Jackson 'most vulnerable celeb'
2005-03-01 08:05
California - The child sex charges against Michael Jackson are "bogus" and his accusers are greedy financial grifters who preyed on celebrities, the star's lawyer said on Monday.
In his opening statements, Thomas Mesereau hit back at prosecution charges that Jackson was a child sex predator who used his Neverland Ranch to lure a 13-year-old cancer patient into seduction.
"I am here to tell you the charges are fictitious, bogus and never happened," Mesereau's lead lawyer told the jury that will decide the 46-year-old superstar's fate.
The boy, a now 15-year-old cancer patient, has accused Jackson of molesting him at Neverland in February and March of 2003.
The youngster, his mother, his younger brother and his older sister will all testify for the prosecution during Jackson's trial.
Accused's mother used her kids
But Mesereau said the boy's mother has a history of using her children to bilk celebrities and had unsuccessfully sought money from Hollywood superstar Jim Carrey, boxer Mike Tyson and United States comedian Adam Sandler, as well as US talk show host Jay Leno.
When those alleged ruses failed, the accuser's mother turned her rapacious sights on Jackson, Mesereau said.
"The best-known celebrity and the most vulnerable celebrity became the mark," he told the jurors in his opening remarks.
"The mother, with her children as tools, was trying to find a celebrity to latch onto. Unfortunately for Michael Jackson, he fell for it. That's where it all begins," Mesereau said.
"There is a pattern by Janet and her children of ensnaring people for money. I'm going to show you how the trap was set," he said.
The family first accused Jackson only after they realised that he would not back them financially indefinitely, Mesereau said.
Mesereau also launched into prosecution charges that Jackson used his fantasy theme-park home Neverland as a lure for young children for him to prey on.
"Neverland is not a lure for molestation, a magnet for crime, we will prove that in this case," he told the jury.
He described Jackson as a hard-working entertainer whose career caused him to miss out in his childhood.
The star bought Neverland in 1988 and built it into "an invitation to play and be like children." "He wanted a place where children could be innocent," Mesereau said.
Earlier prosecutor Tom Sneddon said Jackson had used Neverland Ranch to sexually prey on children by plying them with alcohol and pornography.
Mesereau cited a lawsuit filed by the accuser's mother, stemming from the July 1999 detention of her children by security guards on suspicion of shoplifting, in which she later accused the guards of sexually assaulting her.
He also claimed that she had launched an appeal in a newspaper to collect $12 000 to pay for her son's chemotherapy bills although the treatment had been fully covered by the family's health insurance.
- AFP