The mother of a boy who reached a multimillion-dollar settlement with Michael Jackson in the 1990s told on Monday how the singer was ”sobbing and crying, shaking and trembling” when she said he could not share her son’s bed.
”He said, ‘You don’t trust me? We’re a family… [The boy] is having fun. Why can’t he sleep in my bed? There’s nothing wrong. There’s nothing going on’,” June Chandler told the jury in Jackson’s child molestation trial in Santa Maria, California.
The confrontation between Jackson and the mother came when the family joined the now 46-year-old entertainer on a trip to Las Vegas.
The mother relented and allowed Jackson to sleep with her son. The following day, he bought her a Cartier gold bracelet.
In 1993, the family reached a reported $23-million out-of-court settlement with Jackson. The mother received $1,5-million.
The allegations of child sexual molestation brought by the family never came to court. But evidence of the previous allegation has been admitted to Jackson’s current trial thanks to a California law that allows previous evidence in cases of sexual abuse.
Chandler told the court her son had met Jackson at her ex-husband’s car hire business in Los Angeles. She had given Jackson her telephone number and told him to call if he wanted to see her son.
There followed lengthy phone calls between the singer and the boy, culminating in an invitation to the family to stay at his Neverland ranch, followed by visits by Jackson to the family’s home in Santa Monica, Los Angeles. There Jackson spent about 30 nights sharing the boy’s bed in the family home.
Chandler realised things had got out of hand, she said, on a trip to Monaco with the singer. ”I wanted to go into their suite,” she told the jury, ”but it was boarded up. This was when things started to get really weird.”
The boy told his father that Jackson had sexually abused him.
Under cross-examination Jackson’s attorney attacked the mother, arguing she was motivated by financial gain.
Jackson faces up to 20 years in prison if found guilty on multiple counts of child molestation and conspiracy charges involving kidnapping and false imprisonment. – Guardian Unlimited Â