Jackson hearing tense as accuser's mother testifies
Mood:  cool

By STEVE CHAWKINS
Los Angeles Times

9/18/2004


SANTA MARIA, Calif. - The mother of Michael Jackson's young accuser testified at the pop entertainer's pretrial hearing Friday amid defense suggestions that she is a greed-driven opportunist and chronic liar.
Although the woman known in court as Jane Doe was subpoenaed to testify only on a dry, evidentiary issue, her appearance in the packed courtroom made for high drama.

Twenty feet away from the witness stand in Santa Maria Superior Court, Jackson sat at the defense table, staring at the 36-year-old woman in her black jacket and simple white blouse. He was clad in a resplendent ivory three-piece suit and decked with glittering watch chains. Six of his siblings, also dressed in white, occupied the courtroom's first two rows.

Jackson and Doe said nothing to each other. It had been more than two years since she and her family had stayed at his palatial Neverland estate, where she now says they were held captive and her son was molested.

Doe blessed herself with the sign of the cross before taking the stand. At each break, she propped her head on her hands and prayed.

If she sought guidance, she needed it to withstand a two-hour grilling by defense attorney Tom Mesereau. At times, she appeared evasive, suspicious and forgetful.

Unable to recall the length of a recent meeting at her home with a prosecutor, she sighed deeply and explained to Mesereau: "I do a lot of staying up at night . . .."

Asked other questions, she stroked her chin, wrinkled her brow, shut her eyes and craned her head before answering. Mesereau asked if it were true that she couldn't remember her age when she testified before the grand jury, but prosecutors successfully objected.

The defense has made Doe's credibility a crucial issue in the case against Jackson. They contend Doe saw the chance to rake in a fortune by fabricating the accusations about her son, a recovering cancer patient who was 12 at the time of the visit. Prosecutors say Jackson, who has pleaded not guilty, is a merciless predator.

At issue Friday was whether Doe told Santa Barbara County prosecutors that Bradley Miller, a Beverly Hills private investigator, worked for Jackson's former attorney, Mark Geragos. Police seized tapes and documents during a search of Miller's office in November. Jackson's attorneys contend that using those items in court would violate attorney-client confidentiality.

Doe said she knew of Miller only as a member of Jackson's security team, despite a tape-recorded interview she did with him in February 2003. Made shortly after the devastating British TV documentary on Jackson's life, the tape begins with Miller identifying himself as "a licensed private investigator working for Geragos & Geragos, specifically for Mark Geragos, who is a lawyer for Michael Jackson."

Doe seemed to deny the accuracy of the transcript. After further questioning, she backpedaled. "I don't remember," she said. "Now I know who Mark Geragos is. Then it didn't mean nothing to me."

Doe repeatedly asked Mesereau to rephrase his questions, saying they were confusing. Asked if she knew the hearing's purpose, she replied: "Just to bring more torture on me and my children."

Clearly exasperated at times, Mesereau failed to get any admissions from Doe about the relationship between Geragos and Miller. Even so, he managed to make damaging points that strayed far from the hearing's ostensible purpose.

Although Superior Court Judge Rodney S. Melville cut him off, he asked Doe about previous litigation, including charging J.C. Penney with false imprisonment and her ex-husband with abusing one of her children.