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| quote: | Originally posted by DaveT
Eh, I followed the case from a few years ago and I thought it was clear that the accuser had an agenda to get $$$ and didn't show anything showing MJ was any type of pedo. I'll admit that going into the case I had the mindset that he was guilty, but seeing the case unfold changed my mind.
I dunno about the one incident from the 90s. |
Did you ever see the documentary they did on him in 02/03?
"Living with Michael Jackson" watch it. I just saw it a few days ago, it shows how much of a creep he really is...
And the stuff that leaked from the court-case:
| quote: | | Adult materials found at Neverland included over 70 magazines of heterosexual porn, including publications dedicated to mature and overweight women. All were legal. However, some had fingerprints of the two brothers on them; both boys claimed that Jackson showed these adult materials to them for the purpose of Child grooming, and gave them alcohol, which he called "Jesus juice". Both were allegedly for the purpose of lowering inhibitions to sexual behavior. Jackson denied this; he claimed that the accuser and his brother were sometimes “out of control” at Neverland, they found some magazines and drank alcohol in his absence. |
| quote: | Alleged prior sexual crimes (Evidence Code 1108)
Melville allowed the prosecution to present evidence regarding five men, out of seven requested who, as boys, had allegedly been involved in sexual behavior with Jackson.[21] The prosecution called a total of nine people to testify regarding this, including only one of these five alleged victims: Jason Francia; three of the five, Macaulay Culkin, Wade Robson and Brett Barnes, testified for the defense and all said that Jackson had never molested them.[9][22]
The prosecution's purpose in making the allegations was to demonstrate a pattern of behavior by Jackson. Bringing in evidence of so-called "prior bad acts" to suggest that a defendant had a propensity to commit certain crimes is only allowed in a few US states, and only for sex crimes; in California this is Evidence Code 1108.
* Jason Francia (born May 30, 1980) is the son of Jackson's former maid Blanca Francia, who moved from El Salvador to the US in 1975. She worked for Jackson in the period 1986–1991 at the Jackson family home in Encino, Los Angeles, at Jackson's Century City, Los Angeles apartment called "The Hideout," and at Neverland. She often brought Jason along to her work. Jason was a friend of Jackson in the period 1987–1991, when he was 7–10 years old. Jason claimed Jackson touched his crotch twice over his shorts, and once touched his testicles from under his shorts, on each of these three occasions for a few minutes during a tickling game. On the first two occasions he received $100 each for not telling his mother. In 1996 Jackson paid the family $2,000,000 to settle the case. Blanca Francia also received $20,000 for a TV interview, which Jason claimed to have no knowledge of the amount. She testified too, in spite of the settlement. She did not see sexual activity, just an occasion where Jackson and Jason were lying together partly on, partly in a sleeping bag.[citation needed]
* Jordan Chandler, who allegedly was molested by Jackson in 1993 (see 1993 child sexual abuse accusations against Michael Jackson), left the country to avoid testifying according to his uncle Ray Chandler. Former security guard Ralph Chacon says that at Neverland he saw Jackson putting Chandler's penis in his mouth on one occasion, and touching Chandler's crotch with his hand on another occasion. However, Chacon's reliability is disputed, as he had past conflicts with Jackson. Chacon's testimony also contradicted Chandler's affidavit. Chacon claimed having seen Jackson molest Chandler in early 1993, before May 1993 in Monaco, when Chandler alleged in his testimony that Jackson started abusing him. Chandler's mother has also testified and contradicted known facts about the case, claiming that she was the one to alert authorities about the relationship between Jackson and her son in September 1993, although authorities were alerted by Jordan's father in August 1993. Former maid Adrian McManus says she once saw Jackson touch Chandler's crotch over his clothes. Bob Jones, who worked for Jackson from 1987 to 2004 as a publicist, was a witness, but he refused to testify at trial.[23] Since Jones had been fired by Jackson in 2004 and subsequently spoke out, he was dismissed by the Jackson family as a disgruntled former employee.[23]
* Macaulay Culkin was a child actor. Phillip LeMarque stated that he once saw Jackson with his hand resting on the pants of Culkin when the two were playing video games. Adrian McManus said he only saw that once Jackson kissed Culkin on his cheek, and had his hand "kind of by his leg, kind of on his rear end." Culkin had not originally wished to testify but after the allegations made by LeMarque and McManus, he appeared as a defense witness to refute their charges.[9] Culkin denounced the molestation allegations as "absolutely ridiculous" and said that nothing inappropriate had happened, that he had never been improperly touched, touched in a sexual way by Jackson or molested by Jackson.[9] Culkin testified that he slept in Jackson's bed several times between the ages of 10 and 14,[9] sometimes with other boys as well. He said the sleepovers weren't planned and that he and others would just fall asleep when they were tired.[citation needed] Culkin was described as "calm" during an "aggressive" cross-examination.[9]
* Wade Robson confirmed that he had slept in the same bed with Jackson, but he denied that anything inappropriate ever happened, including inappropriate touching.[22] Robson's mother, Joy, admitted in cross-examination that her son went missing for three days with Jackson, causing the police to get involved. But, like the sleepovers, she was confident this was all innocent, and her son confirmed it.[24] She said that she trusted Jackson and considered him to be a member of her family.[22] Joy Robson testified that Jordan Chandler and his mother were often at Neverland when she and Wade were, and she felt that Chandler's mother was a "gold digger" who treated Neverland as if it were her own and wanted to be its "mistress."[25] Robson's sister Chantal testified that she had slept in Jackson's room four times during her childhood with her brother and never witnessed anything inappropriate.[22]
* Brett Barnes slept in the same room as Jackson for a year according to the testimony of Barnes' sister, Karlee. Barnes testified that Jackson did not act inappropriately: "No, I wouldn't stand for it."[22][25] Barnes' mother Marie testified that nothing ever happened between her son and Jackson.[22]
Charlie Michaels and Charmayne Sternberg were also planned prosecution witnesses, but they did not testify. The witnesses included some of the "Neverland Five" (former security guards Ralph Chacon, Kassim Abdool, and Melanie Bagnall, former office manager Sandi Domz, and former maid Adrian McManus) who lost a lawsuit in 1995 against Jackson. The two boys of whom Melville did not allow evidence are Jimmy Safechuck and Jonathan Spence.
As part of the evidence to try to show attraction to boys, the prosecution introduced two books featuring nude prepubescent boys. The books were seized from Jackson in 1993 and never returned.[26] The prosecution portrayed them as being child erotica or pornography, showing a sexual attraction to boys. However, the defense characterized them as wholly non-sexual, non-pornographic, art books. The defense pointed out that the books were legal to possess, and Jackson was therefore never charged with owning them. While both featured nudity, neither book contains any depictions of sexual acts. Jackson lost possession of the books long before meeting the current accuser, which is why the books were a part of the 1108 evidence. He has never been accused of showing these two books to any boys. |
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MJ OverloaD
