Friday, May 14, 2005
On day 52 Michael Jackson’s former lawyer Mark Geragos told the jury that he warned Mr. Jackson his teen accuser would fabricate abuse claims for financial gain.
Michael Jackson’s former attorney took the stand in his trial, testifying he investigated the accuser’s family and became “gravely concerned” about them as a threat to his client.
Of concern to Geragos was the family of the boy featured in the Bashir documentary. The lawyer said he’d been told the brood referred to Jackson as “Daddy,” a term of endearment that he understood made Mr. Jackson uncomfortable.
Geragos said he immediately ran a database search on the family-the clan’s sexual assault case against JCPenney caught his eye-and hired a private investigator, Bradley Miller, to “find out where they were, and to document what they were doing.”
The prosecution introduced Miller’s grainy surveillance tapes as proof of the conspiracy it alleges Jackson and his henchmen hatched to eliminate the potentially troublesome clan.
But Geragos’ testified that he ordered the tail and the tapes-potentially undermining the state’s case against Jackson.
So did his explanation as to why it was so important to keep tabs on the accuser’s family.
“You’ve got a whirlwind of activity going around [post-Bashir] and you’ve got people making accusations [in the media],” Geragos said. “It occurs to me that I want to know if some of the players that are involved have a litigious history.”
“Were you ever part of any conspiracy to commit any crime against the [accuser’s family],” defense attorney Thomas Mesereau Jr. asked Geragos.
“Absolutely not,” Geragos said. “I was trying to prevent a crime against my client.”
“And what crime was that?” Mesereau continued.
Said Geragos: “I thought that they were going to shake him down Michael should have nothing to do with them,” he said. “It was a pending disaster.”
Geragos testified under cross-examination that he had asked Mr. Jackson if the boy slept in his bed and Mr. Jackson had answered yes.
“He said he didn’t do anything untoward or sexual and if anyone spent the night in his room it was unconditional love,” Geragos said.
Geragos said an initial visit to Mr. Jackson’s Neverland Ranch made him worry that his client would be a prey for possible allegations.
“When I was there what I saw was a gentleman who was almost childlike in his love for kids. I didn’t see anyone doing anything nefarious or criminal. I saw someone who was ripe as a target,” he said.
Geragos said he was hired about the time of the February 2003 airing of a documentary in which Mr. Jackson appeared with his now-accuser. In the documentary, Mr. Jackson said that he let children sleep in his bed but that it was non-sexual.
Mr. Mesereau asked Geragos if he was aware of any crime committed against the family. Geragos said no.
Geragos testified that he hired a private detective to follow the accuser and his family, because he suspected they would use Mr. Jacksons “unconditional love” for children against him.
After secretly investigating the accusers family for six weeks, Geragos came to the conclusion Mr. Jackson must end his friendship with him or risk being the subject of a false molestation lawsuit.
He told the court in Santa Maria, California, “I didn’t see anyone doing anything nefarious or criminal. I saw someone who was ripe as a target.””I was trying to prevent a crime against my client,” he said. “I thought that they were going to shake him down.”
Even with Geragos in the witness box, courtroom tensions remained high. The lawyer took exception to prosecutor Ronald J. Zonen’s habit of asking questions about Jackson “sleeping with boys.”
“Are you implying that’s necessarily something sexual,” Geragos asked Zonen, turning the tables on the prosecutor.
“I don’t believe it’s appropriate for me to be answering questions, Mr. Geragos,” Zonen replied.
Melville ordered the two to “drop down about 2 degrees,” as if the concerned parties were overheated horses.
Following the judge-ordered “time out,” Geragos went on to explain why he was touchy about Zonen’s word choice.
“When people say [Jackson is] sleeping with somebody in his room, the jump is-with a lot of people-that that is something that is awful, that is something that is really, really bad because it must be sexual,” Geragos said.
On the contrary, Geragos said, Jackson was a man, who at their first meeting, struck him as a “almost childlike in his love for kids.”
Geragos worked for Mr. Jackson until he was replaced in April 2004.
At one point, Geragos declined to answer a prosecution question on grounds that Mr. Jackson only waived attorney-client privilege concerning events before his arrest in November 2003, surprising Judge Rodney S. Melville and prosecutors.
The judge sent the jury out of the room to address “the misrepresentation Mr. Mesereau has made to the court and counsel.” The judge said he believed it was a total waiver of the privilege.
Mr. Mesereau apologized, saying he did not think events after Mr. Jackson’s arrest were relevant.
Late Friday, both sides filed documents concerning potentially important testimony by a Neverland employee who claims the accuser’s sister confided to him that her mother and the mother’s boyfriend were planning “something big” regarding Mr. Jackson.
The witness, Angel Vivanco, whom prosecutors described as having a “quasi-sexual relationship” with the sister while she was at Neverland.
The sister, who was 16 at the time, allegedly said her mother was “not OK in the head” and was “making her do something.” Her statements also were reported to include a reference to her mother as “Psycho Mom” and a prediction “something bad is going to happen.”
Among statements he attributed to the sister were that the mother was “making her do something” and that “something bad is going to happen.”
The prosecution seeks to bar the statements from the trial as hearsay. The defense says they support the theory that the family planned to allege molestation to get money from Mr. Jackson.
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