14.04.05 - rozprawa

[Kermitek]

Tutaj jest troche ale po angielsku
Day 31: Judge Allows Mother of the Accuser to Plead the Fifth on Shady Past


Created: Wednesday, 13 April 2005

Picking and choosing testimony…. Justice?
"You can't allow a witness to pick and choose what he or she is going to be subject to on cross-examination," defense attorney Robert Sanger said, addressing the court.

In the end, Superior Court Judge Rodney S. Melville ruled the woman could do just that. He designated her welfare status an off-limit topic.

On Day 31 the mother of the accuser took the witness stand after Judge Rodney S. Melville allowed her to testify despite her refusal to discuss her history of welfare fraud — an issue on which the defense had hoped to attack her credibility. With the jurors cleared from the courtroom, the woman short-circuited questions about her checkered welfare status. She invoked the Fifth Amendment in fending off that line of questioning and refused to discuss "everything to do with the welfare application."

The US Constitution allows witnesses to invoke the Fifth Amendment to avoid incriminating themselves during testimony, but the move is seen as a blow to the prosecution.

"It's a major set-back for the prosecution," said legal analyst Jim Moret.

"They need the accuser's mother for their conspiracy case," he said, adding that invoking the Fifth Amendment could raise serious questions about her credibility in the minds of jurors.

Judge Rodney Melville denied a defense request to prevent the woman -- who took the Fifth Amendment out of the jury's earshot -- from testifying altogether, as well as another request to declare a mistrial.

"Michael Jackson, who has been accused by this witness, has a right under counsel to vigorously cross examine this witness to show that she has committed acts of perjury and acts of fraud and that she is not credible," defense lawyer Robert Sanger argued.

But the judge ruled that the woman can testify, but that jurors will be informed that she has taken the Fifth over accusations that she accepted state benefit payouts that she was not entitled to.

"My understanding is that [the mother] will answer all questions put to her other than questions of her welfare application, questions that she answered in her welfare applications or in receipt of welfare benefits," prosecutor Ronald Zonen said.

The defense, predictably, wasn't pleased with the woman's plea.

Defense attorneys contend the family kept the bachelor apartment to make celebrities believe they were poor, but actually spent much of their time at the home of the boy's grandmother.

They also have raised 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.

While the prosecution likes to paint the woman as a long-suffering victim, it has long acknowledged that she is no saint.

In his opening argument, prosecutor Tom Sneddon warned jurors that the woman "obtained welfare funds when she wasn't entitled to them." He seemed to be excusing the woman from the act which is clearly a crime.

"She's going to tell you that, and she's going to admit that," Sneddon said in January.

With the mother unwilling to talk or admit to welfare troubles herself, the defense moved in on the woman's current husband.

In his second day on the stand Wednesday, the Army reservist was peppered with questions about the depositing of several of the woman's welfare checks into his bank account in 2003.

"I don't know any rules with regards to welfare," the man testified. "I wasn't concerned about that. She was my girlfriend, they were her children. If I gave them any money [outside of the amount in the welfare checks], it was because it was out of goodness of my heart."

In an unusual move, Mr. Jackson's lawyers raised few objections during the woman's emotional testimony.

However, they are likely on cross examination to focus on what they say is the woman's history of making false claims, including one of sexual harassment.

Defense Attorney, Tom Mesereau, who won't get a crack at the mother until at least Thursday, contented himself on this day by walking the stepfather through the family's repeated escapes and re-escapes from Neverland in February and March of 2003.

"[The mother] left Neverland, went to El Monte. All right, so that's leaving Neverland once," the man testified.

"Right," Mr. Mesereau agreed.

"She came to my apartment," the man continued.

"Right," Mr. Mesereau agreed again.

"Lots of phone calls [from Tyson], [then she] went back to Neverland, came back that night. Again, a bunch of phone calls and [then] she returned back to Neverland," the man recounted. "So, that would be three times."

The accuser’s mother’s testimony under direct examination by the prosecution, which followed the stepfather, was punctuated by weeping, flailing arms and finger stabbing toward Mr. Jackson, the mother's incredibly theatrical testimony was as dramatic as an earlier hearing on Wednesday when it was doubtful whether she would ever take the stand at all.

Looking directly at the jury during a convoluted and sometime seemingly, incoherent, account, the woman once punctuated her words by snapping her fingers and later affected the German accent of a Mr. Jackson associate. She addressed news reporters directly at one point, and at other times glanced at and spoke directly to Mr. Jackson, who sat motionless at the defense table. The judge quickly admonished her not to address the defendant directly.

The accuser's mother said Mr. Jackson had 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." In a spiteful recounting, she sarcastically called Mr. Jackson's "lovey dovey speech" at a Florida hotel room, in which Mr. Jackson told the family "in a very male voice" that he would be their father figure and protector.

She said Mr. 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, in full theatrics: "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 dramatically 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 Mr. 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."

During the first few hours of the woman's testimony, defense attorneys did not make a single objection.

Source: MJJsource / AP / AFP / Reuters

[Kermitek]

Tu troche z foxnews:
Accuser's Mom: Jacko Licked My Son's Head
Thursday, April 14, 2005

PHOTOS VIDEO

Click image to enlarge
STORIES BACKGROUND LINKS
•Jacko Accuser's Mom Sobs on Stand•'93 Mom: Jacko Begged to Sleep With My Son•Witness: Jacko Improperly Touched Culkin•Maid: Jacko Showered With Boy•Witness: Jacko Molested Me in 1990•Past Jacko Allegations OK'd as Evidence•Frail Jacko Cries in Court After Late Arrival•Jacko's Housekeeper Saw 'Intoxicated' Boys •Jacko Jurors See Adult Magazines, DVDs •Jacko Accuser Explains Denial •Corey Feldman Subpoenaed in Jacko Case
SANTA MARIA, Calif. — The mother of the boy accusing Michael Jackson (search) of child molestation was set to return to the witness stand Thursday, a day after testifying that she saw the pop star licking her son's head.

The woman took the witness stand Wednesday after Judge Rodney S. Melville (search) allowed her to testify despite her refusal to discuss her alleged welfare fraud — an issue on which the defense had hoped to attack her credibility. She invoked her right to the Fifth Amendment (search) to avoid questions about it.

During more than four hours of jumbled and tearful testimony, she testified that she saw Jackson lick her son's head during a February 2003 flight from Miami to California on a private jet. Asked about the event, she turned to jurors and pleaded, "Please don't judge me."

"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."
The mother also said she originally trusted the singer to protect her family from unidentified "killers," but later decided Jackson was the one to fear.

Following the broadcast of a documentary showing Jackson and her children, she said the pop star convinced her in a "lovey-dovey speech" 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.

She said Jackson spoke to her family "in a very male voice" in a Miami hotel room, and told them "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 said of Jackson and his associates: "And you know what? They ended up being the killers."

Throughout the more than four hours of testimony, defense attorney Thomas Mesereau Jr. (search) did not make a single objection. Prosecutor Ron Zonen, however, instructed the witness several times to answer his questions briefly instead of offering lengthy, sometimes off-topic answers.

FOX News legal analyst Jim Hammer said Mesereau's lack of objections to the mother's testimony was meant to let her reveal her own wackiness.

"He makes objections all the time during this trial. Yesterday he sat there silent, looking between the witness and over at the jury. The jurors literally at times would cover their faces in embarrassment laughing at this witness as she would carry on so melodramatically ... I think he's going to let her go. The more she talks, the crazier she sounds," Hammer said.

Before court recessed Wednesday, Zonen played tape-recorded phone conversations between the woman and a man identified as Jackson aide Frank Tyson, whom prosecutors have named as an unindicted coconspirator.

"Let us take care of you. Let us protect you," Tyson is heard saying. "Trust me. ... Now is not the time to be out there alone."

On the tape, Tyson's gentle, high-pitched voice is startlingly reminiscent of the speaking voice Jackson sometimes uses.

"I thought he was a good guy," the woman said of Tyson, "and he ended up being the worst of all of them."

She said she eventually returned to Jackson's Neverland ranch, gave an interview to a private investigator and appeared on a rebuttal video in which she lavishly praised Jackson.

FOXNews.com legal analyst Jim Hammer, reporting from the courthouse, said the mother's demeanor was "one of the strangest acts I've ever seen in a courtroom."

"[She was] talking to Jackson himself, at times addressing the media, at one point saying, 'You're good you guys,'" Hammer said.

Looking directly at the jury, the woman once punctuated her words by snapping her fingers and later affected the German accent of a Jackson associate. At other times she glanced at Jackson, who sat motionless at the defense table.

Hammer said the heart of the mother's testimony was about the alleged imprisonment of the family by Jackson and his co-conspirators.

"She talked about Jackson saying they had to make this rebuttal video to 'appease the killers,' about threats to their safety and what not. Again it sounded crazy, but then the DA pulled out a tape of one of the conversations she had with Frank Tyson. And guess what? On that tape, Tyson is heard telling her, 'you're in danger. It's not good for your safety to be out. We're worried that you disappeared from the ranch,' backing up her claim that she escaped.

"So again this tape in some ways corroborated some of what this otherwise crazy witness testified to yesterday."

Hammer added that one of the strangest parts of the mother's story and one of the problems with the DA's argument that she was falsely imprisoned was the leg wax she allegedly got while she was allegedly being held captive.

"The defense says she got a body wax. She says no, it was a leg wax. Then said she paid for it herself. She told the kidnappers to take it out of the money they owed her for stealing her luggage. Now, such a strange story. The idea of Michael Jackson somehow stealing her luggage is so bizarre. It is one of the times the jurors literally covered their faces, looked away and some of them started laughing," he said.

Jurors were in a jovial mood as they returned from a break after the testimony. Several were smiling or laughing, and an alternate stuck his tongue out at a juror as he passed her on the way to his seat.

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 documentary.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

[MJowitek]

http://www.mjjforum.com/main/content/view/1964/0/
i play:)

/kurcze, tak mi szumi, że ledwo rozumiem...ale muszę przyznać, że się w sumie nie skupiam i zajmuję już zcymś innym :)/

[dzina]

[Speechless]

dzis zeznawała matka Gavina z tego co czytałem to Messerau wbrew temu co dotychczas nie przerywał jej ponad 4 godzinnego zeznania, w ciszy wysłuchiwał - według obserwatorów kilka razy przysięgli prawie wybuchneli smiechem i starali się utrzymać powagę (Messerau to widział i pewnie dlatego pozwalał jej na dalsze zeznania) im dalej mówiła tym bardziej chiało im się smiać bo jak napisali na Foxie

Mesereau's going to let her go. The more she talks, the crazier she sounds.

będzie dobrze - sprawa zakończy się uniewinnieniem MJ i... za to chce nowy album ino szybo :D