Jackson Team Nails Cross-Exam

The teenage boy who says Michael Jackson molested him acknowledged under cross-examination Monday that he told an administrator at his school the pop star "didn't do anything to me," and that Jackson was like a father to him.

Striking at the heart of the prosecution's allegations of child molestation and conspiracy, defense attorney Thomas Mesereau Jr. confronted the now-15-year-old boy with a video tribute by the boy and his family in which they credited Jackson with changing their lives and helping to cure the boy of cancer.

The video had already been shown in the trial twice. This time, Mesereau stopped it repeatedly to ask if the boy and his family were lying. In most instances, the boy said they were speaking the truth.

"Michael was nice to me," he testified. "I felt like he was a father to me."

"The most important day of the trial turned out to be nearly a perfect day at trial for Jackson and his attorneys, who got the alleged victim to concede important points in virtually every part of his story,'' said CBS Legal Analyst Andrew Cohen. "And it wasn't just the substance, the young man's demeanor on the witness stand also didn't help prosecutors. He was combative and feisty and didn't act much like a victim. "

Prosecutors allege Jackson's associates had the boy's family make the video after the broadcast of an infamous documentary in which Jackson said he allowed the boy to sleep in his bed while he slept on the floor. The prosecution claims the rebuttal video was staged and scripted.

Mesereau asked if the family turned on Jackson and invented the molestation story because they were being evicted from his Neverland ranch.

"We realized he wasn't as nice a guy as we thought he was," the boy said.

Earlier, the teenager was asked about conversations he had with Jeffrey Alpert, the dean at John Burroughs Middle School in Los Angeles, where the boy had a history of acting up in class.

"I told Dean Alpert he didn't do anything to me," the boy said. "I told him twice."

Prosecutors allege Jackson, 46, plied the boy with alcohol and molested him at his Neverland Ranch in 2003.

The pop star, who was threatened with arrest when he failed to show up in court on time Thursday, arrived on schedule Monday. Unlike last time, when a disheveled Jackson finally arrived in a coat, T-shirt and pajama bottoms, he wore a smart red jacket with a black armband and black slacks. His parents escorted him inside.

Mesereau, during his cross-examination, quoted Alpert as telling the youngster: "Look at me, look at me. ... I can't help you unless you tell me the truth — did any of this happen?"

When asked when the conversation occurred, the boy said: "I believe it was after I came back from Neverland."

It was not clear in court why the dean asked the boy about Jackson. However, when the television documentary aired in 2003, the boy was shown in it.

Also during cross-examination, the boy denied instances of being caught drinking wine at Neverland, reading "girlie magazines" and masturbating in a guest house while Jackson wasn't around. He also denied he ever spoke to Jay Leno, but said he once placed a call to the comedian from a hospital and left a message on an answering machine.

The defense, which claims the family sought to get money from celebrities, has said Leno alerted police after a call from the boy because he thought the family was looking for a "mark."

Mesereau also cross-examined the accuser about similarities between a statement he testified Jackson made about masturbation and an earlier statement the boy attributed to his grandmother.

On Thursday, the boy testified Jackson had told him if men do not masturbate, they might rape women. Mesereau noted the boy told sheriff's investigators in an interview his grandmother had told him the same thing.

"Why did your story change between that interview and your testimony last Thursday?" Mesereau asked.

The boy denied changing his story. He said both his grandmother and Jackson had told him the same thing, but the context was different.

"She was telling me it was OK to do it, and Michael was saying you have to do it," the boy said.

At he left court Monday, Jackson told reporters: "Mesereau did a great job."

Legal Analyst Cohen said he suspects the young man will be on the stand for at least one more day.

"We expect the defense to finish its cross-examination and then for prosecutors to try to rehabilitate the alleged victim and that will take some time,'' Cohen said.

"After cross-examination finishes, District Attorney Tom Sneddon will have to try to rehabilitate the witness; to get him to explain the inconsistencies in his story and to otherwise shore up his story and the case against Jackson. When Sneddon is done, the accuser's story will seem stronger than it is now but the question is whether it ultimately will be strong enough."