Live! The Michael Jackson Trial Blog

Jackson defense packs the stand chock full of powerful witnesses — until one detonates

Nine witnesses take the stand, all
but one score major points for Jackson.
He's a disaster for the pop star.

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The defense opened with Dr. Jean Seamount, an orthodontist in nearby Solvang who'd been told by Neverland Ranch manager Joe Marcus that two "high profile" patients needed treatment. Little could she guess the reason why.

The accuser's mother had told the doctor that she was angry with the orthodontist who'd recently put braces on her son the accuser, and his brother.

"He wanted more money once he found out who I was," she told Seamount, and wanted the braces ripped from her kids' teeth so that she could mail them back. She got her way, despite Seamount's objections. The braces were perfectly fine.

Mom, however, apparently was full of attitude, refusing to fill out any paperwork. So was her son who rifled the treatment room drawers. But was the mother under the watchful eye of Neverland goons preventing her from an escape? No, said the doctor. The mom could have walked out of the building's back patio at any time during the two-hour visit, (Marcus was outside, in the waiting room) and mom was free to use the phone to call 911.

Did she appear to be held against her will? No. The story was backed up by Tiffany Haynes, the doctor's orthodontic assistant.

Mom's repeated insitance that it
was not a full body wax goes askew
Then it was on to the Bare Skin Aromatherapy and Day Spa in Solvang where the mother had gone for a waxing. And yes, it was a full body wax said licensed aesthetician Carole McCoy who produced a receipt and testified that the mom, for reasons unknown, told her she was from South America.

The tab for the brow, lip, face, full leg and bikini wax job was $125 ($140 with tip) and like the orthodontist's visit, was paid in full by Jackson. Mom had demanded it be done "within the hour!"

Was she under duress? And was there a "positive PR video crew" following her around as mom has testified? No way, said McCoy, and that was backed up by Neverland assistant manager Katie Bernard who'd driven the mom to the spa. Their 10-minute ride filled with the the mom's stories of how she was trying to get away from her ex, and how she praised Jackson as a father figure to her kids.

Bernard testified that she dropped off the mom, then scooted back to Neverland to work, returning an hour later to pick up the freshly-waxed mother who could have escaped or gone for help in a heartbeat. Before leaving Solvang, they ducked next door to set a hair salon appointment for mom the following morning.

Through a translator, Neverland maid Maria Gomez testified that she found adult magazines in the accuser's brother's backpack (challenging the kids' claims it was Jackson who introduced them to porn) and told of how the mom wanted her kids to call Jackson their "dad."

She also told of how the mother had told her, in Spanish, that Dieter Wiesner, Frank Tyson and Vinnie Amen were holding her against her will. Gomez was present when the mother asked Jesus Salas to take them to Los Angeles, though strangely, the prosecution didn't pick up on this during cross examination. Go figure.

Caught in the wine cellar: the accuser
and his brother, without Michael Jackson
Former Neverland security guard Shane Meredeth now works as a corrections officer at Lompoc State Prison. He told of surprising the accuser and his brother in Neverland's wine cellar late one night while making his rounds.

The boys were laughing and giggling, Shane said, standing around a little table holding a half-full bottle of wine. The boys scurried up the stairs before he could smell their breath or ask if they'd been drinking.

Meredeth added that Jackson didn't have a key to his wine cellar and that the boys became unruly at the ranch, especially when they got what Meredeth described as "the emperor feeling," crashing golf carts and throwing trash around Neverland.

Caught by a witness they probably wish
they'd never called: Jackson's defense team
Santa Barbara Sheriff's Department commander Russ Berchim was brought on next to say that former Neverland security guards Kasim Abdul and Ralph Chacon had asked for a secret meeting at a remote location in April, 1994 and spoke of selling what they knew about Jackson and his 1993 accuser to the tabloids.

But under cross-examination, D.A. Tom Sneddon got the detective to reveal the two men had told him they "could be in danger of Mr. Jackson's people if they testified" at a Los Angeles grand jury probing the allegations. They'd asked for information about witness protection programs and said they feared for their lives of themselves and their families.

Sneddon asked whether that grand jury evidence included charges that Jackson had fondled, kissed on the mouth, and performed oral sex on his '93 accuser. In a flash, the day's testimony — which to this point had been all about ridiculing the mom and trashing her kids — snapped right back to molestation and it's anyone's guess why the defense even called Berchim to the stand.

Angel Vivanco tells of knives, a flirtatious
mother, and tequila milkshakes

The defense tried to rally in the final hour of the day with testimony by former chef's assistant Angel Vivanco who testified that the accuser's brother had ordered him to put "a Mexican liquor" in his milkshake.

"If I didn't do it, he would tell Michael Jackson and I would be fired," said Vivanco, adding that on another occasion, the same boy put a 12" meat knife to within an inch of Vivanco's throat and held it there. The boy stopped only when Vinnie Amen told the boy "If your mother saw that, you'd get beating."

This is the second witness who's testified the accuser's brother pulled a knife on a Neverland staffer in the kitchen. Same kid who Vivanco claims ordered him to hand over the "f***ing Doritos!"

Vivanco's not the brightest bulb in the box, had trouble figuring out that his leaving Neverland in 2003 wasn't just 6 months ago, but he said that the accuser's mother was getting "flirtatious" with Dieter ("Evil German") Wiesner one night over a bottle of champagne and that the two had retured to Neverland's family room to chat quietly together.

Vivanco is capable of even more hard-hitting testimony. (See yesterday's story) He's also said by Sneddon to have been carrying on in a "quasi-sexual relationship" with the accuser's sister who was a minor at the time. Court ended a bit early as prosecution and defense retired to the judge's chambers to huddle over the bounds of Angel's testimony.

Keeping count? The ninth witness was former Neverland Fire Chief Brian Salce, but his testimony seemed so pointless the prosecution didn't bother to cross-examine.

Star watch: Larry King, Jay Leno
At day's end, Jackson spokesperson Raymone Baine told us Larry King will testify on Thursday. Jay Leno is said to be on tap for Monday. May sweeps at the Jackson trial?

 
   

An Angel in Jackson's corner?

Testimony by Neverland employee
Angel Vivanco could focus on a "psycho mom"
and use of porn and booze by the accuser

Jackson's defense team is lobbying to get Neverland ranch hand Angel Vivanco on the stand — so much so that it's promising not to probe "the details of his physical relationship" with the accuser's sister which the prosecution describes as "quasi-sexual." 

The defense expects Vivanco to contradict testimony by the accuser's mother that she hunkered down in her Neverland guest unit and did not come out for days at a time. Vivanco is also prepared to say that he found the accuser and his brother reading porn and drinking alcohol on the ranch when Jackson was not there, and before the prosecution's timeline kicks in.

Vivanco is also expected to testify that the accuser's family was planning "something big" involving Jackson, that the mother was "making (her daughter) do something" and that "something bad is going to happen." This would play to defense claims that a shakedown was in the works post-Bashir.

D.A. Tom Sneddon has filed motions to exclude Vivanco's testimony as hearsay, including the accuser's sister supposedly calling her mother "psycho mom" and saying that the mother was "not okay in the head." Vivanco could also say that the accuser's sister told him her parents' divorce was her mother's fault because mom had been having an affair.

Judge Melville has yet to rule.

From Sunday's papers...
Apart from reports in The Spoof that claim "Flesh-Eating Bacteria Refuse to Eat Michael Jackson," several Sunday newspapers touch on topics that range from tabloid fascination with Jackson to questions of whether maturity is passé and the effect this trial may have on other child molestation cases.

Ian Bell of Glasgow's Sunday Herald examines the freak show dynamic of Jackson's trial.

"What if the allegations against him are true? And what if it transpires that he behaved as he is alleged to have behaved because he was attempting to give some other lost boys the love he never received? And what if he never once understood why such gestures are, and always will be, catastrophic for all concerned?

"That, I suspect, might be the last line of defence for Jackson’s eloquent and expensive lawyers. What do you say about a man who may have put himself beyond the pale? What do you say about the people who may have put him there? And what do you say about the rest of us, finding entertainment in calamity and ruin?"

Karen Sternheimer of Newsday focuses on a chilling effect this trial may have on the prosecution of child molesters and a victim who seems to have been nearly forgotten in this trial...

"Whether or not the charges in this case seem justified is for the jury to decide. But the worst thing about forgetting about the child who is at the center of it is this: We run the risk of sending the message to young people who are abused — and we know there are many — that there is no point in coming forward, that nobody will really pay attention to you. It doesn't take the power of a celebrity to silence a victim."

At Spiked, Josie Appleton says Jackson's immaturity is a phenomenon that's all too much in vogue these days.

"This 12-year-old mind in the body of a forty-something man makes for an amusing freak-show. But we are unable to condemn it outright, given the ubiquity of the Peter Pan culture outside Jackson's Neverland ranch.

"After all, these are times when twenty-somethings put off adult responsibilities for as long as their parents will permit, and others continue to indulge in comics, video games and robots well into their thirties. Today's society lacks a narrative for what it means to be an adult; the ageing process is seen as a loss of energy and innocence, rather than a gain in wisdom and stature."

The art of trial coverage:
A Bill Robles profile...
Courtroom artist Bill Robles, whose work is proudly posted here, is the subject of a profile at The Digital Journalist. Robles has been taking on courtroom assignments since the Charles Manson trial in 1970 and received the Los Angeles Society of Illustrators Lifetime Achievement Award in 2003. 

Jackson recently approached the artist and asked for his business card. Robles says, "When I showed him a drawing of himself with his attorneys, he lit up like a Christmas tree. Usually it’s the lawyers who ask."

Above, a Robles portrait of Michael's mom Katherine Jackson. All photos on this site enlarge when clicked.

Our trial coverage no longer in-tents,
Santa Maria feeds a ravenous press corps
Yes, at long last it has happened. The flimsy, leaky, stinky, self-collapsing, windblown tent that has housed KNX, KFWB and the CBS Radio Network since January has been replaced by four strong walls.

Yes, blogfans — no longer is it necessary for your correspondent to spend a 12-hour shift shivering and soaked in California's record-breaking spring rainstorms and punishing afternoon winds.

Can you believe it? We've got a roof over our heads! Porta-potty aroma still wafts its way into our mobile studios, but you claim your victories where you can find them.

Viacom stockholders need not despair. The price of dignity, safety, warmth and air conditioning is setting back the bottom line by a mere $275 a month.

And if things couldn't possibly get any better, the City of Santa Maria threw a Media Appreciation Day feast for the Jackson trial press corps last week. Santa Maria's famous tri-tip bar-b-que and renown, locally-grown strawberries were included on the menu served up by mayor Larry Lavagnino and city council members. Way yum.

Unlike Eagle, Colorado residents who cold-shouldered media lurking about their Rocky Mountain village during Kobe Bryant's rape hearings, Santa Marians have warmed to the scores of journos who've descended on their central-coastal town.

Cheery hellos greet us on the street and most of the 88,000 townsfolk seem pleased about the big fiscal boost and international attention the City of Santa Maria is getting. Jackson's not their fault, after all. He lives down in Santa Ynez. The phrase "a big waste of taxpayer's money" comes up a lot in casual chat among these fiscally-conservative folk.

Ordinary citizens are now often seen joining fans and protestors on Miller Street some mornings, just 'cause out-of-town relatives want to know if they've been there, done that. It's a once-in-a-lifetime experience, something you've just gotta do. All is cool.

   
   

Geragos testifies for Jackson, Mesereau accused of misrepresentation by the judge

Former Jackson lawyer was "gravely concerned"
Jackson was a target for a shakedown by
the accuser's family

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Friday the 13th at Michael Jackson’s trial and everything seemed wrong-side-around. Mark Geragos sounded more like a defense attorney summing up on Jackson’s behalf than a witness who’d been called to testify.

Geragos, who represented Jackson for 16 months until Jackson decided he would be better off if Geragos took on the Scott Peterson murder case full time, hacked away at the conspiracy charges, saying he was responsible for the surveillance on the accuser’s family at the time they said they were being held against their will.

Geragos had told investigator Brad Miller, “tell me who they’re meeting with, if they’re trying to sell their story to a tabloid, if they’re talking to a lawyer.” Geragos believed it was a problem “in which somebody could easily take advantage of Michael Jackson.”   

Geragos said he was “gravely concerned” that Jackson could have been a victim of a shakedown by the accuser’s family, especially after reviewing the mother’s lawsuit against J.C. Penney — adding that surveillance is something defense attorneys, prosecutors and police do all the time.

There was talk of Miller’s recent interview with MSNBC’s Dan Abrams in which Miller said the surveillance was “a real loose watch on who they were meeting with and what they were doing.”

“I wanted a tape-recorded statement. It would be more difficult to make up something later,” Geragos said, explaining why he wanted Miller to get the accuser’s family on Memorex — one of the occasions in which the family praised Jackson to the max.

About the gaps in that tape? Geragos couldn’t explain the three starts and stops, but said he pointedly asked Miller whether he’d intentionally stopped the tape just as Miller was asking whether the accuser had slept with Jackson.

Geragos appeared to be pinning the blame for any overzealous or selective monitoring of the family on Miller who’s not testified here so far.

Geragos also pinned responsibility for the daily operations of Jackson’s enterprises squarely on unindicted co-conspirator Ronald Konitzer, putting distance between conspiracy and pop star.

As for the purloined belongings of the accuser’s family, Geragos started to say that the accuser’s mom wanted it done since she was moving in with her new boyfriend... but Deputy D.A. Ron Zonen cut Geragos off in mid-sentence.

Geragos said he was frustrated with Bill Dickerman, attorney to the accuser’s family, over negotiations for the release of the belongings which had been placed in a storage unit.

“At one point I directed it would just be dumped in Bill Dickerman’s law office — just to be rid of it!” he said. Geragos said he told Miller to videotape the move so that no one could say later than anything had been stolen. (The accuser’s mom said Jackson’s photos, letters to her son, and a toy rabbit the pop star had given the boy were never returned.)

Geragos: Jackson's love for children
was "childlike" and "unconditional"

Geragos challenged prosecutor Ron Zonen’s cross-exam questions about Jackson “sleeping with boys,” saying the liberally-used phrase suggested something sexual when Geragos saw in his former client “a childlike love for children.”

Geragos saying, “So he’s sleeping with someone. The jump is that there’s something awful going on.” He described the sleep-overs as “an act of unconditional love... There was nothing sexual, nothing untoward.”

Had Geragos anything to do with the alleged plot to spirit the family to Brazil? Geragos said no, adding that he learned of it only after Jackson had been arrested. He admitted that he had come into possession of the family’s passports and had turned them over to the court. (The accuser’s mom cried on the witness stand when she saw the passports at long last.)

Much of Geragos’ testimony centered on February 9, 2003, when Bashir panic was coming into full bloom. It was Geragos’ first meeting with Jackson. Ed Bradley and a CBS 60 Minutes crew were at Neverland Ranch and Geragos drove up to pull the plug on the interview after he could not “weasel out” what the show’s take on Jackson would be.

Deputy D.A. Zonen pursued a tough cross exam, though the only major point he’s really scored so far is to question why Geragos didn’t advise his client that “sleeping with boys” was not an advisable thing to do, if for no other reason than to avoid further accusations.

“Is there a reason why you didn’t call Michael Jackson and tell him to send the family home?” asked Zonen. Geragos said Jackson was travelling, out of state. Huh?

Wasn’t Geragos aware that the accuser was being taunted at school because of his appearance on the Bashir show? “I don’t want to sound heartless,” said Geragos, “but I was worried about Michael’s legal problems... I had a jaded view of the family.”

Lots of legal gun-slinging. Rapid fire questions, objections, interruptions and answers — all at warp speed with lots of attitude.

At one point, the judge called a time out, ordering both sides to “lower your temperatures by a couple of degrees.” Judge Melville saying, “I ride horses, we wait for the head to go down.” Melville demanded both defense and prosecution do some serious chilling. Silence in the courtroom. When Zonen couldn’t help himself and auto-started up again, the judge ordered him to hush.

Legal analysts here agree that Geragos is likable, comfortable and confident on the stand, and very credible with the jurors. He’s being very humble, too. When asked about his qualifications, Geragos said simply, “I went to college, I went to law school, I took the bar exam.”

After Geragos had been sworn in, Tom Mesereau greeted the attorney with a cheery, “Hello, Mark.” Geragos replied, “Hello, Tom.” Chums, on a first-name basis. Geragos knows what to say, Mesereau knows how to prompt the right answers. It is all very slick — L.A. Law taking on the boonies — and irking Zonen to frustration.

Former Santa Barbara County Prosecutor Craig Smith told us you couldn’t ask for a better witness than Geragos. I still can’t get Debbie Rowe’s assessment of Geragos out of my head. “He either folds, or loses,” Rowe said of Geragos from the witness stand.
   

Tom Mesereau charged by judge with
misrepresenting Geragos testimony deal

Gerago’s testimony was overshadowed by a charge that defense attorney Tom Mesereau had misrepresented the client-attorney waiver Jackson struck with Geragos. To everyone’s surprise, it allows Geragos to discuss only events that took place up to the date of Jackson’s arrest.

Neither the prosecution nor the judge had been given a copy of the document in advance. They’d taken Mesereau at his word that the testimony agreement was legit, and Mesereau hadn’t told them it was conditional. They’d let him have until the end of the day to hand over a copy. Was Mesreau being sneaky? Sloppy? 

Judge Melville was clearly angry, telling Mesereau he couldn’t have it both ways — calling a witness but allowing only selective testimony. The judge sent the jury out of the courtroom to discuss the issue, and sent them home early after Geragos refused to answer several questions dealing with events after Jackson’s surrender to sheriff’s deputies.

Melville will hear arguments, points and authorities on all this come Monday. It’s a very serious charge against Mesereau and Zonen or DA Tom Sneddon will surely pounce on the opportunity to humilitate their courtroom foe — big time. Geragos’ testimony could possibly be tossed out, though Judge Melville doesn’t seem like the kind of guy who’d damage a defendant’s defense just to punish a lawyer. Mesereau apologized with a certain degree of contriteness.

Still, sanctions against Mesereau include possible fines and jail time says legal analyst Anne Bremner. The judge will probably impose a less-damaging penalty, though Mesereau is clearly on Judge Melville’s list now.

Geragos is in the midst of a long fraud trial in Santa Ana, California with nine jurors waiting for him to return on Monday, though he’s far from finished here. The judge asked Geragos to come back for more testimony next Friday which had been set as a dark day for court. Reporters expecting a three-day weekend are bummed. Boo-hoo.

   
Raymone Baine dodges the
drinking question yet again

It began on Wednesday when a reporter asked the Jackson spokeswoman whether Michael drank alcohol — or, not — after hearing Jackson tell Martin Bashir he did not imbibe.

Baine promised to ask Michael and come back with an answer. I followed up on Thursday. Baine said she had forgotten to ask MJ, but would. Today, she told me she’s under lawyers’ orders not to comment, but that all will come out in court. We’ll see.

Jackson 'testifies' on tape again, former lawyer claims conspiracy

The Michael Jackson Outtakes, Day 2:
Jackson should have made it a one-reeler

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Just a few minutes of the second-camera coverage of Martin Bashir’s Michael Jackson interviews today. The jury watched about two hours and 45 minutes worth yesterday. But today — the jury heard about how Jackson’s children came to be.

Martin Bashir asking, had Michael had sex with Debbie Rowe? “Yes,” said Jackson, adding the his third child — the one he refers to as “Blanket” — was conceived by artificial insemination. Jackson adding that somewhere, a surrogate mother gives birth everyday.

Who was Blanket’s mother? That’s not publicly known, though Jackson said it really hadn’t mattered, as long as she had good vision, was healthy and had a strong intellect. “One day I’ll be married again,” said Michael. “I’m married to my fans, to God, to my children.”

Mesereau should have stopped at one reel instead of playing a second interview, shot in Miami. It looked as though Jackson had been drinking in the latter. His eyes were squinty, he looked puffy, and insisted he’d only had one round of plastic surgery. Really.

If Jackson goes down, his vanity will do him in. He doesn’t drink? Really? Flight attendants have testified he does. He’s not had plastic surgery more than once? Please! Click here and watch the morph that Jackson says is simply ch-ch-ch-changes.

Jackson may believe that if he says he drinks or has sculpted his face, he will no longer be a magic man to millions of his fans — only another pop star who takes a nip (and tuck) now and then. He would rather skate on thin ice by telling little fibs and jeopardizing the larger truth. Is it because he simply can’t grow up? Go figure.

We press on with the burning
question: Does Jackson drink?

Yesterday, in her afternoon news conference, Jackson spokeswoman Raymone Baine was asked if Jackson drank. She claimed she didn’t know, but would ask Michael. This evening, I asked her about what she’d learned. “You know,” she told me, “I completely forgot to ask, but I will, and I’ll let you know tomorrow.

Cool. I’ll ask again Friday, and perhaps we’ll learn, before Jackson takes the stand (if he does), what the real story is.

Legal eagle lays an egg
busting Jackson aides,
running background checks

Jackson’s defense team is building on ex-wife Debby Rowe’s claim that Jackson was surrounded by “opportunistic vultures” and that Michael Jackson was the real victim.

It came through the testimony by Las Vegas lawyer David LeGrand who tried to clean Jackson’s fiscal house for more than a year, going on only a few hours sleep for weeks on end. It was that panicked.

LeGrand had been brought on board by Jackson associate Ronald Konitzer, though he became so suspicious of the now-unindicted co-conspirator that LeGrand had private investigators check out both Konitzer and Dieter Wiesner, and had their powers of attorney over Jackson’s affairs revoked.

But he was fired by Jackson when he informed Jackson that the Germans may have siphoned off nearly a million dollars from the money Fox paid for a rebuttal to the Bashir video. LeGrand said he’d become suspicious of everybody — said it seemed like everybody wanted to benefit from Michael Jackson.

LeGrand also said the accuser’s mother at Neverland at the time she was said to have been in captivity, but said she seemed satisfied being there and showed nothing but support for Michael Jackson. Still, LeGrand said that he perceived the accuser and his family as a potential liability to Michael Jackson and told Jackson aide Mark Schaffel that the family needed to be weaned away from Jackson.

LeGrand scored points for the prosecution under cross-examination by testifying that the accuser’s mother refused a $25,000 payment to stay on as a complainant in Jackson’s suit against Granada. Strange behavior for a woman who’s been portrayed as a money-grubber! 

The rest of LeGrand’s testimony dealt with the dozens of issues he waded through with no less than nine legal firms at the time the Bashir documentary aired.

There were legal actions against Granada Television (the UK network that had bankrolled Bashir), the preparation of the rebuttal show on Fox, and a slew of business deals he was trying sort out that ranged from Jackson’s desire to take a controlling interest in Marvel Comics to a dinner with producer Bob Evans about a motion picture on Michael Jackson’s life and talk about a Michael Jackson slot machine for casinos in Las Vegas.

Judge to Geragos: Testify, or else!

Some after-the-jury-had-gone fireworks in court over the testimony of former Jackson attorney Mark Geragos who’s got a date in an courtrooms in the OC and in downtown LA tomorrow. Judge Melville saying — now attorneys know what citizens go through. A subpoena trumps employment and if Geragos isn’t here at 8:30 in the morning, a warrant will be issued. Yikes!

Then again, it's Jury Appreciation Week which is sponsored by the California court system. In court this morning Judge Melville made reference to ‘treats’ for the jury and there were smiles, etc.

This week the jurors chowed down on...
Monday: Donuts and orange juice
Tuesday: A fruit bowl
Wednesday: Chips and salsa
Thursday: Carrot cake
Friday: A submarine sandwich

 

Home Alone with Michael Jackson? No big deal, says Macaulay Culkin. Jackson testifies on tape

Smiling, upbeat, Culkin says Jackson never
molested or touched him in a sexual way

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Macaulay Culkin may have been a reluctant witness, but he stood by Jackson under tough cross-examination and insisted that Jackson had never molested him, never touched him in an inappropriate way.

Culkin, 24, arrived in a Mercedes limo, wore a white shirt and black suit, and smiled affably throughout his testimony. The jury did not seem particularly star-struck.

As for that incident told by Jackson’s chef Philippe Lamarque that Michael had reached inside Culkin’s shorts — and claims by a former Neverland maid that Jackson had touched the boy inappropriately — the former “Home Alone” star said it was all “absolutely ridiculous.”

Culkin said he slept in Jackson’s bed a handful of times, but it was no big deal. Sleeping arrangements were never worked out in advance, kids slept where they fell asleep — and when Culkin conked out in Jackson’s bed, it was usually in jeans and a T-shirt. He said there was never any pressure by Jackson to sleep in the pop star’s bedroom where the doors were never locked.

The prosecution, as it has done with two other witnesses, tried to suggest Jackson had molested Culkin as he slept. Like them, Culkin said he would have known.

Culkin testified that his mother and father had both come to Jackson’s bedroom and found him sleeping with Jackson. His father, for instance, pulled Culkin out of the bedroom to take him horseback riding early one morning. Culkin said his parents never spoke about with him — or with Michael — about Macaulay sleeping with Michael — it simply wasn’t an issue.

Jackson was described as “childlike” by Culkin who said he liked to play tag with Michael and get into water balloon fights. Jackson, he said, was the kind of guy who never objected if Culkin stayed up past his bedtime, or didn’t eat his vegetables.

Deputy D.A. Ron Zonen tried to establish a pattern of behavior between Jackson and Culkin that would echo the “grooming” the prosecution claims Jackson engaged in with other boys.

Like Jackson’s current accuser, Jackson had given Culkin a watch, in this instance it was while the two were on a trip to Bermuda. Culkin said he vaguely remembered the gift. “I was not a person without means, so it wasn’t that awe-inspiring,” Culkin said.

The prosecution pressed on, pointing out that like Jackson’s current accuser, Michael took Culkin on an after-hours shopping spree at Toys R Us and at FAO Schwartz, spent hours talking on the phone, and gave gifts to Culkin’s family. There was no weight to the claims beyond that which may resonate in the jurors’ ears.

Culkin and Jackson shared a membership in a club few have been able to join. Culkin said Jackson understood him as a fellow child star who’d been robbed of his boyhood.

Culkin said he went from being a normal kid to a child everyone wanted to exploit — from photographers waiting in the bushes in a paparazzi ambush to fiscal profiteers. Culkin said he had no friends — only acquaintances — after making the movie, but that Jackson understood him.

Jackson had phoned Culkin after seeing “Home Alone” and their friendship continues today. Culkin is godfather to Paris and Prince Michael Jackson and his face is carved into street sign poles at Neverland Ranch. The former child actor’s face has literally become part of Neverland’s architecture. 

Culkin said he’d first learned of his involvement in this trial was when a friend phoned to tell him to turn on CNN because he was being talked about.

According to Culkin, the prosecution never contacted him to ask whether he had ever been molested. Prosecutors seemed a genuinely angered over that, saying they’d tried repeatedely to contact Culkin through his handlers, though Culkin testified he’d never heard of their efforts.

What didn’t he say? Culkin was never asked about his marijuana bust or DUI charges. The judge may have excluded such testimony.

The prosecution didn't point out that Culkin was an accomplished actor who might be as good at delivering testimony as he is at delivering script lines, or that his attempts to re-ignite his career could have been harmed had he admitted molestation. Prosecutors did not make much of all this, but a few pro-prosecution legal analysts on the courthouse grounds certainly did.

The jury screens what Bashir cut
from his television documentary

This afternoon, the jury watched outtakes of the Martin Bashir interview that sparked this trial. It’s Jackson, essentially testifying in his own behalf on tape — which cannot be cross-examined.

In it, revelations ranging from a planned birthday party for Bubbles the Chimp to Jackson saying he’s won God’s smile of approval for making children happy.

Like Culkin, Jackson’s stories touched on the loneliness of stardom. In an amazing admission, Jackson told of walking down streets, alone, late at night following a concert, stopping strangers in the street to ask if they would be his friend.

He railed against public obsession with rumors that he had tried to buy the Elephant Man’s bones, slept in a hyperbaric chamber, and had more than one round of plastic surgery (along with another nasal operation to help him breathe and sing better). Jackson talked of the pain he has felt when people call him weird, wacko, a girl or a homosexual.

Jackson basically pleaded victimization. A colleague from Newsday leaned over to whisper, “He sounds just like (the mother of his current accuser).” She was right. They seem to share a feeling that people misunderstand and are out to get them. What happens when two such people mistrust each other? Perhaps the firestorm this trial has become.

Jackson’s take on children was spritual. Talking about his relationship with children, he said “I see God through them… there’s nothing more magical than a baby’s smile.” That everything he does — creatively — is inspired by children.

He defended dangling his son “Blanket” over that Berlin balcony saying he held on strong and tight. “It’s my child, I can do what I want with it.” It?

Macaulay Culkin had opened a window into Michael Jackson’s world. The Bashir outtakes took us deeper. Together, they added up to a strong day of defense by Tom Mesereau and company. We were reminded what a smarmy interviewer is Martin Bashir with his toadying-praise interviewing technique.

After failing to trip up Culkin, prosecutors sat through the videotape screening glumly, slumped back in their chairs, hands propping up their faces. A movie star, the defendant well-lit, in makeup and on tape. The Hollywood Defense is in full swing. Nothing to do but wait for the closing credits, sometime tomorrow.

So... will Jackson take the stand? Legal analyst Anne Bremner, who predicted on Court TV on Monday that Jackson would take the stand, changed her mind today. As former Santa Barbara prosecutor Craig Smith asked, what other points could the defense make on Michael Jackson’s behalf? And without jeopardizing him under cross-examination.

You can’t cross-examine a tape.

The Box Score: Of the five now-young men who were said to have been molested in the prior accusation testimony admitted in this trial, three have denied the charges, one has declined to testify and one insists he was touched improperly.

Monkey business
and big 'ol beds

There were plans for a birthday party for Bubbles with Benji, Cheetah and Lassie as guests of honor. Jackson thought it would be a cool idea when he found out that Tarzan’s original Cheetah was still alive — but the party never happened. 

Jackson told Bashir that his chimps would help Jackson clean his room. They’d dust, clean up things. And countering earlier testimony by a Jackson maid, Jackson-on-tape told Martin Bashir that Bubbles the Chimp was housebroken and would flush after he used the toilet.

Jackson spokesperson Raymone Baine met with reporters after court to say sleeping with others was a cultural thing with Jackson who slept with his brothers in their small home in Gary, Indiana.

“When you have a one- or two-room home and everyone piles in bed, you don’t look at it from a criminal point of view. You look at it as Macaulay Culkin said today — whenever you fall asleep, you just fall asleep, and that’s where you fall asleep. 

Off for a couple of days...

After more than three months of covering this trial from a leaky, woebegone tent, I'm off looking for a production trailer to replace it. The plan is to resume coverage on Wednesday, if not before.

Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory? Bill Bickel has just posted a good piece today on 10 Ways the Defense Could Still Lose. A great read, especially if you're Tom Mesereau.

The big question is whether Macaulay Culkin will show up to counter the testimony of Jackson's former chef Philipe Lemarque who testified that he saw Jackson reach up inside Culkin's shorts leg early one morning in Neverland's video arcade.

He's tentatatively on the witness list on Wednesday, but we wouldn't be surprised if Culkin passed after the beating-up Brett Barnes and Wade Robson suffered at the hands of the prosecution last week. Robson, in particular.

The prosecution's strategy seemed to be "...if you're going to defend Jackson, we're going to put your sexuality on trial." Before it was over, the defense found it necessary to have Robson testify under oath that he is straight.

Who needs it? The prosecution's made it clear that it will take no prisoners among those to come to Jackson's defense. How many celebrities will risk that kind of trashing when image is Hollywood's most bankable commodity? Still, Culkin is godfather to Michael's children Paris and Prince Michael. He's said to be in L.A. now, weighing his options.

Bumper sticker of the day...


   
A Jim Moret hand puppet has now surfaced. This, after the Jim Moret talking head doll we told you about last week. (This page, scroll to the bottom.)

Jim, legal analyst for TV's Inside Edition is an awesome trial commentator, but merry pranksters in the press corps need a diversion and for the moment, Jim is it. Click to play.

An early Mother's Day at the Jackson Trial: Two mums take the stand

Mothers and sisters of Brett Barnes and Wade Robson heap praise and trust on Michael Jackson, but why let kids sleep with an adult who's not in the family?

It was all-Aussie day of testimony, and one that began with flowers. One female juror brought gift-wrapped roses for all the others, and handed them out in the parking lot before court began. We assume it was a Mother’s Day thing. We’re not allowed to speak with them, of course.

I L L U S T R A T I O N S   B Y   B I L L   R O B L E S

Joy Robson was the first mother on the stand, the mother of choreographer Wade Robson who, with Brett Barnes, testified yesterday that Jackson never molested them.

Robson said that her son knew he wanted to be an entertainer since he was five years old. “He decided, not me,” she said.

District Attorney Tom Sneddon seized on it as a possible motive. Was she thinking her son’s friendship with Jackson would help her son’s career? “I’m not trying to put words in your mouth…” said Sneddon. Robson cut him off. “Yes, you are.”

She said that she saw in Jackson an entertainer who was teaching her son everything Jackson knew about show biz. Wade has gone on to become a world-class choreographer whose clients have included Brittney Spears and ’N Synch, and he is also a film director with a three-picture deal with Disney.

“He was learning from the best,” she said, adding that Jackson told her that he saw himself in Wade. 

Did Jackson take the mentoring too far, and too fast? Joy Robson said she and her husband allowed their son and daughter to stay in Jackson’s bedroom the first night of their first visit to Neverland. The kids’ grandparents had come along, too. It was the first time the family had met Michael, one-on-one. They’d chatted once before at a reception in Australia.

Was she aware that Jackson’s bedroom was the only room at Neverland that locked from the inside, and that chimes announced anyone approaching? Robson said she had free access to Jackson’s bedroom, any time of day or night. “To know him is to love him… It wasn’t a problem,” she said. “I think there’s a certain trust we developed immediately.”

“Trust” was the operative word today.  It’s the mind-boggling Jackson Factor that the defense somehow has to sell to the jury and the court of public opinion — that Jackson is so innocent, so pure, that he can trump every natural instinct a mother has to protect her kids in order to satisfy his wish to sleep with children.

What’s the downside risk if a mother might be wrong about Jackson’s motives? The possibilty of severe damage to their child’s psychological and emotional health?

The prosecution made that proposition through the son of a former Neverland maid who testified he was touched by Jackson when he was 7 and 10 years old. Now 24, he indicated he has still not yet healed after years of therapy. (He and his mother settled out of court for millions.)

It’s a point the prosecution made repeatedly again today. “Don’t you consider it inappropriate for an 8- or 10-year-old to sleep with a 35-year-old man who’s not a family member?”

Each of the mothers and sisters who took the stand said that in Jackson’s case it wasn’t an issue.

“Did you ever lose trust in Michael Jackson?” asked defense attorney Tom Mesereau. Both Joy Robson and Marie Barnes said they had not, though they knew that other children had slept with Jackson. These mothers, and their daughters and sons, are staying with Jackson at Neverland during their testimony. If their sons had been treated inappropriately, would they be there now?

Marie Lisbeth Barnes stayed in a Neverland guest unit for three weeks in 1992 while her son and daughter both slept in Jackson’s bedroom. Jackson took them to Disneyland and Las Vegas. “I still trust him,” she said of Jackson, “He’s a very nice person. You can feel when you trust someone.”

Marie Barnes, who phoned Neverland from her home in Melbourne and volunteered to testify, said letting her son Brett go on two world tours with Jackson that each lasted half a year was a learning experience for her son. He visited so many cities and countries she couldn’t remember them all.

Prosecutor Ron Zonen pressed hard, saying “Jackson took care of your travel, food and housing, gave you gifts, and by the fourth night he was sleeping with your son.” She said that Jackson told them he thought of them as family and that she is “proud of loving Michael Jackson.”

Barnes began to explain how she knew Jackson had not molested her son. She said that she’d told her boy to look her in the eyes and tell her whether Michael Jackson… Her story was stopped cold by Zonen, who’d started her down that path.

Guilt, shame and denial loomed
large in the prosecution’s questions

Prosecutors intimated all these family members may be in denial — pointing out that a family might be ridden with guilt and shame if a child had been molested.

Karlee Robson, Wade’s sister, replied “It would be a disgrace that it would happen — if it had happened.” But she said it hadn’t — her brother would have told her, adding that she loves Michael Jackson with all her heart. “He’s just a human being. Same organs, same blood…”

Karlee also provided the defense with a possible answer to why so many of the sisters of Jackson’s boy buddies left Jackson’s bed to the pop star and their brothers. “I was developing as a girl,” she said. “I wanted a little bit of privacy.” She said that her sleeping arrangements were her call.

What does she think of the child molestation charges against Jackson? “I think they’re liars,” she said.

Chantal Barnes said she’s been a Jackson friend since she was 10 years old in 1989 and considers Jackson a family member. She’d fallen asleep on Jackson’s bed with her brother Brett at least four times and was in and out of the room a lot. Does she feel guilty? “I do not,” she insisted. “It’s a normal friendship.”

The prosecution asked whether she trusted Michael Jackson not to have figurines of nude women in bondage attire on display in view of children (such figurines were shown as evidence earlier in this trial). Chantal said she did.

“Would you trust Michael Jackson to not show erotic materials to a child he’d given alcohol to?” Chantal said she thought so, but added that she was only a guest in Jackson’s home and that sometimes people have such magazines in their houses.

Mother’s Day mud-slinging

Under cross examination, Tom Sneddon brought out parallels between Joy Robson and the mother of Jackson’s 1993 accuser — both were taken by Jackson to the Mirage in Vegas in Steve Wynn’s jet (where Jackson reportedly cried and begged the mother of his ’93 accuser to let him sleep with her son) — both let their sons sleep with Jackson repeatedly over the course of years.

But Joy Robson described the mother of the ’93 accuser as “a gold-digger” who “wanted to be mistress of Neverland” and constantly issued orders to ranch hands. Tom Sneddon hit back with a charge of jealousy, pointing out Wade Robson was replaced by the ’93 accuser as Jackson’s “special friend” — a term the prosecution is using derisively these days.

Joy Robson called it nonsense. She’d seen Jackson trying to elude the mother of Jackson’s ’93 accuser at Neverland. That mother and her son settled out of court for an estimated $20 million.

Tom Sneddon seemed a bit muddled in his cross-examination of Wade Robeson’s mom — didn’t have all his facts straight, and was being prompted by his team. Ron Zonen cross-examined the other witnesses and did a far better job of probing deep without beating-up on these mums two days from Mother’s Day.

The Australians were charming, well-mannered and lugged no baggage into court — no lawsuits, and no grudges — except, perhaps, against those out to defame Michael. They were extrmely polite, too. The only reason they might not have wanted their sons and daughters sleeping with Michael Jackson? Because they did not want to impose. They were, and are, committed Jackson fans and family friends.

Tom Mesereau wrapped up each mother’s testimony with questions he knew would be axed by the judge but heard by the jury. “If your son was molested, would you first go to a lawyer to get money?” “Did you ever escape from Neverland?”

And, “Did you ever get into a hot air balloon at Neverland?”  That, in reference to a claim by the mother of Michael Jackson’s current accuser who testified that death by runaway balloon was just one way Jackson’s handlers had plotted to kill her family.

Happy Mother’s Day!

 

Wade Robson, Brett Barnes came to exonerate Jackson, got grilled instead

F I N A L   E D I T I O N

Michael Jackson arrived in the rain wearing a Cinco de Mayo vest — a serape sorta thing on a day that should gave gone well, but did not. The prosecution turned the tables and proved that it was equally well equipped to  damage witnesses.

First, the judge threw out all three of the defense motions that would have stopped this trial, or jettisoned the conspiracy charges, but only after hours of impassioned arguments and pleas.

It appears clear that the animosity between prosecution and defense has gotten personal, and this morning’s arguments gave both sides a chance to vent for hours before a judge who threw out the motions in the blink of an eye.

The emotionally-charged tone only built as two of the five then-boys mentioned in the prior allegations against Jackson took the stand.

22-year-old choreographer Wade Robson emphatically denied Jackson ever molested him. Never touched him in a sexual way, never showed him sexually-explicit books or magazines, and that he had never showered with Jackson.

That contradicted the April 5th testimony of Jackson’s former housekeeper who claimed she saw Jackson in the shower with the then 8-year-old, their underwear lying on the bathroom floor.

Under cross-examination — tough, rapid-fire questions, from Deputy D.A. Ron Zonen who kicked the usually slow testimony into warp speed, a tactic clearly designed to fluster Robson.

It worked. Robson became increasingly unsettled by the grilling.

Did Michael Jackson kiss you? No.
Did Michael Jackson hug you? Yes.
Did Michael Jackson run his hands through your hair? No.
Did Michael Jackson touch you about the head and face? Yes.
Did Michael Jackson kiss your face? Yes.
Did Michael Jackson kiss your lips? No.

“On the dance floor (at Jackson’s Neverland dance studio) did Michael Jackson ever grab your crotch in the manner in which he grabs his onstage?” asked Zonen. “No.”

“What you’re saying,” asked Zonen, “is Michael Jackson never molested you while you were awake — when you were asleep you wouldn’t have known what happened.” Robson replying, “I would have been awakened.” That wasn’t good enough for Zonen who theorized Robeson was likely too tired after a long day of dancing and probably slept through molestations.

Then came the magazines, seized at Neverland. Mesereau had opened the door to this with his earlier question and Zonen pounced. Robson seemed clearly flustered by the experience of being told to rifle through the pages of sexually-oriented publications in court. “There’s actually people watching me do this?” he asked out loud.

“There’s a photo of a young (nude) boy with his legs open,” said Zonen, pointing out an image in the photo book Boys Will Be Boys. “That’s how old you were when you slept with Michael Jackson, right?” “Yes,” replied Robson. “Would you be concerned about your 12-year-old child sharing a bed with a person who has such a book?” Robson replied, “It’s not a pornographic book. It’s just a book.”

He was shown a copy of Men: A Sexual Study of Men. Zonen pointed out that it contained images of oral sex acts and sodomy. “Would you be concerned about that?” “Yes,” said Robson.

“There’s two naked men,” said Zonen. “They look as though…” “…they’re posing,” said Robson. “Would you consider this to be homoerotic art?” asked Zonen. “It’s not so erotic,” said Robson. “It’s loving.”

Would he be concerned if a person owning such a book slept with a 10-year-old boy? Robson replied, “If it was a man I didn’t know, yeah. But Michael? No.”

“Is that because you consider Michael Jackson asexual?” Robson said, “No, I believe he has a sexual interest in women. Zonen: “Don’t these books suggest otherwise?” Robson: “Not necessarily.”

And when asked to name a woman he’d seen with Jackson, Robson named Jackson’s former wife, Lisa Marie Presley.

That’s when Tom Mesereau felt compelled to point out Robson’s fiancée, and to ask, “You’re heterosexual, right?” Robson testified that he was. “And has anything you’ve learned today changed your opinion of Michael Jackson?” “No,” replied Robson.

Close to closing, 23-year-old Brett Barnes took the stand. He’d traveled with Jackson across North America, South America, Africa, Europe and Australia. 

Had anything inappropriate happened? Barnes saying, “If it had, I can tell you now, I wouldn’t be here. Barnes, clearly upset by the charges against Jackson and how they’ve impacted his life. “I’m very mad, cause it’s untrue, he said. They’ve put my name through the dirt and I’m unhappy about it.”

“Do you sleep with Michael Jackson now?” asked Zonen? “No — because he has children now,” said Barnes.

Jackson’s money problems compound. The Bank of America is said to have sold off $270 million in Jackson debt to Fortress Investments, a hedge fund that deals with companies in trouble. Jackson’s B-of-A loans have been secured by the music catalog Jackson co-owns with Sony — which could fall into the hedge fund’s hands if Jackson defaults.

Meantime, the rain has not dimmed the enthusiasm of a group of Jackson fans who have just arrived from Italy.

Defense calls for dismissal, judgment of acquittal and mistrial as prosecution rests

After 85 witnesses, over 600 pieces of evidence, ten weeks and a milion dollars, we've finally arrived at halftime at the Michael Jackson trial

I L L U S T R A T I O N S   B Y  B I L L   R O B L E S

Dismiss all the counts, says Tom Mesereau. He’s asking for a dismissal, a judgment of acquittal — and a mistrial — as the prosecution case for conspiracy fell apart with its last witness, Rudy Provencio, the 85th to testify against Jackson.

Provencio failed to implicate Michael Jackson in the conspiracy to falsely imprison his accuser and the boy’s family — he distanced Jackson by saying that if there was a conspiracy, it was all Mark Schaffel’s doing.

Provencio said Mark Schaffel was fired by Jackson in November, 2001 when Michael learned Schaffel was in the adult entertainment business, and that Schaffel was constantly looking for ways to work his way back into Jackson’s world. Handling the Bashir disaster was his best shot.

It began when a friend in the media sent Schaffel a transcript of the Bashir documentary before its UK airing. Did Provencio understand the impact it would have? “Oh, yeah!”

The phones went ballistic with media calls, he said. “If an octopus could hold up two phones at once, that’s how many calls we had.” And what were they asking? “Who is this boy Michael Jackson is sleeping with?”

In late January and early February 2003, Jackson participated in two conference calls on how to contain the damage. Provencio listened in. Jackson was asked to call ex-wife Debbie Rowe and ask that she participate in a rebuttal video. Jackson was noncommital. Mark Schaffel and Dieter Wiesner told Michael that the accuser and his family, “…could ruin your career — blackmail you.”

Wiesner took it a step further. “We need to make this rebuttal to save Michael’s career — and, this could make money.”

   
A press conference was in order, said Schaffel. Jackson said the accuser’s family should go on camera, but said he hated doing press conferences, adding “Let’s go someplace fun.”

Time and again, his statements implicated Mark Schaffel. Provencio told Jackson aide Vinnie Amen that Schaffel “was the mastermind letting people know what was going on” adding “Mark made money hand over fist on Michael.”

In a call to a friend at CBS, Provencio said “Mark is putting this whole thing together. He wants to be the kingpin. Michael is unaware of what Mark is up to.”

Clearly, Schaffel despised the accuser and his family. When they were to be given new clothes during their stay at the Calabasas Inn and Suites, Schaffel sent Vinnie Amen to take care of it. Provencio said Schaffel told him, “Do you honestly think I’d take those stupid Mexicans shopping?”

We know from videographer Hamid Meslehi that Schaffel wanted the family’s rebuttal tape shot at Muslehi’s home, so the accuser’s mom wouldn’t know where Schaffel lived.

According to Provencio, Schaffel appeared to be baiting Jackson’s ex with the most powerful possible incentive at Rowe’s interview taping session. “You’re doing good,” Schaffel assured Rowe. “You’re going to see your kids soon.” Schaffel also thought Rowe could do a better job of crying during some of her answers on the tape. “They re-shot the question — she cried better” said Provencio.

As for the “killers” out to snuff the accuser and his family, Provencio wanted to know who they were. Schaffel blew off the question. “...the killers who are after the family,” he said, flippantly. Schaffel dug deeper, called Jackson associate Vinnie Amen. “There are no killers” Amen told him. Provencio was left with the impression they were the kids calling the accuser “a faggot” at school.

Provencio said he believed the family was indeed being held against its will. So why didn’t he call police? “I didn’t have to. They’d escaped,” he said, adding with what sounded like his most sincere moment, “You know what, Mr. Mesereau? I didn’t want anybody to get in trouble. (The accuser’s family) had gone, I thought the problem had gone, too. These people were like lost souls on a ship.” 

   
Under cross-examination, Tom Mesereau probed for a profit motive. “Didn’t you go back and rewrite your notes ‘cause you wanted to be involved in this case?” “God, no!” Provencio replied. “And ruin my career?”

Though in a conversation with a friend, Provencio admitted saying, “I’ll give my lawyer the bullet points, but I won’t give them my detailed notes. That’s a book, honey!”

Provencio was involved in two conversations about escape in March 2003 with Schaffel and Amen. Both aides blew off Provencio’s phone calls with the same line: “I can’t talk right now, they just escaped.”

But though he secretly recorded phone calls and kept a detailed diary, Provencio — who really isn’t a record producer, though he was a promo man for Universal Music Group and Warner — was not the magic bullet that prosecutors needed to implicate Michael Jackson in its conspiracy charges. The audio tapes were not admitted into evidence.

Even former Santa Barbara Sheriff Jim Thomas, squarely in the corner of District Attorney Tom Sneddon and the deputies who’ve brought this case to trial, says although he, too, believes in his heart that the family was held against their will, the prosecution has failed to link Jackson to any wrongdoing.

Before he left the witness stand, Provencio summed up the alleged conspiracy as “A bad fairy tale, a story nobody would believe.” The jury may see it that way, too.

So what’s next? Barring a dismissal of charges in part or in whole by Judge Melville, the defense will first take on the 1993 allegations by producing Australian Brett Barnes, fellow Aussie Wade Robeson (Brittney Spears’ choreographer) and perhaps Macaulay Culkin, though Culkin’s PR people have yet to confirm.

Barnes and Robeson are expected to bring along their mothers and sisters to rave about what swell place Neverland is for kids.

 

Debbie debunked? Jackson drowning in debt? Rudy Provencio takes the stand

Better late than never, Tom Sneddon
strikes back at Jackson ex-wife
Debbie Rowe, long gone from the stand

I L L U S T R A T I O N S   B Y   B I L L   R O B L E S
 
F I N A L   E D I T I O N

Still stinging from the prosecution’s disastrous presentation of Michael’s ex-wife Debbie Rowe last week, prosecutor Tom Sneddon set out to impeach Rowe’s testimony this morning — even though she is miles away. Dissing Debbie from a distance.

Rowe: Jackson "a sociopath." Sneddon did it through Santa Barbara sheriff’s detective Sgt. Steve Robel who conducted an interview with Rowe in Calabasas on March 3, 2004 in which, Robel said, Rowe described Jackson as “a sociopath, and his children as possessions.”

Sneddon asked Robel to review Rowe’s testimony from last week and fact-check it against his transcript of the interview. He brought out testimony that Rowe has had an agreement with Jackson since their 1999 divorce to only say good things about Jackson.

Sneddon: “Did she at anytime during the interview describe the defendant as a good parent?”

“She did not,” replied Robel.

A wonderful father? A caring person? A generous person? Robel replied that she had not.

And that was that, A laser-precise surgical strike leaving Tom Mesereau precious little wiggle room to open up the detective’s interview.

Mesereau began by asking, “You never asked her whether Jackson was a good parent?” “No,” replied Robell. A wonderful father? A caring person? A generous person? No, no, no.

Mesereau tried to insinuate that Rowe had been upset by her custody battle with Jackson at the time of her meeting with Robel. Robel denied it. Mesereau pressed on. “Didn’t she say ‘I have Michael’s Achilles tendon — I have the kids — I don’t have them yet, but I will.’” Robel shrugged it off.

Mesereau: “Didn’t she say, ‘F*** his defense, I have his kids?’”

Sneddon objected to Mesereau wandering beyond the narrow scope of his questioning of Robel and was sustained every time by Judge Melville.

Mesereau tried to pack in a few points in questions the judge tossed out. “Didn’t you ask her if Michael kept a journal? That she said Michael was too disorganized to keep a journal? Remember that?”

“Isn’t this the interview in which she talked about Konitzer, Dieter and Schaffel tying to steal from Michael Jackson? Right?”

Objection, sustained, no further questions. Sneddon never raised the question of whether Rowe had been scripted in her rebuttal interview, made on Jackson's behalf.

Jackson finances in dire straits says CPA,
overspending by $20-30 million a year

   
According to CPA John Duross Obryan of Alex Partners, Michael Jackson has been spending tens of millions more each year than he’s been taking in.

The debt has been growing, and threatening his ownership of his two lucrative prize possessions, his music catalog of Beatles, Elvis, Sly and the Family Stone and other songs.

Seeking to place a financial motive for the conspiracy charges against Jackson, Obryan testified that as of 2000, Jackson was $155 million in debt with $112 million in interest stacked up against him. Those obligations grew by $70 million by 2003 to a breathtaking $224 million.

In February 2003, when the Martin Bashir special aired, Obryan said Jackson had $10.5 million in bills and $38,000 in cash. Bank of America, a prime holder of Jackson loans, was so concerned that it barred Jackson from additional borrowing unless approved by B-of-A.

In 2000, his accountants warned that if Jackson continued to overspend by $20-30 million a year, he would jeopardize the Mijac and Sony/ATV music catalogs which served as collateral on several of his loans, though selling them off would result in a huge tax liability — as much as $40 million.

But does this disasterous balance sheet transfer into a motive to imprison the accuser and his family as alleged by the prosecution? Or has Jackson always been this way?

Under a feisty cross examination, Tom Mesereau pointed out that the Sony/ATV catalogue had grown in value from $999 million in 1999 to $1 billion in 2003, and tried to make that case that Jackson may prefer to deal with a short-term liquidity problems and hang on to an appreciating asset.

Mesereau pointed out that Jackson has never gone bankrupt, that the accountant is not an expert in music industry, and that Obryan had not evaluated Jackson’s opportunities — including tours and merchandising. Was he serious about a Michael Jackson-brand fragrance? Yup.

The accountant snapped back: “If it was that easy to fix, why wasn’t it done?”

Mesereau’s position: Multimillionaires roll up big debt. So what? Jackson could be hundreds of millions in the black any time he wanted.

Like, uh, now?

Rudy Provencio briefly takes stand
with a preview of coming testimony

Despite death threats he says are coming from Jackson fans, record producer Rudy Provencio has finally come to court, the prosecution’s last, best witness for linking their consiracy charges to Jackson.

Provencio is bubbly, voluble. It’s too soon to say if he’s cagey or something of a ditz.

But he loves to talk, tell stories, and Tom Mesereau is already reining him in. Here is another witness with tales to tell, and who does it with expression.

What has he heard? Working in the Neverland Valley Entertainment offices at Mark Schaffel’s home in a gated Calabasas community Provencio calls “swanky?” Sounds like lots. “Mark made people listen to speakerphone calls — Michael, Beyonce — so he could gloat over who was calling him.”

Did he often speak to Jackson? Yes. “Michael has the most distinctive voice in the world, but if he’s upset, he uses the other voice,” Provencio said darkly.

What was his motive in working on the charity single project? “You’d be rich!” he gushed.

He knew all about Schaffel taking out $1.5 million in cash from a Santa Monica bank to fund the project, though he couldn’t remember its name. He added that the branch manager made him open an account.

“Did you get a free toaster?” asked deputy DA Ron Zonen, playfully.

“I didn’t get anything!” Provencio exclaimed. The jury laughed. No one at the defense table was amused. We’ll see where this leads tomorrow. 

F O O T N O T E
Inside Edition's Jim Moret gets
skewered by Jackson trial press corps

We all love Inside Edition’s legal analyst Jim Moret who provides excellent trial commentary. But this is springtime and hijinks are afoot among a press corps that increasingly loves to play pranks on colleagues. (More to come on this.)

Jim Moret talking head dolls and finger puppets are popping up everywhere here at the courthouse. Here’s one, made by the guys in the media pool truck. Click to play! As for Jim? He says he’s honored. :-)