Jackson jury poised to hear closing arguments

Closing arguments could begin today in Michael Jackson’s child molestation trial, taking the three-month case into its final stages.

The jury is expected to return today after four days off, during which lawyers debated the exact instructions it will receive before it retires to deliberate its verdict.

Jurors will be told to consider previous allegations of abuse only if they believe they prove the singer intended to molest his current accuser.

The decision was one of several made by Judge Rodney Melville during a day of motions.

They will also be told to treat the allegation that he plied his young accuser with alcohol as a lesser offence.

Jackson was originally accused of giving alcohol to a 13-year-old boy to assist in the alleged molestation.

But all sides agreed that the jury should be instructed that giving alcohol to a minor is a lesser offence, raising the possibility that he could be charged for that even if acquitted of abuse. Judge Melville said he would tell the jurors they could consider the alleged past acts if they “tend to show intent” on Jackson’s part.

But they will first have to decide whether the allegations of past acts, many made by former Neverland staff, were true.

“Evidence has been introduced for the purpose of showing the defendant committed crimes other than those for which he is on trial,” the jury will be told.

“This evidence, if believed, may be considered by you only for the limited purpose of deciding if it tends to show a characteristic plan or scheme to commit acts.”

Jackson did not attend the hearing, made in the absence of the jury.

Both sides rested their cases Friday, the case closing with a video of the boy’s first police interview, in which he slowly described the alleged molestation and asked detectives not to tell his mother what he had told them.

Jackson, 46, denies molesting the boy, plying him with alcohol and conspiring to hold him and his family captive.