“I thought he was the coolest guy in the world,” the slender teen told jurors as the pop superstar he accuses of molesting him sat nearby, expressionless. “He was my best friend ever.”
Facing Michael Jackson for the first time in court Wednesday, the 15-year-old — a former cancer patient who has met several celebrities — testified that he had genuine affection for the singer he claims later betrayed his trust.
In a blue shirt and with his dark hair in a military-style cut, Jackson’s accuser was not asked about the molestation allegations before court ended for the day, but quickly covered much of the case’s backstory.
Often looking directly at jurors, he described his fight against cancer, claimed he viewed adult Internet sites with Jackson present and said the singer coached him before the taping of a documentary that looms large in the case.
Jackson, wearing a dark suit with silver brocade vest, pocket handkerchief, tie and silver waist chain, sat looking straight ahead and showed no reaction during the boy’s testimony.
As he left court, he told reporters he felt “fine” but said he is under a gag order.
Jackson, 46, is accused of molesting the boy, giving him alcohol and conspiring to hold the boy’s family captive to get them to rebut a damaging TV documentary in which Jackson said he allowed children to sleep in his bedroom. Jackson’s defense contends the family has a history of filing false claims to get money.
‘Daddy Michael’The boy said Jackson coached him on what to say during the documentary, which was produced by British journalist Martin Bashir and aired in February 2003.
When the accuser arrived at Jackson’s ranch to participate in the video, he said, Jackson took him aside.
“He introduced me to Martin Bashir and he took me in the library and said, ‘Hey, you want to be an actor, don’t you?’ And I said yes. He said, ‘Hey, I’m going to put you in movies and this is your audition.’ ... And he said, ‘Tell them you call me daddy and daddy Michael.”’
Under questioning by District Attorney Tom Sneddon, the boy continued: “He told me to say he helped me and that he pretty much cured me of cancer.”
Sneddon asked if that was true and the boy said, “Not really. He was hardly there during my cancer.”
He said other celebrities such as comedian George Lopez visited him more often while he was sick, but that Jackson called his hospital room as he was being treated for cancer, and they later talked on the phone about 20 times.
Echoing his brother's testimonyThe accuser took the stand after the defense concluded questioning of his 14-year-old brother, who testified that he twice witnessed Jackson molesting his sleeping older brother.
The accuser gave the same account his brother had of looking at sexually explicit Web sites on their second night at Neverland after their parents gave them permission to sleep in Jackson’s room. The accuser said it was Jackson’s idea that they sleep in his room.
The boy said Jackson employee Frank Tyson began looking at sites as the others watched. He said they looked at women or teenage girls, and he repeated an account his brother had given about a remark Jackson allegedly made.
“There was this girl with her shirt up and it was all quiet and stuff and Michael’s like, ‘Got milk?”’ he said.
Like his brother, he said Jackson at one point whispered into the ear of his sleeping son, Prince Michael, that he was missing out, using a slang word for female genitalia.
The boy also told jurors about his father hitting him, his sister and mother, and about attending a Los Angeles comedy camp hosted by Jamie Masada, a club owner who would eventually bring him and Jackson together. Masada also helped him meet comedians including Lopez and Chris Tucker.
Discrepancies in testimony
Earlier Wednesday, the accuser’s younger brother, under cross-examination by defense lawyer Thomas Mesereau Jr., admitted discrepancies between his testimony and his other accounts of allegedly seeing Jackson molest his brother.
During questioning by the prosecution the boy told of twice looking through the doorway of Jackson’s bedroom as the pop star molested his sleeping brother while masturbating.
Mesereau confronted the witness with a previous statement to sheriff’s investigators in which he said that during the second incident he was in the room curled up on a small couch pretending to sleep.
When Mesereau asked if his account of the second molestation had changed, the boy interjected that there were actually three incidents, although that has never been alleged.
“I was nervous while I was doing the interview,” he told Mesereau.
“Because you were nervous you didn’t get the facts right?” the attorney asked.
“Yes,” said the witness.
Mesereau also showed jurors a video of Jackson befriending his accuser, and another of the boy’s brother playing TV host for a glimpse at Jackson’s Neverland ranch.
“Hi from Neverland, USA,” the brother said on the second video. “I’m the host of the Neverland Channel.”
The younger boy said he felt tired, not excited, when he interviewed Jackson’s elephant trainer and talked to children at Neverland’s amusement park, and indicated that Jackson wasn’t as close to his brother as the other video made it seem.
In a musically scored production that was apparently part of Jackson’s personal video archives, the singer is seen with the accuser, then a ghostlike figure with little hair during the time he was undergoing chemotherapy.
Jurors saw the boy in a wheelchair being pushed by his brother. Jackson walks alongside with his umbrella, then walks with the boy to a tree where he spreads a blanket for them to sit on and look out over the lake at his Neverland ranch.