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The accuser has the last word

Jackson jury left with boy's video interview - unchallenged by defense - as it readies to deliberate the case

BY TINA SUSMAN | STAFF CORRESPONDENT

May 30, 2005

Michael Jackson is scanned by a metal detector upon his arrival Friday at the Santa Barbara County Courthouse in Santa Maria, Calif., for proceedings in his child molestation trial. (Getty Images Photo)

SANTA MARIA, Calif. - The dark-haired boy slouched in an overstuffed chair, mumbling so badly that the police officer coaxing information from him strained to hear the words.

In a darkened courtroom, Michael Jackson sat poker-faced as always, staring at the scene on the large screen. If the star was curious about jurors' reactions as the boy talked of being forcibly masturbated by him, of pulling his hand away when it was placed on the musician's crotch, of fending off a passionate kiss and of being pressed to guzzle vodka, rum, and wine, Jackson didn't let on.

Like everyone in the courtroom, he seemed transfixed by the awkward kid, whose 64-minute videotaped interview brought testimony in Jackson's child molestation trial to a quietly dramatic end Friday.

With that, a case that had seemed in many observers' eyes to be firmly in Jackson's hands suddenly was up for grabs as jurors prepared for deliberations later this week, with the last testimony before them the words of the alleged victim.

Unexpected turns

In many ways, it was a fitting closeout in a trial where little has gone as expected. The ex-wife called to skewer Jackson grew weepy and praised him. The stars called to skewer the accusers were less damning than anticipated. The defense rebuttal to the video, expected to feature fierce grilling of the accuser, didn't materialize when Jackson's team chose to simply rest its case.

"It was absolutely brilliant, absolutely the right way to end this case for the prosecution," said former Connecticut prosecutor Susan Filan.

The surprise defense move elicited rare unanimity among lawyers from around the country who have been watching the trial since testimony began Feb. 28.

Several speculated that the holiday would help prosecutors by giving jurors time to ponder what they had viewed before hearing jury instructions and closing arguments, expected to begin Wednesday.

Just three weeks ago, as the defense was presenting its case, a newcomer to the courtroom might have thought the accusers, not Jackson, were on trial. Defense attorney Thomas Mesereau Jr. focused his case firmly on portraying the alleged molestation victim, now 15, and his mother as con artists after Jackson's money.

It wasn't difficult. Reams of documents showed that at the same time the mother claimed her family was held captive at Neverland in February and March 2003, she was enjoying body waxes, shopping trips, and meals on Jackson's dime.

Welfare officials indicated she had committed fraud by hiding bank accounts and tens of thousands of dollars won in a lawsuit against J.C. Penney. A secretary to the lawyer who had handled the J.C. Penney case testified that the lawsuit itself was fraudulent but that the mother had threatened to have her murdered by the Mexican Mafia if she told her boss.

Video's revelations

The boy was described by various witnesses as disruptive, rude, even cunning, and far more savvy about sex and alcohol than he claims to have been before meeting Jackson.

It's no wonder the defense fought to exclude the video, which prosecutors hoped would redirect the case back to Jackson and his alleged crime.

"The jury is going to sit here and listen to [the accuser's] words at the end of the case," argued Robert Sanger, part of Jackson's team, in an attempt to exclude the video on grounds it overstepped the limits of proper rebuttal evidence.

Judge Rodney S. Melville disagreed.

In many ways, the video reveals the boy, then 13, as an average adolescent. Clad in baggy denim shorts, a short-sleeved blue shirt, and sneakers, he plops himself into the chair and asks a police officer: "How long is this gonna take?"

Asked how his school grades are, he replies, "I guess average." "Bs and Cs?" the officer asks. "Cs and Ds," he replies. There is small-talk as the officer strains to pull conversation from the boy.

Then the subject turns to his bout with a cancerous tumor that began in 2000, and that put him in touch with Jackson.