Michael Jackson's tickles lingered--and headed south.
So said the son of a former Neverland Ranch housekeeper who testified Monday in the pop star's molestation trial Monday. The man said Jackson inappropriately touched him three times in the late 1980s and early 1990s--each incident preceded by innocent tickles. "We were watching cartoons, and [Jackson] just started tickling me, which was cool," the man, now 24, said of the first alleged molestation, according to the Associated Press. "...It eventually moved down to my little private region, I guess...around my crotch area." The man said he was 7 at the time.
Given his age, he said he thought Jackson's move was "weird, but not super weird because you were tickling." When Jackson tried the reputed tickling trick on him at age 10, while the two were watching TV at Neverland, the man said he no longer thought it funny. "Michael was pretty much behind me, like spooning me, again with the tickling," the man said, per Reuters.
"This time it was longer." Jackson reached into the boy's shorts and touched the child's testicles, the man said. The touching and tickling lasted about "two cartoons' worth," the man said, per Reuters. Jackson, 46, is accused of molesting one boy, then 13, at Neverland in 2003. But in the coming days, the entertainer essentially will be on trial for alleged transgressions with five other boys, all now grown men.
The ex-Neverland staffer's son is the first of the witnesses from this blast-from-the-past portion of the proceedings. Prosecutors are looking to establish a pattern of bad behavior on Jackson's part in order to bolster the credibility of the current accuser. The man on the stand Monday was named in court, but major news organizations chose not to identify him in reports. Unlike actor Macaulay Culkin and choreographer Wade Robson, two of the allegedly manhandled Jackson five (both of whom deny being victimized by Jackson), he is not a public figure. The man, now married, became emotional while recounting the third alleged molestation. "This took a lot of counseling to get over, just so you get know," the man said in an aside to jurors, per reports. In addition to the prolonged tickle attack, the man said Jackson twice touched him through his clothes.
Those two incidents occurred at Jackson's condominium in Los Angeles, he said. Jackson has never been charged with molesting the man. The allegations came to light in 1993 when investigators sought him out as they probed another molestation claim which eventually netted that accuser's family a reported $23 million settlement from Jackson. The man's family received their own pay out from Jackson--a reported $2 million. (Per Reuters, the man also testified that Jackson gave him $100 bills to keep him quiet about the tickling incidents.)
The defense has maintained that Jackson settled with the man's family because the singer, as defense attorney Thomas Mesereau Jr. put it last week, "didn't want the [bad] press." Mesereau, who earlier attacked the man as a "wishy-washy" witness, went after him anew on Monday, asking him why he repeatedly told police in 1993 that Jackson never molested him. Per Court TV, the man said he just didn't want talk about it at the time, and didn't want others to think he was gay. Earlier, a paid prosecution witness told jurors that molestation victims, especially boys, have trouble coming forward with their stories because they're fearful of having their own sexuality questioned.
Mesereau, meanwhile, didn't let up. According to Court TV, he insinuated that the man's allegations surfaced after a civil attorney surfaced with promises of a big lawsuit, and challenged the credibility of the man's mother for her paid appearance on the now-defunct TV tabloid show, Hard Copy. Also taking the stand was Jesus Salas, the former Neverland grounds supervisor. In his second day of testimony, Salas became the second ex-Jackson employee to describe the ranch as a place where children gorged on candy--and got drunk. Salas said he once saw three children (but not the current accuser) emerge from Jackson's wine cellar and act as if they were intoxicated. Jackson had been with the children earlier in the evening, he said. Salas said the same three boys appeared tipsy on another occasion around 2002.
This time, he said, Jackson was not around. In addition to molestation, Jackson is accused of plying his alleged victim with alcohol and wine, and conspiring to hold him and his family against their will. The entertainer has pleaded innocent to all charges. In addition to the alleged boozing, Salas is a key witness to the alleged conspiracy. Salas testified that he drove the current accuser and his family from Neverland in California's Santa Barbara County south to Los Angeles (about a three-hour road trip) in the dead of night in 2003 after the boy's mother came to him "very upset." "I believe they weren't allowed to leave Neverland Valley Ranch," Salas said. But while Salas provided the prosecution with a couple of notable soundbites, he didn't quite deliver on a story the prosecution had promised jurors. In his opening argument, Santa Barbara County District Attorney Tom Sneddon said Salas would talk of delivering a bottle of vodka and four glasses to Jackson's bedroom, where the worker would find Jackson and three children. But on the stand, Salas undercut this could-be salacious tale by noting that Jackson also asked for soda. (Also in the version in court, it was wine, not vodka, that Jackson requested.) Prosecutor Gordon Auchincloss sounded caught off guard by Salas' menu addition, noting Salas never mentioned soda to investigators. "You just remembered it just this second?" Auchincloss asked. Yes, Salas said. Outside the Santa Maria, California, courthouse, Jackson appeared relaxed. As always, he waved to supporters.
Not like always, the supporters were clothed in white--a show of support for their idol. On Sunday night, Jackson spoke by telephone to fans gathered in Santa Maria for a four-day rally. "God and truth are on our side," Jackson said, urging the faithful to "keep on dancing."
