Report: Jackson A Textbook Abuser
With less than a month before Michael Jackson's child-molestation trial is scheduled to begin, the Web site The Smoking Gun offered a behind-the-scenes account of the prosecution's case against the pop singer.
"If the harrowing and deeply disturbing allegations in these documents are true," The Smoking Gun reports, then "Jackson is a textbook pedophile, a 46-year-old predator who plied children with wine, vodka, tequila, Jim Beam whiskey, and Bacardi rum.
"A man who gave boys nicknames like Doo Doo Head and Blowhole and then quizzed them about whether they masturbated."
The Smoking Gun based its account on confidential law enforcement and government reports, grand jury testimony, and sealed court records. The Web site says the information was provided by sources.
So far, the court has continued a pattern of shielding all evidence from public view, releasing rulings and motions with blacked-out pages.
On Monday, one written order was released by Judge Rodney Melville — a decision to deny in part and grant in part a defense motion to suppress evidence seized from the office of Jackson's personal assistant.
But the language of that decision was oblique and provided only vague clues to what was being admitted and what was suppressed.
One of the documents released by the judge in a heavily blacked-out form was a prosecution report on a search of Jackson's Neverland ranch on Nov. 18, 2003.
But according to The Smoking Gun, "pornographic magazines like Club, Barely Legal, and Couples were found in a leather bag next to the bathroom sink, in a box at the base of Jackson's bed, in a Samsonite briefcase, and inside the nightstand."
Other items found included pornographic DVDs, books and photos.
The inventory reveals that authorities also recovered a pair of white boys underwear located in the bathroom of Jackson's six-year-old daughter, according to The Smoking Gun.
Jackson's trial is scheduled to start Jan. 31, and one more pretrial hearing is scheduled for Jan. 12.
In other related news, "Celebrity Justice" has learned that the mother of Jackson's accuser solicited charitable contributions for the boy's medical care when all of the bills were covered by insurance.
"About four years ago, this boy had cancer," Harvey Levin, the executive producer of "Celebrity Justice," told The Early Show co-anchor Julie Chen. "The mother went to a local newspaper in the L.A. area and said, 'Look, we are going under. We have medical bills that are $12,000 a pop for chemo; we need money.'"
The story was written and close to $1,000 was given to the accuser's family. However, the editor of the paper later learned that the boy's medical bills had already been paid for in full by his father's insurance.
"It is a 100 percent coverage. Not a cent had to be paid," Levin said. He explained, that since the beginning, the paper saw some red flags. The mother tried to to have the money sent to her home in her name. And when the newspaper asked her to set up a trust fund, it was later found out that the mother set up a bank account in her name (so she could withdraw money from it) and not a trust fund, Levin said.