Jackson Again Late To Court
A feeble-looking Michael Jackson arrived late again to his child molestation trial Monday after another trip to a hospital, but the judge took no apparent action against the pop star, who sat through testimony in which a psychologist asserted that few child sex abuse allegations turn out to be false.
Jackson, who is said to have back problems, trembled and wept at the counsel table as lawyers and a doctor who came to court conferred privately in chambers with Superior Court Judge Rodney S. Melville.
The judge, who previously threatened to arrest Jackson and revoke his bail when he was late on March 10, gave no explanation of what had transpired privately and simply ordered testimony to resume.
Jackson's arrival was just minutes late, unlike the March 10 incident when he failed to show at the 8:30 a.m. start time and finally arrived more than an hour later in a coat over pajama bottoms and with slippers on his feet.
This time Jackson was fully dressed, wearing a black suit, brocade vest and a blue armband, but his hair was askew and his steps were tentative. He turned weakly to acknowledge fans on the street, then walked unsteadily into the courthouse with his brother Jackie and a security guard holding his arms.
As Jackson left court six hours later a reporter asked Jackson what had happened in the morning. Jackson looked back and moved his mouth but no words came out. He then said he was "very much hurt" and was on medication "by way of a doctor."
Jackson spokeswoman Raymone K. Bain said in a statement that Jackson was en route to court when he suffered intolerable back spasms and was taken by his security chief to Cottage Hospital in Santa Ynez, where tests were conducted by emergency physician Dr. Bert Weiner.
Weiner "also indicated that he accompanied Mr. Jackson to court because he could best explain the nature of the problem that Mr. Jackson is experiencing," the statement said. "Due to patient confidentiality, Dr. Weiner will not be releasing any information regarding Mr. Jackson's test results."
The doctor arrived at the courthouse wearing a jacket over hospital scrubs.
The day's chief witness was a child abuse expert who was called by the prosecution to describe symptoms of sexual abuse that could relate to the charges against Jackson, who is accused of molesting a now-15-year-old boy at his Neverland ranch in February-March 2003, giving him alcohol, and conspiring to hold the boy's family captive.
Prosecution witness Anthony J. Urquiza, a child psychologist who has not interviewed Jackson's accuser, described "child sexual assault accommodation syndrome" which includes children being secretive, feeling helpless and entrapped, delaying reporting abuse events and finally learning to cope with the situation.
He said boys who are assaulted by men have more trouble disclosing abuse than do girls because it adds the issue of homosexuality during the "difficult time" of adolescence.
Urquiza also said a child may like or love the abuser, who is often not a stranger and who has already raised sexual issues in conversation. He said a child is more likely to disclose abuse to a professional such as a psychologist than to a family member.
During cross-examination, defense attorney Thomas Mesereau Jr. outlined the entire theory of his case before asking the psychologist whether Jackson's accuser may be lying.
"Let me ask a hypothetical question," Mesereau said. "You've got a mother and three children. There is not a father figure present. There has been a traumatic divorce of recent vintage. For whatever reason, the mother and her children pick someone and adopt that person as their father figure ... and suddenly there is a split. The mother, the children see that the person they've adopted as a father figure is bailing out. You can imagine ... a situation like that where the mother induces the children to make false claims of sexual abuse."
Urquiza replied that only 2 percent to 6 percent of molestation allegations turn out to be false according to research he has seen, and he said the scenario Mesereau described would "fairly incredible."
He said he knew of no research concerning false molestation claims motivated by money, or in which the target of false allegations was a world famous celebrity who was known to be wealthy.
During cross-examination, Mesereau asked the expert if he was familiar with two famous cases involving extensive allegations of molestation:
"You do not know anything of the recent Bakersfield case?" Mesereau asked Urquiza.
"I know nothing about a Bakersfield case," the witness said.
Of McMartin he said, "I'm aware of that case but my knowledge of the McMartin case is rather small."
He added, "It's very difficult to get information about false allegations because you're researching something that didn't happen. It's a difficult area to do research in."
Urquiza repeatedly said the question of false allegations is not his area of specialization and he has never researched it. He said that by the time children get to him for therapy, others have already determined that their allegations are credible.
Urquiza said that in treating 1,000 such patients since 1983, he has learned later that only two were making false allegations.
Prosecutors, who claim Jackson served his accuser wine from a soda can during a trip on a private jet, also called Lauren Wallace, a flight attendant for XtraJet of Santa Monica, Calif.
She said she served Jackson wine in soda cans on several flights and hid alcohol for him in the lavatory "out of children's reach." But she said she was never on a flight with the accuser and his family.
She acknowledged she was told to prepare wine in Diet Coke cans for Jackson's flights because he didn't want his children to see him drinking alcohol. She said Jackson's other requests included Kentucky Fried Chicken for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and Subway sandwiches.
At day's end, prosecutors had just called Louise Palanker, one of the comedians the accuser's family met at a Los Angeles comedy club where the boy was in a comedy camp for underprivileged youth.
Prosecutors have said they may wrap up the stage of their case focusing on a boy's molestation claims as early as this week.
District Attorney Tom Sneddon said in a hearing last week that prosecutors may finish presenting evidence about the 15-year-old's allegations that Jackson molested him by Friday.
Those expected to testify about the alleged molestation include investigators who searched Jackson's Neverland Valley Ranch on Nov. 18, 2003, and Stan Katz, a psychologist who interviewed the boy and his brother about the alleged molestation.
What comes after the testimony will depend on how Melville rules in a hearing next Monday on the prosecution's request that they be allowed to present evidence of alleged past molestations by Jackson. If the judge agrees to admit the evidence, they may begin presenting witnesses about Jackson's past immediately after the ruling.
"Judges have to be careful with this, because this is almost always dynamite evidence," reports CBS News Legal Analyst Andrew Cohen. "It almost always insures that a defendant is going to be convicted."
Jackson has never been criminally charged with a past offense, but prosecutors want to present witnesses to show that the current case is part of a pattern. They also want to tell jurors about an accusation against Jackson by another boy in 1993 that resulted in a multimillion-dollar civil settlement.
After presenting evidence on the molestation, prosecutors will focus on the next stage of their case: the allegation that Jackson held the boy's family captive to get them to help him rebut a damaging documentary in which he acknowledged sharing his bed with children. Jackson said the sleepovers were innocent and non-sexual.