Jackson accuser's mother 'exploited his cancer'

The defence in Michael Jackson’s child abuse trial painted the mother of his accuser as a welfare cheat who exploited her son’s cancer for money, and lived lavishly at Jackson’s expense at a time she claims she was being held captive.

The defence called witnesses yesterday to show a history of money schemes and her angry rejection of anyone who sought to help her with anything but cash.

The mother’s former sister-in-law said her efforts to hold blood drives when the accuser, Gavin Arvizo, was ill with cancer were dismissed by the mother, who called her and used profanity to denounce her.

“She told me that she didn’t need my (expletive) blood, that she needed money,” said the former sister-in-law, bursting into tears.

Jackson, 46, is accused of molesting 13-year-old Arvizo in February or March 2003, plying him with alcohol and conspiring to hold the family captive to get them to rebut an embarrassing documentary.

The boy appeared in the documentary with Jackson, who said he let children sleep in his bed, but that it was non-sexual.

The defence also called a welfare worker who said the mother did not disclose on a welfare application that her family just 10 days earlier had received funds from a lawsuit settlement.

Also, an accountant showed the family racked up thousands of dollars in shopping, dining and other expenses paid by Jackson during a week of their alleged captivity.

Mercy Manriquez, an employee of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Social Services, testified that she handled the mother’s November 15, 2001, application for assistance. The application, signed by Arvizo’s mother, said the woman had no other sources of income and no assets.

Manriquez testified that a person who wilfully excludes sources of income from the forms is committing fraud.

The jury was shown checks that were deposited in the bank account of the woman’s then-boyfriend, who is now her husband.

The defence also called a newspaper editor who testified she ran a story about the accuser’s medical plight and discovered later she had been “duped".

“It was a story I didn’t want to do but (the mother) played on some sympathies in the office so I assigned it,” said Connie Keenan, editor of the Mid Valley News. After the story ran, the mother wanted another one, the editor said.

“The mother wanted an additional story because she didn’t make enough money from the original story – those are her words, not mine,” Keenan testified.