Jackson Investigator Testifies

The lead investigator in the Michael Jackson child molestation case testified Wednesday that the accuser told him he was molested five to seven times but could describe only two of the incidents in detail.

Santa Barbara County District Attorney Tom Sneddon asked sheriff's Sgt. Steve Robel about the numbers in order to account for differences that have emerged during testimony in Jackson's trial.

Robel testified Tuesday that the boy twice told investigators he was molested five times. The boy himself testified earlier to only two molestations but said he believed there may have been more.

Robel said Wednesday that the boy told him "it happened between five and seven times but he could not articulate exactly" what happened every time. Since the first interviews of the boy in July 2003, Robel said, he has been able to provide detailed accounts of two incidents.

In testimony Tuesday, Robel said he urged the accuser and his family to go forward with his claims against the singer by promising them, "We're going to try our best to make this case work."

Defense attorney Robert Sanger confronted Robel with those and other statements from recorded interviews, suggesting that they indicated investigators were biased against Jackson from the beginning.

He quoted Robel as saying: "One thing I want to emphasize is you guys are doing the right thing here. ... I don't care how much money they have. He's the one who's done wrong. ... We're going to try to bring him to justice."

Sanger asked: "That's not the statement of someone with an open mind who's trying to find the truth, is it?"

Robel said he was taught to make such a statement to alleged victims "to reassure them."

The next witness called could be a civil attorney the family went to before they reported the alleged molestation to police, the same attorney who represented Jackson's accuser in 1993, reports CBS News Correspondent Vince Gonzales.

Jackson arrived in court on time on Wednesday, and his spokesperson said that the singer has been starting his trial days by praying with the Rev. Jesse Jackson.

Spokeswoman Raymone K. Bain said the singer usually wakes up at about 4:30 a.m., and talks to Rev. Jackson for 15 to 20 minutes. The two talk to each other by phone and pray together, she said.

Robel's testimony came after the singer's accuser wrapped up his testimony by saying he told a school administrator that Jackson had not molested him because he wanted to avoid teasing from classmates.

Defense attorney Thomas Mesereau Jr. revealed Monday in the cross-examination of the boy, now 15, that he had once denied being molested in a talk with Jeffrey Alpert, a dean at John Burroughs Middle School in Los Angeles.

The boy testified Tuesday that he got in fights with other students when he returned from Jackson's Neverland Ranch in March 2003 because they would mock him.

"All the kids would laugh at me and try to push me around and say, 'That's the kid that got raped by Michael Jackson,"' said the boy.

He said fighting got him summoned to the office of a school dean, and that was when "I told him that it didn't happen."

The conversation was prompted by the Feb. 6, 2003, TV documentary that showed Jackson with the boy and in which Jackson acknowledged sharing his bed with children, although he characterized it as innocent and non-sexual.

Mesereau concluded his questioning of the boy Tuesday by asking if he realized he could profit by filing a lawsuit against Jackson before he turns 18. The boy said he did not know that.

Prosecutors claim Jackson conspired to hold the boy, his mother, sister and brother captive to get them to record a video rebutting the TV documentary. The family heaped praise on Jackson in the rebuttal video.

Sneddon's redirect questioning was relatively brief. He had the boy talk again about his bout with cancer, how he had become close to God and what he thinks of Jackson now.

"I don't really like him anymore," the boy said. "I don't really think he's deserving of the respect I was giving him as the coolest guy in the world."

Sneddon's probing managed to answer some of the questions about the accuser's credibility that the defense had raised the day before, Legal Analyst Anne Bremer told The Early Show.

"He came back and repaired a lot of damage with the witness and didn't take much time doing it," said Bremer. "The witness's credibility remains intact to a certain extent."