A commentary by Steve Corbett / Santa Maria Times
Tuesday's courtroom scene was far more lively than what I saw in court Wednesday, when a spurned public relations consultant took the witness stand for the prosecution. Ann Marie Kite had worked for Jackson for six days after the Bashir film exploded onto the world scene.
As his second witness, Santa Barbara County District Attorney Tom Sneddon had placed great faith in Kite's ability to boost his argument that the Jackson camp had gone crazy with desperation in the aftermath of Bashir's film.
Among many startling moments, the spooky production shows Jackson dangling his baby out a hotel window and holding hands with his alleged child victim - a 13-year old cancer survivor.
Kite, who uses the name Gabriel for professional purposes, testified that the film had created a public relations nightmare.
Indeed, Jackson's people reacted.
But after Mesereau was done with her, she needed some serious crisis management of her own - an area in which she had supposedly specialized.
Kite testified under cross-examination that she had never even met Jackson and had never been to Neverland. Kite also testified that she had only represented one other celebrity - a Las Vegas magician who also did infomercials.
After being hired by a Jackson lawyer with whom she had been romantically involved, Kite quickly lost her job.
A few weeks later, she met with Jackson's brother, Jermaine, to warn him about an inner circle that was more concerned with their own interests than with what was best for Michael. After a six- or seven-hour meeting at Jermaine's Encino home, during which Kite met his mother and wife, Jermaine was still in "denial," she testified.
"I felt sad," Kite said Wednesday.
Me too.
But my sadness had struck the day before, as I watched Michael, Jermaine and their mother, Katherine, view the Bashir video that played on a courtroom screen as Bashir - Sneddon's first witness - sat in the front row.
When the video opened with Jackson's song "Billy Jean," the entertainer began moving his head, catching his own rhythm and riding sweet sound waves that he had created at his peak.
Jackson let jurors know that he was still Michael Jackson - that he wouldn't bow to the child-sex accusations by remaining respectfully motionless throughout serious legal proceedings - especially when they included his music.
When "Thriller" played in the documentary, Jackson again danced in his chair, moving even more than he did that day when he was arraigned and stood on top of his SUV to face a frenzied crowd.
Then the music in the courtroom stopped.
Bashir's film continued with Jackson speaking about how his father, Joe - who hasn't attended the trial since testimony began - beat and humiliated him when he was growing up.
Jackson cried on the screen.
But when he explained how his father had mocked him for the way he looked, during this terrible moment that he relived in court with a jury watching his deepest personal heartache, his mother did something that I will never understand.
Sitting in the second row, Katherine Jackson laughed.
Maybe she had allowed her mind to wander to happier times.
Whatever she was thinking, her behavior seemed to distance her from the pain of the past. Try as she might, though, she cannot distance herself from the pain of the present.
Source: Santa Maria Times