Jackson filmmaker 'did not see rehearsal'

The man who recorded a video featuring the family of Michael Jackson’s young accuser testified today at the pop star’s child molestation trial that he did not see them reading or rehearsing from a script.

The testimony of Hamid Moslehi did not support an account by the boy’s mother, who alleges she was forced to closely follow a script praising Jackson as part of a scheme in which her family was held captive to get their help in rebutting a damaging television documentary about Jackson.

Moslehi testified that the boy, his brother and sister were at his house for two or three hours before the taping began and he saw them playing but not rehearsing. He said the mother was there for about an hour before the taping and that he did not see her reading or rehearsing either.

Moslehi, Jackson’s former filmmaker, also said he did not see anyone coaching the mother as she applied her make-up for the taping in his bathroom.

The woman has testified that Jackson associate Dieter Wiesner coached her on what to say.

Wiesner and associate Ronald Konitzer, who are named as unindicted co-conspirators in the case, were also the subject of Moslehi’s testimony yesterday.

He said the two men became Jackson’s managers in late 2002, a few months before they allegedly took part in a conspiracy to hold the family captive.

Prosecutors asked Moslehi about Wiesner and Konitzer to try to link them more closely to the singer. The mother of the accuser has testified that the German businessmen intimidated her family.

On cross-examination, Jackson defence attorney Thomas Mesereau Jr tried to show that Jackson was a victim of Wiesner and Konitzer, not a close associate.

Mesereau asked Moslehi if he knew that Wiesner and Konitzer had stolen close to $1m from Jackson. The question drew a prosecution objection, and the judge did not allow a direct answer. When Mesereau repeated it without the dollar figure, the witness answered no.

It was not certain who would testify after Moslehi, but prosecutors were expected soon to call Jackson’s ex-wife Debbie Rowe, who is in a family court battle with him over visitation of their two children. She is expected to say that a video in which she praised Jackson was scripted.

On Monday, the judge overruled defence objections to allowing Rowe to testify but stressed he would “look to ways to restrict that testimony.”

Jackson is accused of molesting a 13-year-old boy in February or March 2003, giving him alcohol, and conspiring to hold his family captive to get them to rebut the TV documentary “Living With Michael Jackson.”

Also yesterday, a travel agent testified that a Jackson associate ordered her to arrange a one-way trip to Brazil for the singer’s accuser and his family, then cancelled the journey at the last minute.

Cynthia Montgomery was called yesterday to support a prosecution claim that Jackson was planning to kidnap the accuser and his family and send them to Brazil for an indefinite period following the February 2003 documentary in which the singer said he let children sleep in his bed.

Montgomery said the orders for the planned March 1, 2003, flight were given to her by Marc Schaffel, another Jackson associate named by prosecutors as an unindicted co-conspirator.

At the last minute, Montgomery said, the travel plans were cancelled by Schaffel, who told her “his plans had changed.”

The accuser’s mother has testified that she orchestrated her family’s escape from Jackson’s associates by claiming her children had to visit their grandparents before they could leave for Brazil. The mother has said the family left Jackson’s Neverland estate for the last time on March 12, 2003.