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Jackson 'portrayed as paedophile'
03/06/2005 18:02 - (SA)
Santa Maria - Prosecutors portrayed Michael Jackson as a hard-drinking, porn-collecting paedophile to "dirty up" the pop star because they could not prove their case that he had molested a child, said the star's lawyer.
Defence attorney Thomas Mesereau Junior began his closing argument on Thursday after district attorney Ron Zonen told jurors that Jackson had brought his accuser, then a 13-year-old cancer survivor, "into the world of the forbidden".
Mesereau was to conclude his argument on Friday, followed by a prosecution rebuttal. The case would then go to the jury.
Zonen said Jackson lowered the boy's inhibitions by giving him alcohol and showing him pornography before molesting him in the bedroom of the entertainer's Neverland Ranch.
'Prosecutor is in trouble'
The defence countered that the accuser's family consisted of "con-artists, actors and liars," adding that the prosecution showed the weakness of its case by personally attacking Mesereau during closing arguments.
Mesereau told jurors: "Whenever a prosecutor does that you know they're in trouble. This is not a popularity contest between lawyers."
Mesereau said prosecutors, also engaged in a "nasty attempt, a barbaric attempt" to attack Jackson personally by bringing up his financial problems, alcohol consumption, collection of adult magazines and "sagging music career".
Jackson, who looked glum 24 hours earlier, said "I'm OK" as he left the court on Thursday.
Jackson 'not in hospital'
News reports surfaced late on Thursday night that Jackson was briefly in hospital for dehydration after leaving the court. His spokesperson, Raymone K Bain, denied that he was in hospital.
Bain said: "Not true", adding that the rumour might have been fuelled by advice to Jackson from comedian-turned-nutritionist Dick Gregory that he received a shot of electrolytes because he appeared dehydrated.
Bain said she did not know if Jackson followed through and got such a shot.
She said: "I didn't ask him", adding the entertainer planned to be in court on Friday morning.
'Innocent, non-sexual sleepovers'
The 46-year-old entertainer was charged with molesting the boy in 2003, plying him with wine and conspiring to hold his family captive to get them to rebut the documentary Living With Michael Jackson.
In the documentary, Jackson held hands with the boy and said he allowed children into his bed for innocent, non-sexual sleepovers.
Zonen said it was toward the end of a period in which the accuser and his family stayed at Neverland that "the behaviour had turned to something terribly illegal".
He said Jackson began giving the boy alcohol and even though his mother at that time was unaware of any molestation, she insisted that her family leave Neverland.
Zonen said: "For all her shortcomings, after learning Michael Jackson was giving her son alcohol, in 36 hours she had her children out of there."
- SAPA
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