Post by MJSUNIFC on Mar 14, 2005 16:59:27 GMT -5
ap/msnbc reports-
SANTA MARIA, Calif. - The boy who says Michael Jackson molested him acknowledged under cross-examination Monday that he told an administrator at his school that the pop star “didn’t do anything to me.”
The teenager was asked about conversations he had with Jeffrey Alpert, the dean at John Burroughs Middle School in Los Angeles, where the boy had a history of acting up in class.
“I told Dean Alpert he didn’t do anything to me,” the boy said under questioning by Jackson attorney Thomas Mesereau Jr. “I told him twice.”
Prosecutors allege Jackson, 46, plied the boy with alcohol and molested him at his Neverland Ranch in 2003.
The pop star, who was threatened with arrest when he failed to show up in court on time Thursday, arrived on schedule Monday. Unlike last time, when a disheveled Jackson finally arrived in a coat, T-shirt and pajama bottoms, he wore a smart red jacket with a black armband and black slacks. His parents escorted him inside.
Mesereau, during his cross-examination of the boy, quoted Alpert as telling the youngster: “Look at me, look at me. ... I can’t help you unless you tell me the truth — did any of this happen?”
When asked when the conversation occurred, the boy said: “I believe it was after I came back from Neverland.”
It was not clear in court why the dean asked the boy about Jackson. But Mesereau confronted the teenager with school records that showed that nine teachers had complained about the boy’s disruptive behavior, events that the boy acknowledged.
Of one teacher, he said, “I felt as if he didn’t deserve respect as a teacher. I didn’t respect him as a person.”
He complained on the witness stand about the teaching methods of virtually every teacher mentioned.
“When I would stand up to teachers the other students would congratulate me,” he said. He added: “I was argumentative at times. I didn’t like the way they taught me. I wasn’t learning anything.”
Mesereau also cross-examined the accuser about similarities between a statement he testified Jackson made about masturbation and an earlier statement the boy attributed to his grandmother.
On Thursday, the boy testified Thursday that Jackson told him that if men do not masturbate, they might rape women. Mesereau noted that the boy told sheriff’s investigators in an interview that his grandmother had told him the same thing.
“Why did your story change between that interview and your testimony last Thursday?” Mesereau asked.
The boy denied changing his story. He said that both his grandmother and Jackson had told him the same thing, but the context was different.
“She was telling me it was OK to do it, and Michael was saying you have to do it,” the boy said.
www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7181495/
SANTA MARIA, Calif. - The boy who says Michael Jackson molested him acknowledged under cross-examination Monday that he told an administrator at his school that the pop star “didn’t do anything to me.”
The teenager was asked about conversations he had with Jeffrey Alpert, the dean at John Burroughs Middle School in Los Angeles, where the boy had a history of acting up in class.
“I told Dean Alpert he didn’t do anything to me,” the boy said under questioning by Jackson attorney Thomas Mesereau Jr. “I told him twice.”
Prosecutors allege Jackson, 46, plied the boy with alcohol and molested him at his Neverland Ranch in 2003.
The pop star, who was threatened with arrest when he failed to show up in court on time Thursday, arrived on schedule Monday. Unlike last time, when a disheveled Jackson finally arrived in a coat, T-shirt and pajama bottoms, he wore a smart red jacket with a black armband and black slacks. His parents escorted him inside.
Mesereau, during his cross-examination of the boy, quoted Alpert as telling the youngster: “Look at me, look at me. ... I can’t help you unless you tell me the truth — did any of this happen?”
When asked when the conversation occurred, the boy said: “I believe it was after I came back from Neverland.”
It was not clear in court why the dean asked the boy about Jackson. But Mesereau confronted the teenager with school records that showed that nine teachers had complained about the boy’s disruptive behavior, events that the boy acknowledged.
Of one teacher, he said, “I felt as if he didn’t deserve respect as a teacher. I didn’t respect him as a person.”
He complained on the witness stand about the teaching methods of virtually every teacher mentioned.
“When I would stand up to teachers the other students would congratulate me,” he said. He added: “I was argumentative at times. I didn’t like the way they taught me. I wasn’t learning anything.”
Mesereau also cross-examined the accuser about similarities between a statement he testified Jackson made about masturbation and an earlier statement the boy attributed to his grandmother.
On Thursday, the boy testified Thursday that Jackson told him that if men do not masturbate, they might rape women. Mesereau noted that the boy told sheriff’s investigators in an interview that his grandmother had told him the same thing.
“Why did your story change between that interview and your testimony last Thursday?” Mesereau asked.
The boy denied changing his story. He said that both his grandmother and Jackson had told him the same thing, but the context was different.
“She was telling me it was OK to do it, and Michael was saying you have to do it,” the boy said.
www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7181495/