Court Photos Of May 27th Here: http://home.mj-upbeat.com/?p=3615
Created: Saturday, 28 May 2005
Friday, May 27, 3005
On day 62 Judge Rodney Melville told the panel, “Both sides have rested,” after Mr. Jackson’s lawyers opted not to recall any witnesses.
The final witness in Michael Jackson’s trial was the accuser himself, shown on a videotape telling detectives for the first time of his allegations that Mr. Jackson molested him.
When the lights came up afterward, the prosecution rested its rebuttal case and the defense attorney surprisingly did the same, marking a dramatic close of testimony. Closing arguments could begin as early as Wednesday.
The video was taken when the authorities approached the boy following the airing of the Bashir documentary, to question him about possible allegations nearly two years ago. Prior to being questioned by the Santa Barbara authorities, the accuser had not previously accused Mr. Jackson of anything. Prosecutors played the tape for jurors Friday leaving this as one of the last images the jurors see before they deliberate.
The tape offered little additional information that the boy hadn’t already testified to, although sometimes it blatantly conflicted with his testimony on the stand, for example, the number of times he alleges being molested changed drastically.
Mr. Jackson had no comment as he left.
The decision to not present a defense rebuttal means closing arguments could begin as early as Wednesday. Judge Rodney S. Melville told jurors they could take the day off Tuesday when attorneys discuss jury instructions.
The defense sought to portray the young accuser and his mother as gold-digging schemers who made up the allegations.
Prosecutors played the taped interview with the accuser after Melville instructed jurors “only to observe the demeanor, manner and attitude of the witness” and said that the boy’s “statements are not to be considered for the truth of the matter stated.”
The interview was conducted in the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department’s Sexual Abuse Assault Response Team cottage in Santa Barbara on July 6, 2003.
Investigators made small-talk as they tried to build rapport before pressing him to be forthcoming.
“You are not in danger by being here with us,” Sgt. Steve Robel told him. “… We are going to try our best to make a case, a criminal case, but we need your cooperation.”
The detectives questioned him about his ideas of right and wrong, and the boy said things that were wrong were staying up too late, fighting, breaking things and killing someone.
With his head down and frequently pausing, the boy described the alleged molestation in a low voice.
In the video, the boy sat on a couch as he accused Mr. Jackson of giving him alcohol and talking to him about sex.
“He said boys have to masturbate because if they don’t they go crazy,” the boy recalled. This is also the exact statement the accuser told the court that his grandmother had said to him previously.
Robel said at one point, “I don’t care who Michael Jackson is. Michael Jackson has done wrong to you and your mother and his friends.”
At the end, Robel assured the boy he was doing the right thing.
“I’m very proud of you,” he said at the end. “What he has done to you. He’s the bad person, not you. You and your mother and brother and sister are the good people.”
Mr. Jackson’s lawyers contend that the boy’s family made up the allegations in a bid to extort the star and that the accuser’s mother is a greedy fraudster who coached her children to lie under oath.
Earlier in the four-month trial, the boy admitted he had initially denied ever being molested, and his mother acknowledged she had lied under oath on various occasions.
The boy and his now 14-year-old younger brother are the only two direct witnesses to the alleged abuse.
Closing arguments from each side in the trial of the world’s most famous defendant are expected to begin as early as Wednesday and jurors would begin deliberating on Mr. Jackson’s fate soon after they wind up.
The prosecution will kick off the final statements, the defense will follow, and prosecutors will then get one final word before jurors get the case.
He has pleaded innocent to the 10 charges that he molested the boy, plied him with alcohol, and conspired to kidnap him and his family to silence them.
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