The Michael Jackson Trial

[Shawn]

That is a pretty good story.

[KiwiCoromandel]

Expert barred from Jackson trial....

SANTA MARIA: The judge in the Michael Jackson molestation trial today barred prosecutors from calling an expert on domestic violence they hoped would explain the apparently erratic behaviour of the accuser's mother for jurors.

more.........

http://stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3257020a1860,00.html

[DudeAsInCool]

4/21 UPDATE: In a ruling this afternoon, Judge Rodney Melville rejected a prosecution bid to elicit testimony from a former Neverland Ranch employee about an alleged late-night Vaseline delivery. Melville, however, will allow Kassim Abdool, the ex-worker, to testify about two other alleged incidents on Jackson's estate.

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/04210..._jackson_1.html

[KiwiCoromandel]

Dometic Violence Expert barred from Jackson trial

The judge in the Michael Jackson molestation trial on Thursday barred prosecutors from calling an expert on domestic violence they hoped would explain the apparently erratic behaviour of the accuser’s mother for jurors.

read on........

http://www.tiscali.co.uk/news/newswire.php...y_template.html

[DudeAsInCool]

Prosecutors in the Michael Jackson trial cannot call a domestic violence expert to explain the behaviour of his accuser's mother on the witness stand.

Yeah - they were trying to come up with an excuse for her bizarre behavior that was psychologically grounded - how about 'she's nuts!'

[DudeAsInCool]

Jackson jurors face dilemma with witnesses

April 24, 2005  |  SANTA MARIA, Calif. -- As the prosecution nears the end of its case against Michael Jackson, jurors face a dilemma: how much should they believe testimony from key witnesses who have admitted past lies?

http://www.salon.com/news/wire/2005/04/24/...rors/index.html

[DudeAsInCool]

Jackson Videographer Didn't See Rehearsal

...The testimony of Hamid Moslehi did not support an account by the boy's mother, who alleges she was forced to closely follow a script praising Jackson as part of a scheme in which her family was held captive to get their help in rebutting a damaging television documentary about Jackson.

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/a...chael_jackson_6

[DudeAsInCool]

Michael Jackson's ex-wife Debbie Rowe broke down in tears last night as she told his child abuse trial she had desperately wanted a reconciliation with the singer.

Miss Rowe had taken the stand to testify against Jackson.

But in a dramatic development she described him as 'my friend', smiling broadly at the star who denies ten charges including child molestation, giving alcohol to a minor and kidnapping.

In another massive blow for the prosecution, Miss Rowe denied that her gushing interview praising Jackson in the wake of the controversial Martin Bashir documentary was in any way scripted.

http://www.thisislondon.com/til/jsp/module...itemId=18232476

[KiwiCoromandel]

Jacko jurors shown nude boy photos

Jurors in Michael Jackson's molestation trial on Friday were shown two picture books with photos of naked boys seized from the entertainer's Neverland estate during an August 1993 police raid.

more here.......

http://tvnz.co.nz/view/news_entertainment_...1%3fformat=html

[KiwiCoromandel]

Whatever view of the Michael Jackson saga you may have, if any, there is one man who must be sending thanks to the Lord every night that the child molestation charges against the singer have been brought to trial. That is former burger-tosser Edward Moss, who won $200 in a Michael Jackson look-alike contest in 1996 and has earned a living ever since, impersonating the Gloved One.

For the past decade, Moss has aped Jackson, appearing in music videos, movies such as Scary Movie 3, and the TV series Nip/Tuck - where he played an impersonator pleading for more surgery to mirror the collapse of the star's nostrils.

A living, but hardly a secure one. But now Moss has a regular gig for as long as the Santa Maria trial lasts, playing Jackson in court in daily reconstructions produced by E! and BSkyB.

more here........

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=4...jectID=10114514

[DudeAsInCool]

Prosecution in last stages of Jackson case

Fresh off a week in court that featured testimony about books with pictures of nude boys, prosecutors in the Michael Jackson appeared close to the final stages of their case.

District Attorney Tom Sneddon said last week that the prosecution would rest its case against the pop singer Tuesday.

http://www.salon.com/news/wire/2005/05/02/jacko/index.html

[DudeAsInCool]

Drudge Report - 5/3/05:

FLASH: 3 alleged Michael Jackson 'victims' -- Culkin, Robson, and Barnes -- will testify at start of defensecase... Developing..

[KiwiCoromandel]

Jackson faced $319m debt around time of alleged molestation

SANTA MARIA - Michael Jackson owed more than $US230 million ($NZ319 million) and was spending his way deeper into debt at the time he is accused of molesting a 13-year-old boy at his Neverland estate, a forensic accountant hired by prosecutors said today.

more here.......

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=1...jectID=10123760

[DudeAsInCool]

Prosecution Rests Case in Jackson Trial

More than two months after promising to prove that Michael Jackson molested a boy and conspired to hold his family captive at his fairytale estate, prosecutors rested their case Wednesday.

Read more here:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050504/ap_en_...on_26&printer=1

And read more here:

Prosecution rests case against Jacko

LOS ANGELES: After 10 weeks of lurid and sometimes questionable testimony, prosecutors have rested their case against Michael Jackson.

Legal analysts, emerging from court after the final day of prosecution evidence, said the state of California had failed to present a convincing case.

more........

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/commo...55E2703,00.html

[DudeAsInCool]

The NY Times takes a look at the prosecution's case:

9 Weeks So Far, but Little Clarity in Jackson Case

http://nytimes.com/2005/05/05/national/05j...artner=homepage

Pretty weak crap - I expect Jackson to be completely exonerated :scratchin:

[slum_goddess]

i can hardly wait until the damn thing's over so this thread will be over as well. :)

[DudeAsInCool]

Will a Juror Be Dismissed From the Jackson Trial?/Juror's Relative's Link to Key Witness Could Lead to Jury Shakeup, ABC News Learns

...ABC News has learned that a key witness, who testified that Jackson molested him when he was a child, and a live-in sister of Juror No. 11 work together in the same small auto parts store in Santa Maria, Calif., just blocks from the courthouse where "The King of Pop" is being tried. Sources told ABC News that the court does not know about this and it is being revealed for the first time this morning. This revelation could lead to the removal of Juror No. 11, a 20-year-old Hispanic male cashier.

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/LegalCenter/story?id=730250&page=1

[DudeAsInCool]

Judge Denies Motion to Acquit Jackson

SANTA MARIA, Calif. (AP) - The judge in Michael Jackson's child molestation and conspiracy trial denied a defense motion for an acquittal Thursday after the pop star's attorneys said the prosecution witnesses had "a tendency to self-destruct" on the stand.

...Superior Court Judge Rodney S. Melville immediately called in the jury to begin hearing the defense case. Defense motions for acquittal are common when the prosecution rests, but are rarely successful.

...The judge said he was reluctant to make a decision about the credibility of the witnesses, suggesting that was the jury's job.

Read more here:

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20050505/D89T7HA00.html

[DudeAsInCool]

First Jackson witness denies being molested

A young man allegedly molested by Michael Jackson more than a decade ago denied in court that the singer had ever touched him improperly.

Wade Robson, 22, a former choreographer for Britney Spears, was called as the first defence witness in Jackson's child sex trial, after the judge denied a motion for acquittal by the pop icon's lawyers.

Read more here:

[DudeAsInCool]

First Jackson witness denies being molested

A young man allegedly molested by Michael Jackson more than a decade ago denied in court that the singer had ever touched him improperly.

Wade Robson, 22, a former choreographer for Britney Spears, was called as the first defence witness in Jackson's child sex trial, after the judge denied a motion for acquittal by the pop icon's lawyers.

Read more here:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20050505/ts_af...05400&printer=1

[DudeAsInCool]

...and Brett Barnes, 23 both vehemently rejected claims by prosecution witnesses that they had been molested by Jackson as young boys.

"Absolutely not," Robson said, adding that Jackson had never touched him in a sexual or improper way and that he still considered the singer a "close friend."

The two witnesses, both Australian, had been regular visitors to Jackson's Neverland Ranch in the early 1990s.

Under harsh, rapid-fire cross-examination from prosecutor Ron Zonen, Robson admitted to regularly sharing a bed with Jackson during his visits when he was aged between eight and 11.

Asked if he had "ever crawled into bed with another man in his 30s before," the witness replied: "No."

Robson, a former choreographer for pop star Britney Spears said he had last shared Jackson's bed when he was 13 or 14 years old, although he had continued to visit the singer afterwards.

Barnes also acknowledged sleeping in bed with Jackson but, like Robson, he angrily denied any impropriety, saying he and the singer would always wear T-shirts and pyjama bottoms.

Asked for his reaction to the testimony of Neverland staffers who said they saw Jackson touch him sexually, Barnes said: "I am very mad about that, because it's untrue."

On Friday, the defence is expected to call former child star Macaulay Culkin, of "Home Alone" fame, to refute similar allegations that he was the subject of improper advances by Jackson.

The combined testimony of the three witnesses is likely to knock a large hole in the prosecution case, which had sought to demonstrate a pattern of pedophile behaviour behind the current allegations against Jackson.

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/a...us_050505224045

[DudeAsInCool]

Moms Testify They Trusted Michael Jackson

Two mothers testified at Michael Jackson's trial Friday that they trusted Jackson enough to let their sons sleep in his bed and were convinced that no molestation ever occurred.

Read more here:

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20050506/D89TT1JG0.html

[DudeAsInCool]

Slate/NPR's Seth Stevenson is back covering the Jackson trial. You can read his reports or listen to his radio broadcasts for the last week by going here:

http://www.slate.com/id/2117900/entry/2117904/

[DudeAsInCool]

'BAR' FIGHT BREAKS OUT

May 7, 2005 -- SANTA MARIA, Calif. — Tensions boiled over at the Michael Jackson sex trial yesterday, as the prosecutor trying the case and a member of the King of Pop's defense team had a confrontation out of jury earshot that got so explosive a bailiff had to break it up.

Santa Barbara County District Attorney Tom Sneddon became incensed during a break in the proceedings when defense attorney Robert Sanger walked too close to the prosecution's table in the courtroom, witnesses said.

Read more...

[KiwiCoromandel]

Jackson defence hammers at past accusations

SANTA MARIA: The mothers and sisters of two young men at the centre of Michael Jackson's child molestation case came to his defence on Friday, telling jurors they considered the pop icon beyond reproach and never questioned his practice of sleeping with children.

The defence testimony came a day after Wade Robson and Brett Barnes, who were portrayed by prosecutors as adolescent victims of Jackson in the 1990s, denied the 46-year-old superstar molested them.

more........

http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3273251a1860,00.html