The Michael Jackson child molestation case took a potentially devastating turn for the singer on Monday when the jury heard from a young man who claims that Jackson sexually molested him on three occasions more than 16 years ago. The 46-year-old singer, he alleged, ”put [money] down my pants” after each incident.
Jason Francia, now 24, said that, when he was 10, he and Jackson were lying on a couch at the singer’s Neverland ranch tickling each other.
”I was wearing shorts,” he said, his voice breaking. ”He reached on my leg and he reached up and into my privates.”
He said that Jackson continued touching his testicles for several minutes.
In a day of tense and often emotional testimony, Francia described how his mother worked as the singer’s maid.
Asked by prosecution attorney Ron Zonen if Jackson had ever done anything to make him feel uncomfortable, Francia said: ”I may not have felt uncomfortable at seven years old but when I think of it now I think that’s wrong, that shouldn’t have been done.”
The first two instances of alleged abuse occurred at an apartment Jackson kept in Los Angeles, which the boy nicknamed the Hideaway.
”I was sitting on his lap watching TV,” he said, ”and he just started tickling me. I tickled him back and then we went to the floor, tickling still. And it eventually moved down to my ‘little private region’, around my crotch area.”
The second alleged incident happened about a year later when the boy was eight and a half.
”We were watching TV, lying down on a sleeping bag and Michael was pretty much behind me. Again with the tickling but this time it was longer but I wasn’t laughing as much.”
Describing the position the two took on the floor as ”spooning”, Francia continued: ”I was in front. He was tickling me at first, [then] around my genital area.”
Asked if he was aware that something untoward had taken place, Francia replied: ”Yes and no. No because it’s all fun and supposed to be innocent and you’re having fun and you’re a little kid. And yes because it’s not right.”
While the first two instances alleged by Francia involved touching through clothing, the third instance, he said, included skin-on-skin contact.
”Every time I was being tickled there was some sort of exchange of money,” Francia said. ”There was a sort of ‘don’t tell your mum”’ understanding, he said.
A smartly dressed, fresh-faced man who works as car-parts salesman and youth mentor, Francia bears a striking resemblance to the 15-year-old accuser in the current case.
He clearly found testifying about his experiences difficult. On several occasions he stopped talking and at one point he started to cry. While describing the allegations, he looked at the floor, a contrast to his demeanour at other times when he appeared confident.
”It’s taken a lot of counselling just to tell you,” he told the prosecution lawyer. ”At first I didn’t want to discuss it because it’s embarrassing. It’s embarrassing now and I’m 24 years old.”
He revealed that he underwent counselling for five years after disclosing the allegations to detectives investigating child abuse charges against Jackson in 1993.
Under cross-examination, Francia was asked if he had ever received money from Jackson. His mother reached an out-of-court settlement with the singer for a reported $2-million in 1993.
”Other than the money he put down my pants?” Francia responded.
He also rebutted suggestions from Jackson’s lawyer, Thomas Mesereau, that he had been pressured by police to make the allegation that Jackson molested him.
”I didn’t want to be embarrassed at school,” he said. ”I didn’t want to be embarrassed anywhere. I was 13. The police were saying, if he did something then tell us, and I was like, no, I’m not gay.”
The statements from Francia are the first to be admitted to the case under a 1995 Californian law that permits old allegations to be heard in cases involving child sexual abuse to prove that a defendant is a habitual sex offender, regardless of whether the allegations went to court.
The prosecution has built much of its case on the notion that Jackson is a habitual, predatory paedophile.
Nine witnesses are expected to be called, covering five separate allegations of child molestation against the singer. Francia is the only alleged victim expected to testify for the prosecution, although two, including the actor Macaulay Culkin, are expected to appear for the defence, saying Jackson did not molest them.
The singer is charged with molesting a now boy now aged 15 and faces 10 charges that include felony conspiracy with 28 overt acts involving child abduction, false imprisonment and extortion. If convicted he faces up to 20 years in prison.
Brando offered tropical haven
Marlon Brando granted Jackson lifelong sanctuary on a tropical island, it emerged on Monday.
A year before he died, in June 2003, the former movie legend transferred the use of half an acre of land on his private Pacific island, Tetiaroa, to the embattled singer ”in consideration of gratitude and affection”, according to deeds.
The move was made as pressure mounted on prosecutors to investigate alleged child molestation.
Brando wrote to the pop star to thank him for hosting a birthday party for his daughter Nina, now 15.
But Jackson may have a long wait before he takes advantage of the offer. Judge Rodney Melville at Santa Maria court, California, has imposed $3-million bail and ordered the singer to surrender his passport during his trial. — Guardian Unlimited Â