIA, Calif. - The woman who used to organize Michael Jackson's air travel said yesterday she was asked to arrange four one-way tickets to Brazil in March 2003 for a family that now accuses the pop star of trying to spirit them out of the country at that time.

The witness, Cynthia Montgomery, said, however, that she booked round-trip tickets because visa rules for Brazil require a specific return date. "I chose a date arbitrarily" for the presumed return, Montgomery testified in Jackson's child molestation and conspiracy trial.

Nevertheless, her testimony served to bolster prosecution allegations that Jackson and his associates conspired to hold the family against its will and force them out of the country unless they rebutted a February 2003 television documentary in which Jackson said he slept in his bed with young children.

In earlier testimony, the mother of Jackson's alleged molestation victim has said that she and her three children were told in February 2003 to prepare for a trip to Brazil and that she was hounded to hurriedly obtain passports for the children. Montgomery said she booked the Brazil trip to leave March 1 after a Jackson aide - one of the pop star's unindicted alleged co-conspirators - called and asked her to do so. She said she made the reservations on Feb. 25 and then faxed the confirmation booking to the aide.

The trip never occurred. Montgomery said she was not told why it was canceled.

Montgomery, who runs a travel business in Las Vegas that organizes flights for wealthy clients, including many musicians, offered an intriguing glimpse into the travel habits of the rich and famous.

Among the documents she reviewed in court were flight manifests and catering orders for Jackson and his entourage, which included orders for warm rolls, warm cookies, corn-on-the-cob and grilled chicken. A morning flight leaving Boca Raton, Fla., specified lox and bagels, scrambled eggs and whole wheat toast, to be washed down with Orange Crush in bottles, for a grand total of about $40,000.

When Jackson was served wine on a flight, Montgomery said, his attendant mandated it be served in soda cans.

Jackson's defense attorney, Tom Mesereau Jr., sought to discredit Montgomery, getting her to acknowledge that in exchange for giving testimony, she was being granted immunity from prosecution involving the secret videotaping of Jackson during a November 2003 flight she arranged. Montgomery has denied involvement in making the tape. She also conceded that she is suing Jackson for about $50,000 in unpaid invoices and other expenses she says her business incurred on his behalf.

In what has become a familiar thread among prosecution witnesses, the next one, Hamid Moslehi, testified that he too is suing Jackson over about $250,000 he said he is owed for making personal videos for the entertainer. Moslehi said that he worked as Jackson's director of photography from 1996- 2003 and that his job was to "make sure Mr. Jackson looked good" in videos. He testified to overseeing two videos after the airing of the February 2003 TV documentary - one with Jackson's former wife, Debbie Rowe, and one with the family of the alleged victim.

While prosecutors have insisted those videos were heavily scripted and made under duress, to ensure the participants said glowing things about Jackson, Moslehi's testimony shed no light on such accusations. He returns to the stand today.

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Brazil trip booking detailed

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