nypost-030605

REAL WORLD WALKS INTO JACKO TRIAL

03/06/2005
The New York Post
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News
Published: 03/06/2005
Page: 010
Caption: STYLE CLASH: While Michael Jackson looks bizarre, his accuser’s family appears poor and plain. [AP]
REAL WORLD WALKS INTO JACKO TRIAL
Byline: Diane Dimond

WHEN the 18-year-old sister of Michael Jackson’s accuser was ushered into the courtroom through a back entrance, she momentarily froze behind the witness box. She looked like a deer in the headlights.
She wore a plain white blouse, navy sweater and slacks. Her Hispanic features bore not a trace of makeup, and her long dark hair was neatly pulled away from her face in a plastic dime-store clasp.

The contrast of the classes on each side of this epic case is crystal clear.

The defendant arrives each day in a chauffeur-driven convoy, surrounded by five bodyguards and the ubiquitous umbrella. He sits at the front of the courtroom attired in his impeccably tailored suits and wearing a face full of carefully applied cosmetics.

He is surrounded by a team of expensive and attentive defense attorneys. He is still adored by fans around the world.

The sister of the boy sits in the box alone, like a sacrifice in the lion’s den.

The family at the center of this case is poor, plagued with the left over trauma of years of domestic abuse and, sadly, unsophisticated.

They seem to have practiced a blind loyalty to Jackson, committing to videotape heaps of praise and calling him a “father figure” who saved them from destitution. They accepted each and every Jackson invitation to participate in his life.

Now, all that has come back to haunt them, and there is no turning back.

In his opening statement, District Attorney Tom Sneddon alluded to the family situation. “Like every one of us in life, [the boy's mother] has made mistakes, she’s done things that were wrong. She lied in a deposition when asked if her husband ever beat her. If she had to admit the truth, she most certainly would get another beating.

“She obtained welfare funds when she wasn’t entitled to them. It’s not a large amount of money, but it was wrong. And she’s going to admit that. But none of us can put ourselves in her place.”
In other words, just because the mother made questionable decisions in life, it doesn’t mean Jackson didn’t molest her son.

The sister admits her mistakes, too. She lied on that videotape when she said Jackson embraced them as family, even helping with their homework. “They took us out of school,” she testified, “There was no homework to do.”

And, she admitted lying to social workers when they came to ask about her brother’s relationship with his 45-year-old friend, Michael.

“So you told the truth on some things and lied on other things?” defense attorney Tom Mesereau asked in a skeptical tone.

“Yes, that’s right. They told us there were death threats on us and we had to say it,” the sister said in her quiet voice.

Some in the courtroom were overheard to say this is the wrong case, the wrong family, for the state to win a conviction. Others said this is a typical family profile for plaintiffs in molestation cases. Pedophiles don’t target kids with Ozzie and Harriet parents.