Prosecutors can quiz Jackson about other molestation claims

Prosecutors in the Michael Jackson case have waited more than a decade for what a judge has now granted them: the chance to tell jurors about past sexual abuse allegations that never led to criminal charges.

In a blow to Jackson’s defence, Judge Rodney Melville ruled yesterday that prosecutors can introduce evidence that the pop star molested or had designs on five boys, including actor Macaulay Culkin and two youngsters who reached multimillion-dollar settlements with the singer.

Prosecutors say the evidence will show Jackson’s behaviour with his current accuser follows a pattern of abuse that included molesting one boy in 1990 and another in 1993. Both received settlements in 1994.

“I think there’s probably a feeling that at least there will be some justice in regards to the events from ’93 and ’94,” said Jim Thomas, a former Santa Barbara County Sheriff who investigated the cases. “It will show the jury and other people that there’s more to this than what has been portrayed in this case so far.”

Witnesses testifying at the court in Santa Maria today were expected to include Stan Katz, the psychologist who interviewed Jackson’s current accuser.

District Attorney Tom Sneddon said Jackson’s past inappropriate activities with boys included kissing, hugging and inserting his hands into their pants. He also said there was a pattern of “grooming”, or preparing the boys for molestation, but did not elaborate.

Jackson, 46, is on trial on charges he molested his accuser, a former cancer patient, then 13, at his Neverland ranch in 2003. In most criminal cases, evidence of past behaviour is not admissible against a defendant.

But the California Legislature changed the state’s rules of evidence in 1995 so that it can be admitted in some cases of child molestation and domestic violence.

The incidents allegedly occurred 12 to 15 years ago, and the prosecutor acknowledged that only one of the five boys has agreed to testify at Jackson’s trial. The boy received €1.9m from Jackson in a settlement after he alleged he was molested in 1990.

Other witnesses were expected to include the 1990 accuser’s mother and the mother of a boy who received a multimillion-dollar settlement after alleging he was molested in 1993.

Defence lawyer Thomas Mesereau asked Judge Rodney Melville to exclude the allegations, saying many came from third parties who were after Jackson’s money. The reference was to former Jackson employees who previously sued the singer and lost, and were then ordered to pay him more than €724,000 in court costs.

Mesereau also noted that Culkin, a frequent visitor to Jackson’s Neverland Ranch, “has repeatedly said he was never molested”. Culkin’s publicist, Michelle Bega, said the Home Alone star “is presently not involved with the proceedings and we do not expect that to change”.

Mesereau told the judge that he would put on a “mini-trial” on each allegation that the jury is allowed to hear. “You can’t stop the defence from putting on a full-blown defence and I mean just that,” he warned.

It was unclear exactly what Jackson was accused of doing with each of the five boys, though the 1993 accuser claimed he was repeatedly molested, and Sneddon said the boy in the 1990 case was touched twice over his clothes and once under his clothes.

The judge excluded two other boys named by the prosecution but did not say why.

Sneddon said he planned to begin presenting evidence of the past allegations in about two weeks. The judge said he intended to give jurors special legal instructions on the issue of past similar acts before that testimony is offered.

Jackson was not present during the arguments but arrived later to cheers from fans.

After the judge’s ruling, comedian George Lopez took the stand and told about helping Jackson's accuser as the boy battled cancer. Lopez said he came to believe the boy’s father was more interested in money than helping his son. He testified the father accused the comedian of stealing 300 dollars from the boy’s wallet.

Lopez said he finally cut off the family because of the father’s frequent and aggressive requests for help. When the father asked what he was supposed to tell his son, Lopez testified that he responded: “Tell him his father’s an extortionist.”

The defence contends Lopez, star of a US TV sitcom is among celebrities who were targeted by the boy’s family in schemes to make money. But prosecutors contend that any such schemes were the work of the boy’s father, who is now divorced from the mother.