Created: Saturday, 21 May 2005
Friday, May 7, 2005
On day 47 the mothers and sisters of two young men at the centre of Michael Jackson’s child molestation case came to his defence on Friday, telling jurors they considered Mr. Jackson beyond reproach and never questioned his practice of sleeping with children.
The defence testimony came a day after Wade Robson and Brett Barnes, who were portrayed by prosecutors as adolescent victims of Mr. Jackson in the 1990s, denied Mr. Jackson ever molested them.
Joy Robson and Marie Lisbeth Barnes praised Mr. Jackson from the witness stand Friday.
“I’ve known Michael for a long time. I’ve spent many hours talking to him about everything. I feel like he’s a member of my family. I trust him. I trust him with my children,” said Ms. Robson, whose 22-year-old son, Wade Robson, told jurors earlier that he was never molested by Mr. Jackson.
“He’s a very special person,” she added. “He’s not the boy next door. He’s Michael Jackson. He’s very unique. He has a very pure personality. To know him is to love him and to trust him.”
Ms. Barnes also used the word trust in her statement. Her son, Brett Barnes, testified Thursday that nothing improper happened when he shared Mr. Jackson’s bed.
“I trusted him implicitly,” she said of Mr. Jackson. “He’s a very nice person. You just know when you can trust someone.”
Ms. Robson was critical of the mother of a boy who accused Mr. Jackson of molestation in 1993 and received a multimillion-dollar settlement from the singer. Ms. Robson said she had been at Mr. Jackson’s Neverland ranch with the boy and his mother but spoke to them only a few times.
“My impression of (the mother) is she wanted to be mistress of Neverland,” she said. “She would order the staff around like she owned it. My impression of (her) is she was a gold-digger.”
Under cross-examination, District Attorney Tom Sneddon then asked whether Ms. Robson was jealous of the woman “because she replaced you.”
“Absolutely not,” the witness replied.
Sneddon also suggested that Ms. Robson ingratiated herself with Mr. Jackson because she thought he could help her son get into show business. Ms. Robson denied that.
Asked by Sneddon if she recalled being upset on Mother’s Day 1990 because she didn’t see her son all day and then found out he had been sleeping, she said yes.
But when the prosecutor asked if she remembered telling a member of the Neverland staff that she thought Mr. Jackson was separating her from her son, she said no.
Ms. Robson’s daughter, Chantal Robson, testified that she slept in Mr. Jackson’s room with her brother four times as a child. She said she saw Mr. Jackson hug children and kiss them on the cheek, but she never saw anything of a sexual nature.
“You are positively thrilled to be friends with Michael Jackson,” Deputy District Attorney Gordon Auchincloss pointed out to Karlee Barnes, sister of Brett. “You seem to be almost giddy about it.”
“I love him with all my heart,” the young woman said.
She and her mother acknowledged Mr. Jackson was helpful to the family when they came to the United States from Australia, paying a balance on their car and lending them $10,000, which was never repaid.
Prosecutors claim Mr. Jackson has used gifts to gain the compliance of the mothers of some boys.
Ms. Barnes, who is from Melbourne, Australia, said she and her family got to know Mr. Jackson after her son wrote him a letter. She said she allowed her son to travel around the world with Mr. Jackson on a tour because she believed it would be a learning experience.
Brett Barnes’ sister, Karlee Barnes, testified that Mr. Jackson had flown her and her family from Australia to testify at the trial and they were staying at Neverland.
Though Mr. Jackson’s lawyers have spent the first two days of their case battling accusations that he molested Robson and Barnes in the 1990s, the pop star is not charged with any misconduct involving them.
Prosecutors were allowed to introduce past accusations of sexual misconduct by Mr. Jackson involving Robson, Barnes, “Home Alone” star Macaulay Culkin and two other boys under an unusual California law governing evidence in sex abuse cases.
All four women described Mr. Jackson as a close friend who never gave a hint of impropriety toward the boys and treated their families with great generosity and kindness.
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