Court Session 14: Child Psychologist’s Testimony

After a 45-minute delay, Michael Jackson, while shivering and crying, was helped by his security guard to the table reserved for the defense team. But after five minutes, he again felt pain, and his doctor immediately came to him. Then he left the courtroom with him.

Michael was wearing a charcoal suit and a colorful vest, and he also had a purple armband on his arm. His hair was unusually messy.

His mother, father, and his brother Jackie accompanied him at the fourteenth court session.

After Michael returned and the judge briefly consulted with the defense attorneys and the doctor accompanying him, the court session officially began. The prosecutor called an expert in child abuse to the witness stand to explain the signs of such crimes in children.

Anthony J. Urquiza, a child psychologist, testified that children rarely lie about allegations of sexual abuse. He said they often report it late and are more inclined to discuss it with a psychologist than with one of their close relatives. He added that boys who are sexually abused by men tend to delay telling what happened because they fear being labeled as gay.

Before questioning the psychologist about the possibility that the accuser’s family was lying, Thomas Mesereau presented his own theory about the case:

“Let me ask a hypothetical question. You have a mother and three children. And there is no father figure. The parents are divorced in a particularly painful way. For whatever reason, the mother and her children choose someone and accept him as their father… and then, all of a sudden, separation happens. The mother and the children see that the person they accepted as their father is taken away from them. You can imagine a situation where the mother entices her children to falsely claim sexual abuse.”

In response to Thomas Mesereau’s hypothetical, Urquiza said that, according to research, only two to six percent of allegations made about sexual abuse turn out to be false. He also said Mesereau’s theory is completely unbelievable.

He said he did not know anything about cases where money was the motivating factor or where allegations were made against a famous and wealthy person.

Mesereau asked Urquiza about two other criminal cases related to this matter:

— The case of a man who was released from prison last year after spending twenty years behind bars, following the admission by all of his accusers—who are now grown—that they had made up allegations against him under the influence of the prosecution.

— A case involving a daycare in the late 1980s. It was alleged that widespread sexual abuse had occurred at that daycare. But the case was closed after seven years, once the accusations were withdrawn and the defendants were acquitted.

Urquiza said he did not know much about these two cases. He added:

“Obtaining information about false accusations is very difficult, because you are looking for something that did not happen. Investigating this is hard work.”

Urquiza continued that among the 1,000 people who had claimed since 1983 that they were victims of this crime, only two had made false accusations.

He also added that boys who are sexually abused usually show violent behavior.

During questioning last week, the accuser had said that at school he had gotten into fights with other boys.

Mesereau told Urquiza, “You can become aggressive for a variety of reasons.” Then he added, “Just because they add new details to their story doesn’t mean they’re not lying, does it?”

Later in the court session, prosecutor Lauren Wallace called an airline attendant to the witness stand. She said that during several flights she brought alcohol for Michael Jackson in soda cans, because she did not want the children to see him drinking alcohol. However, she added that she had never flown with the accuser’s family.

When Michael left the courtroom, he said something about his back pain: “It’s very painful, and I’m taking medication under a doctor’s supervision.”

Raymond Benitez, Michael’s spokesperson, said that he spoke with him late on Sunday, and Michael told him that he still had very serious and severe back pain.

“I asked him how he was doing, and he said his back pain is killing him.”

Source: eMJey.com / Associated Press