Part of the prosecution case against Michael Jackson was in danger of unravelling on Thursday when his ex-wife jumped to his defence and made him appear a victim of ”opportunistic vultures” around him.
Debbie Rowe, who had two children with Jackson during a three-year marriage in the 1990s, failed to link the 46-year-old entertainer to an alleged conspiracy to cover up alleged child abuse.
Instead she said he was ”a great person and a great father” who was ”generous to a fault”, and that some in his entourage were trying to exploit him.
Jackson faces charges of abusing a 13-year-old boy and involvement in an alleged conspiracy to force the boy’s family to make a video that would help undermine an explosive TV documentary highlighting his fondness for sleeping with children.
Prosecutors had hoped Rowe would link Jackson to the conspiracy by revealing that she too had taken part in a scripted video interview praising the singer.
But Rowe denied the interview had been scripted and said she took part willingly.
”I was eager to do it because I would get to see my children and possibly renew a relationship with Jackson,” she said. Rowe is fighting Jackson in a Los Angeles court for access to their two children, Prince Michael and Paris.
During the nine-hour interview, Rowe described Jackson as a wonderful man and a model parent. In court, she admitted some of her answers were dishonest. But her testimony on Thursday failed to go into further details.
Rowe had been billed as the prosecution’s star witness. At one point the defence moved to have her testimony struck out. But after favourable testimony on Thursday, defence lawyer Thomas Mesereau withdrew the request.
Rowe reserved invective for Jackson’s associates, a number of whom have been named as co-conspirators in the case, but have not been indicted. ”I think they’re opportunistic vultures,” she said.
The conspiracy charge forms part of the prosecution’s broader proposition: that the Jackson camp panicked when the TV documentary Living With Michael Jackson unveiled his practice of sharing his bed with children, and stopped at nothing to secure sympathetic voices for a video rebuttal.
Rowe’s testimony was considered the last chance for the prosecution unambiguously to tie Jackson personally to the alleged conspiracy
Jackson still faces the child molestation charges and of plying a minor with alcohol. The prosecution is expected to rest its case in the next few days. – Guardian Unlimited Â