Flanked by his security detail, Michael Jackson arrives Wednesday for court in Santa Maria, Calif.
The mother of Michael Jackson’s teen accuser sobbed Wednesday as she told how she had watched silently as the singer licked the head of her sleeping son “over and over†during a private plane flight.
"Please don’t judge me, please don’t judge me" she pleaded, turning to face the jury as she recalled the incident on a late night flight from Miami to Jackson’s Neverland Valley Ranch in February 2003.
She said the other passengers were asleep when she got up and looked around the plane to where her 13 year-old son was sitting next to the entertainer.
“That’s when I saw Michael licking (his) head. I thought it was me, I thought I was seeing things. I thought it was me,†she said, breaking into tears. She told no-one at the time what she had seen.
Punctuated by weeping, flailing arms and finger-stabbing toward Jackson, the mother’s testimony was as dramatic as an earlier hearing Wednesday when it was doubtful whether she would ever take the stand at all.
She took the stand outside the jury’s presence Wednesday and immediately invoked her Fifth Amendment right to not testify about welfare payments she has received.
Issues with welfare payments
Judge Rodney S. Melville said the mother could still testify and he would instruct jurors that she had invoked her right for protection from self-incrimination.
The ruling came after the woman took the stand outside the presence of the jury and said she would refuse to discuss “everything to do with the welfare application.â€
Defense attorneys have raised questions about the woman’s credibility, accusing her of bilking celebrities and committing welfare fraud. District Attorney Thomas Sneddon said in opening statements that the woman would admit she took welfare payments to which she was not entitled.
The judge said he would tell jurors that attorneys could not have anticipated Wednesday’s development when they delivered opening statements. The statement was to add that jurors should not draw any negative conclusions about either side.
Wednesday’s hearing ended weeks of speculation about when prosecutors would call the woman to testify — and whether she would testify at all. Defense attorneys have tried to turn the focus of the case from Jackson to the boy’s mother, alleging that she orchestrated a scheme to have her son falsely accuse Jackson of molestation in order to get money from the singer.
'Can't allow a witness to pick and choose'
Defense attorney Robert Sanger argued after the woman left the stand that it would be unfair to Jackson to allow the witness to refuse to testify on some issues, and not others.
"You can’t allow a witness to pick and choose what he or she is going to be subject to on cross-examination" he said.
The judge, however, said the defense could raise questions about the mother’s credibility through other testimony.
“You wouldn’t be precluded from proving those items through other witnesses,†Melville said.
The alleged welfare fraud occurred in Los Angeles County, where the mother lived. Testifying that she took payments she wasn’t entitled to could open the possibility of a criminal investigation.
The mother is considered a crucial witness by both the prosecution and defense. She is key to the prosecution’s kidnap conspiracy charges against the singer and has been portrayed by the defense as a scam artist.
Jackson’s lawyers have portrayed the mother as a liar and a grifter who preyed on celebrities. But Wednesday’s ruling will limit the defense’s scope to undermine her credibility, and was seen as another setback for Jackson.
Source: Reuters/The Associated Press/eMJey