Video 'a disaster' for Jackson

2005-03-03 07:54

Santa Maria - A publicist hired to salvage Michael Jackson's reputation said on Wednesday she feared that his child sex accuser and his family had been "hunted down like dogs" by the star's aides.

Ann Marie Kite was called by prosecutors in his molestation trial in a bid to prove that Jackson and his aides were so panicked by the broadcast of a damaging documentary that they plotted to kidnap his 13-year-old alleged victim to save the star's public image.

"I felt it was absolutely beyond a disaster for Mr Jackson," Kite said of journalist Martin Bashir's 2003 fly-on-the-wall film Living with Michael Jackson that led to the charges against the "King of Pop."

When asked by prosecutor Gordon Auchinlcoss to rate the "disaster" on a scale of one to 10, the self-professed image consultant said: "This was a 25."

In the documentary the 46-year-old Jackson is seen holding hands with his future accuser and admits that he often sleeps in the same bed as children, a practice he described as "sweet."

Situation had been 'contained'

Kite told the jury she was hired by former Jackson attorney David LeGrand on February 9, three days after the United States broadcast of the film, which was screened for jurors on Tuesday, to limit the fall-out from the show.

"Michael Jackson was to begin an immediate rehabilitation of his image," she said of her work, which lasted for only six days before she was fired, allegedly for refusing to sign a confidentiality pact.

Kite said that on February 13 2003 she received a phone call from an upset Jackson business associate, Marc Schaffel, who said that Jackson's accuser, his mother and his siblings had left Neverland where they had been staying.

The publicist said she began to worry about the family when she spoke to Schaffel again later the same day, who told her that "the situation had been contained."

That prompted her to call LeGrand, a former boyfriend, and ask: "Don't make me believe these people were hunted down like dogs and brought back to the ranch?" Kite told the jury.

According to Kite, LeGrand told her: "I can't discuss this right now."

Kite said that 10 days after Kite was fired by another Jackson lawyer, she spoke to LeGrand again, who told her there was no longer any need to worry about the accuser's mother speaking out against Jackson.

LeGrand allegedly told her that "they had her on tape and they were going to make her look like a crack whore," Kite told the jurors that could send Jackson to jail for up to 20 years if they convict him.

The star has denied 10 charges of child molestation, plying the boy with alcohol in order to seduce him and an alleged conspiracy to kidnap the boy and his family and hold them captive at Neverland until they made a video exonerating Jackson of any wrongdoing.

Jackson's lawyer Thomas Mesereau said that the five Jackson business associates had worked independently of the entertainer who was unaware of their activities.

- AFP