Lawyer: Ex-Jackson staff won't testify against star

The lawyer for two former employees of troubled pop star Michael Jackson say the men will not cut a deal with prosecutors if they are charged in connection with the musician’s child sex abuse case.

An indictment unsealed last week in Jackson’s molestation case said the singer and multiple co-conspirators plotted to commit abduction, false imprisonment and extortion.

The charges are believed to involve an attempt to intimidate Jackson’s accuser and his family.

The names of the alleged co-conspirators were removed from the copy of the indictment released to the public.

But New York lawyer Joseph Tacopina said he believed from news reports and conversations with law enforcement officials that his clients, Frank Tyson and Vince Amen, might be among those who would be indicted.

Tacopina said both were invited to testify before the grand jury that heard evidence against Jackson last month. He declined to have them appear.

“They didn’t do anything wrong,” Tacopina said. “I just don’t believe this is an open-minded sort of prosecution.”

He also said he did not want to give prosecutors a “sneak preview of our defence” if his clients were charged.

“If someone made the mistake of charging these guys with a crime, we would be absolutely going to trial. There would be no pleas,” he said.

Legal experts have said prosecutors might seek to charge Jackson’s associates and then offer them a deal if they agreed to testify against the singer.

Tyson, 23, was Jackson’s personal assistant. Tacopina said he believes prosecutors might accuse him of threatening to kill the younger brother of Jackson’s alleged victim if he told authorities Jackson had given the boy alcohol.

He said prosecutors might accuse Amen, 24, who worked for Jackson’s production company, of holding the family at Jackson’s Neverland estate against their will.

Tacopina said he would not make them available for comment. A message left for Amen with his mother in New Jersey was not immediately returned, nor was a message left with a cousin of Tyson’s, also in New Jersey.

Jason Karpf of Tellem Worldwide, a firm handling media inquiries for prosecutors, said he had no information on any future indictments. Prosecutors have declined to comment, citing a gag order.

The sex attacks allegedly occurred while the boy, now 14, was staying at Jackson’s Neverland Ranch. Jackson has pleaded not guilty.