SANTA MARIA, Calif. — The mother of Michael Jackson's teenage accuser testified Monday that the pop star's staffers repeatedly threatened her, even alluding to the possibility that her two sons could vanish from the singer's Neverland ranch in a hot-air balloon.
The woman also told jurors that the aides spoke of having her boyfriend and elderly parents killed if she failed to participate in a video rebutting a TV documentary that was damaging to Jackson.
During laborious cross-examination, defense attorney Thomas A. Mesereau Jr. continued to assail the woman as a con artist who coached her son to make false molestation accusations against Jackson for financial gain. The defense lawyer also set up testimony from future witnesses who could further erode the woman's credibility.
But as the mother's fourth day on the witness stand ended, Senior Deputy Dist. Atty. Ron Zonen took over, presenting a set of photos that could help salvage the prosecution witness' believability. Her name is being withheld to protect her son, who was 13 at the time of the alleged abuse in 2003.
Mesereau, in earlier questioning, had challenged a $152,000 legal settlement the mother and her family received after a 1998 fracas with JC Penney security guards, suggesting it was part of the woman's pattern of scams. Before taking the stand, she announced her refusal to answer questions about allegedly failing to disclose the settlement while collecting welfare.
Beamed onto the courtroom wall, photos taken just after the melee showed the woman with dark bruises on her legs, midsection and face. It also showed her older son, the boy who is accusing Jackson of molesting him, with a doleful look and his arm in a sling.
The woman is a key witness against Jackson, who, in addition to molestation, is charged with conspiring to keep the family on his Santa Ynez Valley ranch against their will. If convicted of all charges, the 46-year-old singer could face more than 20 years in prison.
She never witnessed any of the four alleged molestation incidents, but has testified at length about Jackson's aides allegedly isolating her in a guest cottage, spying on her when she "escaped" to her Los Angeles home and plotting to get rid of her, her two sons and her daughter with a forced move to Brazil.
