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In court: Young accuser faces cross-examination
Jurors see new side of boy's demeanor
By DAWN HOBBS
NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER
In graphic detail, Michael Jackson's accuser told jurors Thursday that the entertainer molested him two years ago at Neverland Valley Ranch, telling him it was "natural to do this."
However, in fiery exchanges, the defense tried to show that the 15-year-old boy had made it all up because he felt Mr. Jackson hadn't done enough for him when he was deathly ill with cancer.
The boy, the star witness in the trial, recounted liquor-filled visits to Neverland and looking at sexually explicit magazines with the entertainer, and finally detailed two incidents of alleged molestation in Mr. Jackson's bed.
During his testimony, the boy appeared somewhat uncomfortable, but not emotional, when describing the two incidents of alleged molestation. Mr. Jackson, who had been closely watching the boy until that point, wrote messages to Mr. Mesereau. Jurors also scribbled notes. Mr. Jackson's family listened quietly, as did four friends of the boy who sat across the aisle.
The teen testified that Mr. Jackson offered to show him how to masturbate. He said the entertainer told him: "It's natural to do this," and then proceeded to do so. Mr. Jackson told him, he said, that men need to masturbate or "they might rape a girl" or attack dogs.
The following day, the boy said Mr. Jackson again put his hand down his pajamas and masturbated him. Mr. Jackson wanted him to reciprocate, he said, but he pulled his hand away.
The boy told jurors: "(Afterward) he tried to say it was OK -- to comfort me because I felt weird about it. After a while we went to sleep."
These two incidents are separate from the two the boy's brother testified to earlier this week. But when District Attorney Tom Sneddon asked the boy if Mr. Jackson ever inappropriately touched him besides the two times, he responded: "In my memory it was only twice, but I feel it was more than twice."
Mr. Mesereau grilled the boy with staccato-style questioning, revealing that the alleged incidents didn't occur until after the boy's family visited a civil attorney and a week before they left Mr. Jackson's ranch. The exchange became so testy at one point that Superior Court Judge Rodney Melville said: "I'm telling both the attorney and the witness not to argue with each other."
Mr. Mesereau will resume his cross-examination of the boy Monday morning.
Jurors saw a different side of the boy on Thursday. In contrast to the polite and almost charming demeanor he had Wednesday, he flashed disapproving looks at Mr. Jackson and Mr. Mesereau when the attorney objected, and he frequently mumbled inaudible answers to Mr. Sneddon's questions.
The boy also appeared to minimize some of Mr. Jackson's alleged behaviors. When he said Mr. Jackson simulated sex with a mannequin on his bed and twice shared adult magazines with him, the boy said they laughed and carried on as if these were typical teenage antics.
The defense has insisted the boy and his siblings are liars who have been coached by a mother who made up similar accusations for financial gain. The prosecution contends that Mr. Jackson and his associates kept the boy and his family at hotels and at Neverland against their will to make a rebuttal to a documentary by British journalist Martin Bashir that shows Mr. Jackson holding hands with the boys.
Mr. Jackson, 46, has pleaded not guilty to child molestation, administering alcohol to commit a felony and conspiracy, charges that bring up to 18 years in prison if convicted.
The boy told jurors that Mr. Jackson suggested they hold hands during the Bashir documentary, but in a scene that has been shown repeatedly worldwide, the boy said he decided on his own to place his head on the entertainer's shoulder, "because I was really close to Michael and he was like my best friend."
Mr. Sneddon showed jurors two notes in which the boy writes, "I am your son and I love you and Prince and Paris and Blanket (the names of Mr. Jackson's children), but I especially love you," and Mr. Jackson responds, "But you have to be really honest in your heart that I am your dad and will take good care of you."
The boy said Mr. Jackson gave him a jacket and watch in Florida, allegedly to keep him from telling anyone about drinking wine with him. At Mr. Sneddon's request, the boy removed the jacket from a brown paper evidence bag and showed it to jurors.
He also told of drinking alcohol with Mr. Jackson in a hotel room in Florida and back at the ranch in the video arcade, his office and his bedroom.
"Did you drink anything besides wine?" Mr. Sneddon asked.
"I drank Bacardi, vodka and Jim Bean (sic), I think it was called," the boy replied.
However, he did not provide all the detail the prosecutor wanted. It took much prodding and showing the boy a grand jury transcript for him to remember that Mr. Jackson said it was "natural" when he walked into a room naked. Unlike his brother, he didn't say the entertainer was in an aroused state.
Also in contrast to his brother and sister's testimony, he told jurors that his lavish praise of the entertainer in the rebuttal video was mostly true -- except for his claims of curing the boy's cancer. Then he told jurors that Mr. Jackson wasn't really there for him during his battle with the disease -- a point Mr. Mesereau seized upon immediately.
"You told the jury that Mr. Jackson didn't do enough during your cancer? That's not a true statement, is it?" Mr. Mesereau asked and then listed efforts the entertainer made to help the boy: calling him numerous times, inviting him and his family to the ranch, giving the family a vehicle so the boy could get to his chemotherapy treatments, holding a blood drive for him.
"Can you look this jury in the eye and tell them Mr. Jackson did nothing for you when you had cancer?" Mr. Mesereau asked.
"I never said he did nothing," the boy said.
"Well, not enough then?" the lawyer responded.
"Not in my 11-year-old mind," the boy said. On the verge of tears, the boy said he saw Mr. Jackson leaving the ranch when he was told the entertainer was not there: "It broke my heart."
Dawn Hobbs is also a news analyst for NBC and MSNBC. Her e-mail is dhobbs@newspress.com.
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