| Jacko's plea to parents to raise his children
Michael Jackson wants his elderly parents to raise his three children if he is jailed on child-abuse charges, it is claimed.
The pop superstar is said to have made plans for Prince Michael, eight, Paris, seven, and Prince Michael II, three, to be brought up by Katherine and Joe Jackson, 74 and 75, at their home in California.
His ex-wife Debbie Rowe, mother of the two older children, does not agree. She signed away her parental rights in 2001 but is fighting for custody to prevent the children going to the Jacksons.
Meanwhile, the mother of a man who accused the pop star of sexually abusing him in 1993 and settled out of court for more than £10.6million ($20million) is expected to testify this week.
The woman, who has reportedly been estranged from her son since the mid 1990s, is one of nine witnesses prosecutors are permitted to call as they try to prove that Jackson has a history of inappropriate behavior toward young boys.
Though she reportedly never saw Jackson molest her son, the woman is expected to testify that he and the entertainer often shared a bed - for a time in the family's Southern California home.
The son, one of five young boys who prosecutors say was either molested or groomed for abuse by Jackson, 46, stopped cooperating with authorities investigating the singer after the settlement and is not listed as a witness in the case.
Jurors also may hear this week from Bob Jones, who spent more than 20 years as Jackson's publicist before he was fired last year and began writing a behind-the-scenes book about the superstar.
Jackson is charged in the current case with molesting a 13-year-old boy at his Neverland Valley Ranch, plying the youth with alcohol in order to abuse him and conspiring to commit false imprisonment, child abduction and extortion.
The performer, who has pleaded innocent, faces more than two decades in prison if convicted on all 10 counts.
Last week Jackson's former cook told jurors that he saw the pop icon fondling Home Alone star Macaulay Culkin as they played a Thriller video game at his Neverland Valley Ranch in 1991.
Phillip LeMarque said he stumbled upon Jackson with one hand in Culkin's pants at about 3a.m. while delivering French fries to the self-styled King of Pop.
"I was shocked, and I almost dropped the French fries," LeMarque recalled in a thick French accent.
Under cross-examination from defense attorney Thomas Mesereau, LeMarque acknowledged that his employment with Jackson ended with him suing the star for overtime owed him and that the case was settled out of court.
Also last week, former Neverland security guard Ralph Chacon described watching Jackson perform oral sex on the boy who ultimately settled with Jackson in 1993.
Chacon was involved in a failed lawsuit against Jackson after leaving his job.
The suit resulted in a six-month trial in which a judge found he had acted with "fraud, oppression and malice" and stole from the pop icon.
- Daily Mail | |
you're right that their grandparents aren't exactly wonderful either. I just chill at the thought of someone signing away their kids 
