Court Session 3

The third court session began with the summoning of Ann Marie Kite, the second prosecution witness, to the witness stand. Kite, who uses the name Gabriel for professional matters, had been hired after the controversial documentary “Living with Michael Jackson” was aired.

She was called to testify regarding the charge of conspiracy and the detention of the complainant’s family in Neverland, which the prosecution has brought against Jackson and five of his staff members. Kite claimed that the night the complainant’s family left Neverland, Michael had become fearful and anxious. She said that Mark Sckaffel, one of Jackson’s employees, told her that their leaving Neverland had worried Michael. But later that same day, Sckaffel told her, “Everything is under control and the family has been returned to Neverland.”

Kite’s statements were challenged through further questions, and it became clear that she had never met Michael Jackson or the complainant’s family, and that in fact all her information had always been secondhand. She said she was hired through David Le Grande, her former boyfriend, who had also been Michael’s lawyer, and that she was dismissed only after six days (from February 9 to February 15, 2003).

Kite reported that there was a spy in Michael’s team. She said that Konitzer, one of Jackson’s employees—who is also accused of involvement in the conspiracy to detain the family in Neverland—had been hired by Sony to help them seize Michael Jackson’s share in the company.

In response to Mesereau’s question—“You said that Mr. Konitzer was hired to keep Michael separate from the rest of the people and to make him bring about his own downfall. Isn’t that right?”—Kite said, “Not like that.” She added that she had been aware of the importance of the catalogs and knew that Sony was trying to reclaim them. She also said she had suspected other members of Jackson’s staff and felt they were not working in his interests. In her testimony, she named Sckaffel, Konitzer, and Al Malnik, and said she obtained her information through the internet and through Le Grande personally.

Mesereau asked, “Were the people who aroused your greatest suspicion Sckaffel and Konitzer?” Kite replied, “The people I was most suspicious of were those whose eyes were closed to the destruction that was happening to Michael Jackson.”

Kite’s internet search revealed that Al Malnik has a “criminal reputation,” and that Sckaffel had also been involved in producing obscene goods for gay men. Kite believed that working with such people would bring negative consequences for Jackson. She said the members of Jackson’s team disagreed with one another. “I couldn’t discuss anything with any of them. They all disagreed about the issues that needed to be discussed.”

Kite said that a few weeks after she was dismissed from her job on Michael Jackson’s team, she had met with Jermaine Jackson and his wife and mother, Katherine Jackson, at their home in Encino, and tried to inform them about a team that, rather than thinking about Michael’s best interests, thought only about what they themselves liked. But Jermaine rejected her statements. She continued that she had been “upset” about this.

The next court session will be held tomorrow.

Source: eMJey.com / Yahoo News, AP, CBS