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By Joal Ryan
19 minutes ago
She isn't Janet--or even LaToya. But she is a real, live member of the Jackson family.
Simone Jackson, a 16-year-old cousin of Michael Jackson, took the stand Tuesday in the pop star's child-molestation trial--the first member of the show-biz clan to appear on behalf the defense team.
Elsewhere, two Los Angeles social workers gave new takes on an old subject at the trial: the welfare-check interview in which Jackson's young accuser denied ever being molested by the pop star and the accuser's mother denied having anything but love for Jackson.
On the stand, Simone Jackson offered testimony to another now familiar topic--the accuser and alcohol.
The adolescent Jackson said that one late night at Neverland Ranch in March 2003 she saw the boy, then 13, and his younger brother each grab a bottle of wine from the estate's kitchen. The brother also snatched a wine glass.
"After they saw me...I told them that [they] weren't allowed--they weren't supposed to do that," Simone Jackson testified. "And they told me to be quiet and not to say anything."
The prosecution contends it was Michael Jackson who introduced the boys to the bubbly; the defense contends the boys were way ahead of the entertainer.
Later, Simone Jackson said the accuser's sister told her "out of the blue" one day that "she had to go to Brazil and I probably wouldn't see her again."
According to Simone Jackson, the sister noted that, while the girl was unhappy about the trip, "her mom wanted to go."
The prosecution contends Jackson and his henchmen were planning to force the accuser's family on a South American excursion; the defense contends that, no, they weren't--forcing them to go, that is.
Under almost-breathless questioning by defense attorney Thomas Mesereau Jr., Simone Jackson also gave jurors an insider's look at a birthday party, Neverland-style.
"Was food served?" Mesereau asked.
"Yes," Simone Jackson said.
"Did everyone sit at a table?"
"Yeah."
"And were there presents?"
"Yes."
Simone Jackson's appearance comes as trial watchers have noted a decided lack of Jacksons in the Santa Maria, California, courthouse--save for the star defendant and his parents, Joe and Katherine.
The Jackson family has denied distancing itself from its most famed member. Joe Jackson is said to have insisted that he and his wife be the brood's designated courtroom observers.
Irene Peters and Karen Walker, meanwhile, told jurors of meeting the accuser's family on Feb. 20, 2003, as part of their investigation into possible child neglect.
Both women are employed by L.A. County's Department of Children & Family Services.
On the stand, Peters said her office received a complaint on Feb. 14, 2003--a complaint spurred by Martin Bashir's Living with Michael Jackson, which had debuted on ABC eight days earlier.
The accuser, then 13, was seen holding Jackson's hand in the Bashir special while the fortysomething entertainer talked about sharing his bed with children.
Peters said she was directed to look into both the accuser's mother and Jackson. The Santa Barbara County-based pop star, however, was out of her jurisdiction, so the investigation centered on the L.A.-based mother.
On Feb. 20, 2003, Peters, Walker and a third social worker met the accuser's family at the Los Angeles apartment of the mother's future husband, Peters said.
The mother immediately asked Peters to watch a video of "Michael Jackson and [her eldest son, the accuser] walking around Neverland looking at the swans," the woman said.
Then, Peters said, the mother proceeded to talk about how she made s'mores with Chris Tucker around Neverland's fireplace.
Later, once the social workers had cleared the apartment of ancillary personnel--Tucker's girlfriend, a couple of Michael Jackson associates--the interview began, as did the denials, Peters said.
The mother denied neglecting her children and declared she was "very upset" that Jackson's good name was being besmirched, as well, Peters said.
For the umpteenth time, jurors heard a witness--in this case, Peters--say the mother praised the pop star and hailed him as a father figure to her children.
When the mother was asked if she knew if Jackson ever slept in the same bed as her children, the woman said, "No, that never happened," Peters said.
When the accuser was asked if he'd ever been touched sexually by Jackson, the boy "became a little upset," Peters said.
"He [said], 'Everybody thinks that Michael Jackson sexually abused me. He's never touched me,' " Peters testified.
Jurors have heard the mother and the accuser talk about this confab themselves--the mother said she and hers had been kept up the night before shooting footage for a Jackson rebuttal documentary; the boy said he told the social workers that Jackson had never touched him because he hadn't--yet.
Indeed, the prosecution timeline fits quite nicely--for the prosecution--with the apparently conflicting statements of the social-worker interview. The prosecution alleges Jackson molested the boy "on or about and between" Feb. 20, 2003, and Mar. 12, 2003. In short, per the state, if the boy on the morning of Feb. 20, 2003, says he wasn't molested, despite frequent stays at Neverland and a cross-country trip to Miami with the pop star, that's because he wasn't--yet.
Prosecutor Tom Sneddon made no mention of how events stacked up for his side. He just hammered away at how it was unlikely that a teen boy, such as the accuser, would admit to abuse in the presence of women, such as Peters and the boy's mother.
Under questioning by Mesereau, Peters said she had had boys tell her they'd been abused, although the number was "very few."
Peters also said it wasn't just the boy's words, but his demeanor that she judged. To her, she said, he didn't show any signs of having been molested.
The part of the social workers interview that doesn't fit nicely into the prosecution's timeline is the contention that Jackson and his henchmen were holding the family against their will during much of February and March of 2003.
Peters said no one in the accuser's family told her they were captives of Jackson--the mother even suggested the interview be conducted at Neverland.
About a week after the interview, the L.A. social workers deigned that allegations of neglect against the mother and allegations of abuse against Jackson were "unfounded."
In an odd anecdote, both Peters and Walker testified of running into the accuser's mother and her children at a Fatburger in April 2003, shortly after the clan's final alleged escape from Neverland.
Even odder, Mesereau prodded Peters and Walker into talk about how the mother told them Jackson wanted to send her family to Brazil.
"Did she say the words to the effect, 'I don't want to go to that dump...?" Mesereau asked Peters.
Peters said that was correct.
Under questioning by Sneddon, Walker confirmed that the mother said her final days at Neverland had been "horrible."
Also on the stand: Angel Vivanco, the former Neverland chef's assistant, who wrapped his second day of testimony.
Something of a washout for the defense--Superior Court Judge Rodney S. Melville ruled Vivanco couldn't talk about potentially salacious conversations with the accuser's sister--Vivanco's most pointed testimony, that the accuser's younger brother pulled a nine-inch knife on him in the Neverland kitchen, was blunted by the prosecution.
When asked by prosecutor Ronald J. Zonen, if Vivanco thought the boy was joking, Vivanco said he did.
In March, the prosecution pulled a similar ploy on its own witness, former Neverland housekeeper Kiki Fournier, who under questioning by the defense revealed that she, too, had a knife pulled on her by the younger brother. With Fournier's help, the prosecution was able to suggest that that move was all for play.
The defense didn't let Vivanco's story go down without a fight. Jackson attorney Robert M. Sanger asked Vivanco if he thought the boy's joke was funny. "Not really," Vivanco said.
Then Sanger asked if the knife was dull or sharp. "It was sharp," Vivanco said.
Jackson, 46, is charged with molestation, administering alcohol to a minor and conspiracy. He has pleaded innocent to all charges.
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