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(Photo: AP/Pool, Reuters)
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The defense called attorney Mark Geragos, who said he was hired by Jackson around the time of the airing of the Bashir documentary; he worked for the singer until he was replaced in April 2004.
Under questioning by Jackson attorney Thomas Mesereau Jr., Geragos said he was concerned about allegations spawned by the documentary. As a result, he said, he did database searches on the accuser's family that uncovered the J.C. Penney lawsuit. He also hired a private investigator, and the information that was uncovered led him to believe the family was bad news.
"Michael should have nothing to do with them," he said. "It was a pending disaster."
Mesereau asked Geragos if he was aware of any crime committed against the family. Geragos said no.
"I was trying to prevent a crime against my client," he said. "I thought that they were going to shake him down."
Geragos was cross-examined by Senior Deputy District Attorney Ron Zonen on whether he ever asked Jackson if the boy slept in his bed.
"Yes, he said nothing happened," Geragos testified. "He said he didn't do anything untoward or sexual and if anyone spent the night in his room it was unconditional love."
Geragos did not complete his testimony before court recessed for the weekend. The judge scheduled him to return on May 20.
Returning to the stand a week later, Geragos was questioned by Zonen about surveillance conducted on the accuser's family by a private investigator, Bradley Miller.
Geragos said he hired the investigator because he was concerned the family might go to tabloids to sell a false story or to an attorney to try to sue Jackson.
"I told him, 'Find out who they're meeting with and what they're doing,'" Geragos said.
Zonen tried to link Miller to the alleged conspiracy to hold the accuser's family captive by asking Geragos if he knew that an employee of Miller threw rocks at the home of the accuser's grandparents, an incident that the accuser's grandmother and sister alleged in their testimony.
"I don't send people out to throw stones at people's houses," Geragos said.
Geragos' testimony was marked by snippy exchanges between him and Zonen, and the judge at one point chided the prosecutor for approaching the witness stand too often without permission.
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