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Source: AP
Michael Jackson's attorney strongly hinted in his opening statement that the singer would take the stand to refute allegations that he molested a 13-year-old recovering cancer patient.
Thomas Mesereau Jr.'s statement Tuesday came just before jurors got their first look at Jackson's accuser and his family by viewing the documentary "Living With Michael Jackson," which features the singer holding hands with the boy and explaining that there is nothing sexual about his occasionally sharing his bedroom with children.
Twice in his opening statement Mesereau hinted that jurors would hear from Jackson: "Michael will tell you one time he got a very bad feeling at Neverland," Mesereau said at one point, referring to an incident with the accuser's family at his estate.
He also said, "Mr. Jackson will freely admit that he does read girlie magazines from time to time. He absolutely does not show them to children."
Mesereau's statements were designed to suggest to jurors that Jackson may testify, Jackson spokeswoman Raymone K. Bain said in an interview.
"They have not made a decision yet. But clearly they have spoken about it," she said.
Jackson, 46, who could by cross-examined if he takes the stand, is not on the defense witness list.
In the Neverland incident Mesereau described, the boy's mother allegedly grabbed the singer's hand, told her children to join hands, and insisted that everyone pray. Mesereau mentioned sexually explicit magazines because prosecutors allege Jackson showed them to his accuser and his brother.
Mesereau also denied allegations that Jackson served the boy alcohol and that Jackson was involved in a conspiracy to hold the family captive while forcing them to help in a public relations campaign to undo damage caused by the documentary.
Jackson told reporters as he left court Tuesday that he felt "good" but "angry."
Besides footage of Jackson racing go-carts, climbing a tree and going on a Las Vegas shopping spree, the documentary includes November 2002 footage of Jackson and the boy - who would months later accuse him of molestation - holding hands and celebrating the boy's recovery from cancer.
"He's really a child at heart," the boy tells Martin Bashir, the British television journalist who made the program.
When Bashir asks about sleeping arrangements during overnight stays in Jackson's bedroom, the boy says Jackson once told him and his brother, "If you love me, you'll sleep in the bed." Jackson adds that he slept on the floor in a sleeping bag.
Prosecutors allege that Jackson molested the boy in late February or early March, after the Feb. 6 airing of the documentary on ABC-TV.
After the viewing, Mesereau sought to have Bashir's testimony and the documentary stricken from the record when Bashir refused to say how many hours of videotape were recorded during the making of the program.
Superior Court Judge Rodney S. Melville refused to strike the video or the testimony. Mesereau then asked that Bashir be held in contempt and the judge said he would review the testimony before deciding that issue.
Bashir's attorney, Theodore Boutrous Jr., repeatedly invoked California's shield law for reporters and the First Amendment, saying that as a journalist Bashir did not have to answer questions about unpublished information.
Bashir refused to answer about 30 times, and Mesereau told the judge he wanted to call the journalist back as a defense witness. The judge said he would decide that after Mesereau shows why Bashir should testify.
At the end of the day, the prosecution was questioning a new witness, Ann Gabriel Kite, who said she was brought in by a former Jackson lawyer to do public relations after the Bashir documentary aired.
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