|
Jurors to hear ex-guard's testimony
By DAWN HOBBS
NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER
A former Neverland Valley Ranch security guard who is said to have smoking-gun evidence about the 1993 child molestation investigation of Michael Jackson is expected to take the stand at the entertainer's trial today, the New-Press has learned.
Ralph Chacon, the guard, has said he was an eyewitness to an alleged molestation involving the boy at the center of the prior investigation, News-Press sources said.
Mr. Chacon's 1993 grand jury testimony remains sealed, and the majority of his statements from a 1995 deposition are blacked out. But he reportedly can corroborate at least one molestation involving the boy, sources said.
The former guard at Neverland is one of a string of witnesses scheduled to testify about Mr. Jackson's relationships with boys. Prosecutors hope these witnesses will bolster the testimony of the current accuser, a 15-year-old boy who alleges the entertainer molested him in the spring of 2003 at Neverland.
Adrian McManus, a former Neverland housekeeper, is expected to be called as a witness soon after Mr. Chacon. She will testify that she witnessed three separate incidents of molestation by Mr. Jackson, at least one of which involves the boy from the 1993 case.
Jurors will also hear from that boy's mother. She is expected to testify that Mr. Jackson slept in the boy's room in their Los Angeles home nearly every night for more than a month and at hotels around the world while the entertainer was performing his "Dangerous Tour."
"(The mother's) worth to the prosecution is simply the number of times and locations she can place her son in bed with Michael Jackson -- because 60 nights is not a sleepover, it's a relationship," said Ray Chandler, the boy's uncle. "The problem is that she's going to have to say she never saw any overt sexual behavior because she never went into the room."
Mr. Jackson has pleaded not guilty to child molestation, administering alcohol to a minor and conspiracy. The trial is in its sixth week in a Santa Maria courtroom.
Others expected to soon testify about Mr. Jackson's prior relationships with boys include former employees Bob Jones, Charli Michaels, Filip LeMarque and Charmagne Sternberg.
The defense is expected to attack the credibility of Mr. Chacon and Ms. McManus because they sold their stories to tabloids. The two also joined three other former employees in a 1995 civil suit against Mr. Jackson. They claimed they were fired because they cooperated with law enforcement in the 1993 criminal investigation. But they lost the lawsuit and were ordered to pay Mr. Jackson more than $1 million.
The defense will also attempt to discredit the boy's mother. She accepted expensive gifts from the entertainer, including a $10,000 gift certificate to an upscale Los Angeles boutique. She also received a portion of a multimillion-dollar civil settlement from Mr. Jackson. Her son, now 25, hasn't spoken to her since 1995.
"She'll talk about all the places they slept together in beds -- in his own home, at Neverland, at the hide-out apartment in Century City, at the Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas and in others in New York, Florida, Monaco and Paris," Mr. Chandler said. "(The boy) and Jackson were locked in a hotel room in Monaco for a couple of days -- they had food brought to the door, and no one else was allowed in."
The boy claims it was in the Monaco hotel room that he and Mr. Jackson took a bath together and that masturbation and oral copulation occurred, according to a sworn deposition obtained by the News-Press.
The prior case fell apart when the boy refused to cooperate with authorities after he and his parents accepted the $20 million civil settlement. He has also declined to testify against the entertainer in the current case.
Earlier this week, jurors heard a 24-year-old Santa Maria man describe how from 1987 to 1990 Mr. Jackson molested him three times and then paid him to keep quiet. He admitted during cross-examination initially denying during a 1993 interview with law enforcement that any molestation had occurred. Criminal charges were never filed in that case either.
Dawn Hobbs is also a news analyst NBC and MSNBC. You may e-mail her at dhobbs@newspress.com.
|
