The grandmother of the teenage accuser in the Michael Jackson child molestation case testified on Tuesday that when her grandchildren returned from the singer’s Neverland ranch, ”those kids who came were not my grandchildren. They wouldn’t even speak to me.”
She told the court in Santa Maria she had always maintained a close relationship with her three grandchildren, but they had changed.
Last week the children’s stepfather testified that he too had noted a changed attitude in the children following their time at Neverland.
The grandmother’s testimony came after her daughter, the mother of the alleged victim, concluded more than four days on the witness stand.
During that time she had been assailed by defence attorney Thomas Mesereau, who attempted to depict her as unreliable and delusional.
After the defence concluded its cross-examination of Janet Arvizo (37) prosecutors introduced photographs showing her covered in bruises, backing her claim that she had been beaten up by security guards outside a department store,
Although the incident is unrelated to the present accusations, Jackson’s defence has claimed that Arvizo lied about it in order to gain money from the store. The defence hopes to persuade the jury that she is untrustworthy and habitually lies for financial gain. The photographs also showed her then eight-year-old son with his arm in a sling.
The incident, two years before the alleged molestation by Jackson, led to the woman and her family agreeing a $150 000 settlement with the store.
”They broke my left hand; they hit, punched all over my body … ” Arvizo told the court. But Mesereau questioned the authenticity of the photographs.
In further developments, court documents released late on Monday shed some light on the strategies the two sides plan to pursue.
The prosecution wants to introduce evidence of the singer’s financial problems. It claims Jackson is $300-million in debt, money which is allegedly due on December 20. If he is unable to refinance his debts, he will go bankrupt, the prosecution says.
The singer’s financial plight is central to the prosecution’s claim that Jackson’s camp was so alarmed at the potential negative impact on his earnings of the Martin Bashir documentary Living with Michael Jackson that they panicked. From there, argues the prosecution, came the conspiracy to hold the family at Jackson’s Neverland ranch until they agreed to rebut the documentary’.
Prosecutors argue that with the family under his control, Jackson sexually abused the elder of the woman’s two sons. Jackson faces up to 20 years in prison should he be convicted of sexual molestation of a child, administering alcohol to a child and conspiracy involving kidnapping, false imprisonment and extortion. – Guardian Unlimited Â