Details of the 25th Court Session
In today’s court session, one of the former security officers of Michael Jackson, who was called to the witness stand, claimed that he once secretly looked into the bathroom through the window and saw Michael Jackson performing oral sex on a young boy.
Ralph Chacon, who worked as a security officer in Neverland from 1991 to 1994, added, “I saw that they were standing naked facing each other.”
He also said he had witnessed Michael placing his hand on the boy’s pants.
During the time the complainant described the crimes he claimed to have witnessed, members of the jury listened to him carefully and occasionally took notes. They also kept an eye on Michael’s movements.
Michael stared silently at his former security officer. He slowly shook his head and whispered something to his lawyer. The two had previously fought each other in court over a legal matter. Chacon had been part of Jackson’s team until 1995, when, along with four other Jackson employees, he sued Jackson for allegedly wrongful account settlement. The case lasted six months. In the end, the jury found Chacon and his accomplices guilty of fraud, assault, and bad faith against Michael Jackson. The court ordered them to pay Michael $1.4 million in damages. The only result of that trial for Chacon was bankruptcy.
In addition, Chacon admitted that he had been fined $25,000 for stealing Michael Jackson’s property.
He then, at his lawyer’s suggestion, fabricated a story and paid $17,000 to tabloid newspapers in order to raise the $25,000.
The details of that lawsuit were not discussed in court, but Chacon claimed that after being threatened by Jackson’s armed personal guards, he had left his job at Neverland. He also alleged that his private conversations at Neverland were being wiretapped.
Thomas Mesereau, Michael Jackson’s senior attorney, cast doubt on the complainant’s credibility with his angry, intense, and repeated questions about the complainant’s lawsuit against Jackson, which had ended with an opposite result for him.
“After that six-month trial, now is a good time to settle with him. Right?”
The question Mesereau asked Chacon with a mocking tone had a strong impact.
Mesereau tried to portray Chacon as a blackmailer with sinister financial motives.
“Do you remember telling a doctor that you’d rather get $1 million from Mr. Jackson than work?”
“In that lawsuit, you tried to extort Mr. Jackson, didn’t you?”
Chacon replied, “No, sir.”
When Mesereau asked Chacon about borrowing money after the death of one of his relatives, Chacon’s voice trembled and he began to cry—apparently overwhelmed by Mesereau’s repeated and lengthy questions.
Chacon also admitted that he and his accomplices had been feeding their prosecutors to tabloid newspapers in order to pay Jackson the $1.4 million.
“Today, after testifying in court, do you plan to go to one of the tabloid newspapers?”
“No, sir. I’m just going home.”
Mesereau had been preparing for a fight since the prosecution called its second witness for today’s session. A former servant at Neverland, who testified yesterday, said he had repeatedly seen Jackson kissing the boys—including “Macaulay Culkin.”
McManus is one of those same five people who had participated in the lawsuit against Jackson in 1995.
Thomas Mesereau revealed in today’s session that McManus and her husband had been sued for deceiving three children and stealing $30,500 from them.
He said McManus had been fined $30,000 for stealing a painting that Jackson had drawn of Elvis Presley and selling it to tabloid newspapers.
Adrian McManus continued her testimony from the previous day and said, “I saw Mr. Jackson and Macaulay in the library. Mr. Jackson was kissing his cheeks. And then he put his hand on his foot.”
Macaulay Culkin has consistently stated that he was never sexually abused by Jackson.
McManus, like Chacon, experienced painful moments on the witness stand.
McManus’s sworn statement says that he had never seen Michael Jackson sexually abuse children. Today, he said that during the eight days of questioning, he had been forced to lie because he was terrified of Jackson’s team.
Thomas Mesereau attacked McManus with two points.
He called him a disgruntled former employee for the 1995 lawsuit against Jackson. And he said that while he had sworn an oath, he had lied before the jury.
“In your sworn statement, you said you trust Michael Jackson and that you leave your child alone with him. Isn’t that right?”
McManus agreed. Then Mesereau said that in 1993 the witness had testified that he had never seen the complainant’s son. But in yesterday’s and today’s sessions, he said that the complainant’s son in 1993 was one of those same boys Jackson had kissed and caressed.
“Are you telling the members of this jury that in this sworn testimony, while you had sworn an oath, you lied the whole time?”
“I believe I wasn’t telling the truth the whole time.”
“Did you know you were committing a crime?”
“I really didn’t think that way.”
Source: AP / CNN