Jackson judge clears way for courtroom face-off

The judge in Michael Jackson’s trial today cleared the way for another possible courtroom face-off between the singer and the boy accusing him of molestation.

The day after the defence rested, Judge Rodney Melville agreed to prosecutors’ request that during their rebuttal case they be allowed to show the jury a videotape of a July 2003 law enforcement interview of the boy to show that his story has been consistent.

The defence said they would then want to question the boy about the tape during the defence rebuttal.

Defence lawyers said they may also want to question the boy’s mother; a psychologist who interviewed the boy, Stan Katz; and Larry Feldman, the lawyer who sent him to the psychologist.

Defence lawyers did not say they would necessarily call all of those witnesses but said they wanted them available.

The judge said the witnesses, who all testified earlier in the trial, should be alerted.

The prosecution rebuttal began yesterday after the defence rested its case without putting Jackson on the stand, wrapping up a three-week, celebrity-studded presentation that portrayed Jackson’s accuser as a cunning schemer and his mother as a mentally disturbed shakedown artist.

Defence lawyers called witnesses that painted their client as the victim of false charges that surfaced only when the boy’s mother realised she was being ousted from a lavish lifestyle the singer had financed. They portrayed the mother as a welfare cheat who preyed on gullible celebrities for money.

Witnesses included former child star Macaulay Culkin and two other young men who testified that, contrary to prosecution claims, Jackson never behaved inappropriately when they stayed at his Neverland ranch as children.

Tonight Show host Jay Leno said he told a friend the boy’s calls to him sounded “scripted”.

Rush Hour star Chris Tucker testified that Jackson’s accuser was unusually sophisticated and “cunning” and that something seemed strange about the family as they repeatedly pressured him for money, favours and expensive gifts.

Jackson, 46, is charged with molesting the cancer survivor in February or March 2003.

The pop star is also accused of giving the boy alcohol and conspiring to hold his family captive to get them to rebut a documentary in which the teenager appeared with Jackson as the entertainer said he let children into his bed for innocent sleepovers at his Neverland Ranch.

Jackson denies all charges.

Jurors had been expected to get the case as early as next week after the rebuttal presentations and closing arguments, but that became uncertain with the potential for extensive new testimony.

Defence attorney Robert Sanger argued yesterday that if prosecutors wanted to show the tape they should have done so when they were presenting their case against Jackson. They only want to show it now, he said, to try to end the trial with a dramatic flourish.

“It’s a way to have (the boy) come back and testify without cross-examination in front of the jury,” Sanger said.

The prosecution’s rebuttal witnesses included Neverland manager Jesus Salas, who was asked if allegations against the accuser and his brother by defence witnesses were reported to him.

The claims included the boys being involved in stealing money from a kitchen and the brother holding a knife to the throat of an assistant chef. Salas said those were not reported.

Defence lawyer Thomas Mesereau used his cross-examination of Salas to recount witnesses’ stories of the boys being caught with an open wine bottle, spitting and throwing shoes at employees, masturbating in a room and the brother demanding that alcohol be added to a milkshake.

“Not everybody reports every violation by a guest to you, do they?” Mesereau asked.

“I guess not,” Salas said.