The Michael Jackson Trial

[DudeAsInCool]

Entertainment - AP Music

Judge Allows Past Jackson Allegations

By TIM MOLLOY, Associated Press Writer

SANTA MARIA, Calif. - The judge in Michael Jackson (news)'s child molestation trial ruled Monday that the prosecution may present testimony about past allegations against the pop star involving five boys, including two who reached multimillion-dollar civil settlements with the singer.

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/a...hael_jackson_21

***

This could be trouble for the gloved one...

[Shawn]

Yep.

Even the doubters about this kid have never really doubted the first one.

[DudeAsInCool]

Not true, Shawn. The father of the kid in the first case has been depicted as a conniving hustler by some...

***

The ruling is seen as a potential dramatic turn of events in a trial that has captured widespread attention.

"The prosecution has opened a large field of evidence expanding the trial dramatically," said Ronald Richards, a criminal defense lawyer and NBC news legal analyst, speaking in an interview.

"It makes the defense job more difficult, brings in new hostile witnesses," he said. "Up until now it was reasonable doubt."

http://nytimes.com/2005/03/28/national/28c...artner=homepage

[Redneck4sure]

It also makes the trial drag on longer. :(

[KiwiCoromandel]

Major turn in Jackson court drama

Mar 29, 2005

The judge in Michael Jackson's child sex trial on Tuesday dealt a major blow to the defence by allowing prosecutors to tell jurors of five previous cases of alleged abuse by the star.

In a potentially devastating blow to the faded "King of Pop's" defence, Judge Rodney Melville granted a hotly fought prosecution motion to tell jurors of prior accusations against Jackson that never made it to court.

"The decision I have reached is: I will now admit the testimony with regard to the sexual offences and the alleged pattern of grooming," the judge said, making his crucial and long-awaited ruling on the issue.

Prosecutors had asked to be allowed to tell of seven prior allegations of child sex abuse against Jackson that never made it to court in order to show jurors an alleged pattern of child molestation.

But only one of the five alleged victims of prior abuse by the 46-year-old superstar will testify at trial, with the others allegations to be recounted by other witnesses, the court in California was told.

Two of the five cases that jurors will be told about were resolved in out-of-court settlements, but the judge barred prosecutors from telling jurors the amounts of the payments.

Jackson paid more than $US20 million to settle 1993 allegations of abuse by a 13-year-old boy, according to leaked documents, while he reportedly paid $US2 million to resolve another case.

But the uncle of the alleged victim in the 1993 case said yesterday his now 25-year-old nephew would not testify at Jackson's trial.

Jackson's camp had bitterly fought the effort to present potentially damaging testimony, saying such unproved allegations could poison jurors against the embattled superstar.

Legal analysts say the admission of such explosive testimony could deal a serious blow to the defence by lending credence to the accusations in the current case that experts said was not very strong in its own right.

[Shawn]

I'd say it screws him, but it may give him grounds to appeal later.

[DudeAsInCool]

Here's the dirt from The Smoking Gun:

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/03280...cksonpast1.html

[Shawn]

Ruling from the bench after the hearing, Melville told a packed courtroom that he will allow prosecutors to present testimony that Jackson previously molested five boys, including actor Macaulay Culkin

And people wonder these days what happened to him when he gets picked up for drugs.

[DudeAsInCool]

And people wonder these days what happened to him when he gets picked up for drugs.

I dont see the correlation. Lots of people on this board have experimented with drugs, but werent molested...

...then again, Id never expected SG to know how to moonwalk, so who knows?

http://www.beatking.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=12177&hl=

[Shawn]

Of course you don't have to be molested to use drugs, but a lot of victims do. And they have huge suicide rates too. And a lot of them stay in therapy for extended periods.

Imagine a kid [for this example heterosexual] being molested by a person of the same sex. Think that's going to cause some life long confusion? Maybe an attempt to afix oneself to a woman at an early age for example?

[DudeAsInCool]

That I dont disagree with - however, i think Mr Culkin isnt one of them... Now the kids who were molested by the priests...that's another story

[Shawn]

Jacko made an appearance on an internet radio show hosted by Reverend Jesse Jackson on Saturday and claimed that his court room troubles are part of a conspiracy against him and other black figures including Nelson Mandela and Muhammad Ali. He said they were being unfairly accused of committing crimes, but couldn't go on due to the gag order in Jackson's case.

link

He made the same claim against Sony when nobody bought his last album.

[DudeAsInCool]

Prosecution Witness Comes to Jackson's Aid

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,151900,00.html

[DudeAsInCool]

Jacko: I was virgin till 32

By Daily Mail

30 March 2005

Tapes of phone calls in which Michael Jackson apparently reveals he was a virgin until he was 32 could be publicly released.

The recordings were said to have been made when the star was in his 30s.

In them, he also reportedly talks of his battle with anorexia, how he hated his hair and how he was desperate to sleep with a woman.

They were made by the family of a nine-year-old boy from Utah the singer befriended in 1985.

http://www.thisislondon.com/showbiz/articl...ce=Daily%20Mail

[Shawn]

Prosecution Witness Comes to Jackson's Aid

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,151900,00.html

This link struck me as funny.

Undoubtedly you are putting more work into following the trial than me, but did you realize that only Fox News framed yesterday's testimony in that manner?

--

In an exclusive interview with Diane Dimond shortly after she stepped out of the witness box Monday, the stewardess, Lauren Wallace, said she saw Jackson cuddle with an 11- or 12-year-old child on a cross-country flight in a private plane the same year he allegedly sexually abused another youth.

The music legend stroked the child's face repeatedly in a way she found strange, Wallace said.

"To me, it was a little odd from a 45-year-old man," Wallace said of the incident, which she thinks occurred in the late summer or fall of 2003.

Court TV

--

"I loved flying with him even though weird things did happen. He was so polite to me all the time," Wallace testified.

Jurors also heard testimony from comedian Louise Palanker, a friend of the accuser's family who admitted to calling them "wacky." Palanker testified that the alleged victim's mother called and said "evil" people were holding the family hostage.

"It's not a safe line. They're listening to every word I say. These people are evil. They are keeping us," Palanker said, quoting the accuser's mother, who Palanker called "bipolar."

"It was an extremely disturbing phone call," Palanker said. "I felt they were held against their will."

Palanker also testified that she offered the family $20,000, which they accepted. However, she suggested that Jackson's accuser is honest and may have been manipulated by his father.

"He's been honest in the face of others wishing him not to be," she said, in an apparent reference to the accuser's father.

BET

[DudeAsInCool]

The tail end of your last post is an old item that is posted somewhere earlier in the thread. The family took the 20 grand and bought a big tv and stereo, etc...

FYI, I collect the news wherever I find it...pro and con...

[Kooperman]

FYI, I collect the news wherever I find it...pro and con...

I think there are a lot of pro hustlers doing a con number on both sides of this sorry episode....

[Shawn]

The tail end of your last post is an old item that is posted somewhere earlier in the thread. The family took the 20 grand and bought a big tv and stereo, etc...

Aye, it was just reiterated yesterday.

FYI, I collect the news wherever I find it...pro and con...

;) Fox News enthusiast.

[Wolfie]

In them, he also reportedly talks of his battle with anorexia, how he hated his hair and how he was desperate to sleep with a woman.

No comment.

[KiwiCoromandel]

Stunning twist in Jackson drama

The psychologist of Michael Jackson's child sex accuser took the witness stand at the pop star's trial in California but in a stunning twist did not reveal what the boy told him.

Therapist Stan Katz had been one of the most highly anticipated witnesses in the case as it was during interviews with Katz that Jackson's 13-year-old alleged victim first claimed he had been abused by the singer.

But Katz, who spoke to the accuser twice in May and June of 2003, did not reveal any details of what the boy told him about his claimed abuse three to four months earlier.......Read more.......

http://tvnz.co.nz/view/news_world_story_sk...0%3fformat=html

[DudeAsInCool]

The prosecution's case is looking weaker and weaker as the days go on..

[DudeAsInCool]

The last dispatch from Slate's on-the-scene reporter:

http://www.slate.com/id/2115135/entry/0/

[Shawn]

Sounds like a Daily Show report. :)

[DudeAsInCool]

Sounds like a Daily Show report. :)

Yep - quite entertaining - hopefully someone will pick up where they left off.

[Shawn]

Psychologist Says False Abuse Claims Rare

A psychologist who interviewed the boy accusing Michael Jackson of child molestation testified that it would be "extremely rare" for a 12- or 13-year-old to make a false charge.

Billboard