'Jackson licked my son's head'
2005-04-14 08:00
California - Holding her arms out to the jury, the mother of Michael Jackson's teenage accuser sobbed and pleaded, "Please don't judge me!" as she recounted her family's involvement with the pop star in dramatic testimony.
The woman's turn on the witness stand on Wednesday came after Judge Rodney S Melville allowed her to testify despite her refusal to discuss alleged welfare fraud - an issue on which the defence had hoped to attack her credibility. She invoked the United States Constitution's Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination in fending off that line of questioning.
Looking directly at the jury during a convoluted and sometimes tearful account, the woman once punctuated her words by snapping her fingers and later affected the German accent of a Jackson associate. She addressed news reporters directly at one point, and at other times glanced at Jackson, who sat motionless at the defence table.
'Killers' after them
Jackson, 46, is accused of molesting a 13-year-old former cancer patient, plying the boy with alcohol, and holding his family captive in February and March 2003 to get them to help rebut a damaging television documentary.
The accuser's mother said following the broadcast of the documentary showing Jackson and her children, the pop star convinced her that her children were in danger, that there were "killers" after them, and that he was the only one who could protect them.
"I thought, 'What a nice guy,"' she said. "I was just like a sponge, believing him, trusting him." She recounted what she sarcastically called Jackson's "lovey dovey speech" at a Florida hotel room, in which Jackson told the family "in a very male voice" that he would be their father figure and protector.
She said Jackson told the family "that he loves us, that he cares about us, we're family. ... That we were in the back of the line, now we're in the front of the line, that he's going to protect us from those killers."
Later she added: "And you know what? They ended up being the killers."
Asked by Senior Deputy District Attorney Ron Zonen about her memory of the events, she pointed to her head and exclaimed: "Some things are just burned in here."
She then offered an account, in conflict with testimony of other witnesses, in which she described seeing Jackson lick her son's head during a February 2003 flight from Miami to California on a private jet.
"Everyone was asleep. I had not slept for so long," she said. "I got up. I figured this was my chance to figure out what was going on back there. And that's when I saw Michael licking (the boy's) head."
She sobbed, pounded her chest and said, "I thought I was seeing things. I thought it was me."
Jurors also heard questions about the woman's credibility by accusing her of bilking celebrities and committing welfare fraud. District Attorney Thomas Sneddon said in opening statements the woman would admit she took welfare payments to which she wasn't entitled. - AP
- SAPA