Sister says Jackson banned accuser from watching documentary

The teenage sister of Michael Jackson’s accuser told his child molestation trial today that the star suddenly had the family flown by private jet to Miami where he ordered them to not watch a documentary about him that would be on TV that night.

The student also told the jury that on the flight back, Jackson shared a soft drink can with her brother and also gave him a watch and a jacket decorated with sparkles.

The evidence was elicited to support allegations that the singer conspired to hold the family captive in order to get them to rebut Martin Bashir’s TV documentary in which Jackson said he allowed boys to sleep in his bed, and that Jackson gave the 13-year-old boy wine in the can and gave the gifts as bribes to keep quiet about it.

Prosecutors allege that the cancer survivor was molested twice after the programme was broadcast in the US.

Asked if she recognised Jackson, the accuser’s sister looked grimly at him and said “yes”.

She otherwise avoided eye contact with Jackson as she testified in the California court.

Under questioning by District Attorney Tom Sneddon, she gave only a brief outline of the day in which she and both of her brothers participated in the making of Bashir’s documentary.

She recalled a limousine trip from East Los Angeles to Jackson’s Neverland ranch, that the star greeted them when they arrived, and that he took her brother aside for five to 10 minutes for a private talk.

She said there were then scenes taped in Jackson’s kitchen with her and her brothers talking to the singer.

After the taping, she said, Jackson left and they did not see him again until unusual events began to happen.

She said a British reporter came to their home seeking an interview with the child but he did not talk to him.

The girl, who was then in high school, said she had moved out of her parents’ home after they separated and was living with her grandparents when she suddenly received an urgent call from her mother.

Her mother told her to go to their apartment where she was met by an aide to comic actor Chris Tucker. “I tried to gather some things because we were going on a trip,” she said.

She said they were taken to Tucker’s house, transferred to a private bus, taken to an airport and flown to Miami on a private jet.

When they arrived at the resort, Jackson was waiting and in his suite they met a large group of people, she said.

The group included men she identified from pictures as Jackson associates Dieter Wiesner, Ronald Konitzer and Frank Tyson, who are among five people named in Jackson’s indictment as unindicted co-conspirators.

The witness said that soon after they arrived at Jackson’s suite her brother received special attention.

“He pulled him aside into his room,” she said.

“Was the door open or closed?” asked Sneddon.

“It was shut,” she said.

She said they remained in there about 15 to 30 minutes and similar private visits occurred at least three more times during their stay.

When her brother came out, she said, “He was very hyper, running around, very talkative, playful. ... more talkative and jumping and stuff.”

Jackson instructed the family not to watch the Bashir documentary that night.

“He was upset about it, didn’t want us to see it,” she said.

Her mother pleaded a headache and left the suite, she said, but Tyson was dispatched to bring her back.

During the stay at the resort, she said, she was treated to a manicure and pedicure and her brothers went with Tucker to get massages.

On the flight back to Neverland on a private jet, Jackson and her 13-year-old brother shared a Diet Coke can and whispered to each other, and at one point the pop star gave him the watch and jacket.

Back at Neverland, she said, the family had a conversation with Jackson advisor Wiesner in which he urged her and her family to take part in a rebuttal video and gave them a script.

She said she, her mother and brothers left Neverland with a member of Jackson’s security team because they were worried about Wiesner’s behaviour.

“We were kind of scared the way the conversation with Dieter went. They were real aggressive,” she said.

The sister also recalled the days when they began meeting celebrities during a period when the accuser was undergoing chemotherapy and she and her other brother were attending a comedy camp.

It was the owner of the Hollywood comedy club, the Laugh Factory, that would link them up with Jackson.

She described the beginning of their relationship with Jackson, recalling the first day he sent a limousine to pick them up from their modest East Los Angeles home and whisk them to Neverland.

She said they spent a day, had dinner with Jackson and she believed that her brother spent the night in Jackson’s bedroom.

There were numerous objections to her account at that point because she said the only way she knew about the sleeping arrangement was because her brother told her. That account was ruled hearsay and it was not allowed.

She said they didn’t go back to the ranch for along time but then were summoned by Tucker, who had become their close friend. She said that was when they were taken to the ranch to participate in the documentary.

The prosecution laid groundwork for her evidence by calling a Sheriff’s Department photographer who videotaped a November 2003, police raid on Neverland.

The videotape gave jurors their first look at the singer’s master bedroom suite where he allegedly molested the child.