Created: Saturday, 02 April 2005
Friday, April, 2005 On Day 24 jurors in Michael Jackson’s trial were told for the first time of previous allegations made against Mr. Jackson 12 years ago, but for which Mr. Jackson was never charged.
The testimony came from Larry Feldman, the lawyer who represented a 13-year-old accuser in 1993. The case was settled out of court and Mr. Jackson did not admit guilt in the 1993 case. Feldman told the jury that after Mr. Jackson paid the family in 1993 the boy stopped cooperating with authorities and never brought criminal charges against the singer. Additionally, he is currently unwilling to testify in this trial.
It was from Feldman that the family of Mr. Jackson’s current teenage accuser sought legal advice first before alerting authorities to claims that Mr. Jackson had abused the then 13-year-old.
The attorney said the accuser’s family was referred to him by another lawyer and that he then in turn referred the boy, his brother, sister and mother to a psychologist who was also involved in the 1993 case. On Wednesday, the referring attorney, Mr. Dickerman, testified that he has an agreement with Mr. Feldman to share fees if the family filed a successful civil lawsuit against Mr. Jackson in this case.
After their initial interviews with psychologist, Stan Katz, who earlier testified against Mr. Jackson but did not reveal what the family had told him, the family met with Feldman again to discuss the family’s next step.
“The subject matter was what Dr. Katz was told and what Dr. Katz told me and possible courses of action,” he told jurors.
Feldman described how he then called child protection services and prosecutors to report what the boy had said about his experience with Mr. Jackson.
Feldman told jurors that no one in the family of the accuser had asked him to seek money in the case. However, Mr. Jackson lawyer, Thomas Mesereau, pointed out, and Feldman conceded that the accuser had until he was 20 years of age to file a civil suit that he would be virtually assured of winning if Mr. Jackson was convicted in the criminal case.
Feldman followed telecommunications expert Jack Green onto the stand. Green told jurors that Mr. Jackson had a listening post set up next to his bed at his Neverland Ranch from which he could listen to phone calls being made to and from other parts of the estate.
“Could one listen surreptitiously … secretly without letting people know?” prosecutor Gordon Auchincloss asked Green. “Yes,” he replied referring to the eight-line phone system.
But under cross-examination from Mr. Jackson’s lawyers, Green admitted it was not unusual to have such a business phone system on a ranch of that size.
Green admitted that the accuser’s mother could easily have called authorities to raise the alarm from one of the telephones on the ranch.
“The question then is why didn’t she call 911,” said legal analyst Jim Moret, who is following the case.
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