Jackson Trial's Flip Side

The family accusing Michael Jackson of child molestation is as much a target in the pop star's criminal trial as he himself.

Haunted by money troubles and split by divorce, the family has been roiled by past allegations of wife beatings, child abuse, mental illness and shoplifting, which Jackson's defense is expected to exploit in coming weeks.

For years, the family crammed into a studio apartment while the mother groomed her daughter and two sons for lives in the entertainment world glittering somewhere beyond their East Los Angeles neighborhood.

But instead of finding Hollywood riches, the family was accused of stealing clothes from J.C. Penney, and their fame has sprung from an accusation of sexual molestation. The Times is withholding their names to protect the identity of the alleged molestation victim.

Lawsuits, restraining orders, police investigations, grand jury testimony and the parents' divorce have left a trail of damaging and sometimes contradictory testimony by members of the family. But such public records, rooted in conflict, inevitably give an incomplete picture of people.

They are potential weapons, however, in the hands of the defense lawyers, who have been blasting at the family's credibility. The attorneys are hoping to persuade jurors that the tale of molestation was concocted to extract money from the eccentric entertainer, who faces a possible 20-plus years in prison if convicted of all charges.

The lawyers have aggressively questioned the alleged victim, a 15-year-old cancer survivor. He testified that Jackson, now 46, molested him in 2003 at the singer's Neverland ranch in the Santa Ynez Valley.

Defense attorneys took the boy to task last week in Santa Barbara County Superior Court for swearing at trial that Jackson had fondled him, after earlier telling a school official that the pop star had never touched him.

Pushing young witnesses too hard can backfire with a jury, but no such concerns are likely to hobble defense lawyers when, as expected, the children's parents are called to testify.

Only Jackson's legal team knows how much potentially damaging information it has on the family. Available public records contain allegations regarding the mother's mental health, the parents' 1993 bankruptcy and the family's attempts to profit from the son's cancer, as well as from the case against Jackson.