Dad of Jackson accuser wants visits back
LOS ANGELES, California (AP) --The father of Michael Jackson's young accuser, who has pleaded no contest to child cruelty, said in an interview broadcast Monday that he wants a restraining order dropped so he can resume seeing his children.
"I've been trying to get a hold of them and get in touch with them since 2001," the man said in an interview on CBS' "The Early Show." "I've never been without them and it's been just a world of hurt without them since I've been away from them."
Last month, a judge refused to lift a 2-year-old restraining order banning him from seeing his children. The father had requested supervised visits with the boy, his brother and sister. The father pleaded no contest to child cruelty in 2002 and spousal abuse in 2001 and the boy's mother filed for divorce in 2001. The man's lawyer, Russell Halpern, said the father entered the no contest plea "against his own wishes," but never admitted wrongdoing.
Jackson has pleaded innocent to seven counts of performing lewd or lascivious acts on a child under 14 and two counts of administering and intoxicating agent, reportedly wine. The singer is free on $3 million bail pending trial.
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