The 42nd Court Session

In today’s court session, the prosecutor called a financial affairs expert to the witness stand so he could testify that Michael Jackson was facing major financial problems.

In response to this claim, Thomas Mesereau, Michael’s defense attorney, said that the music catalogs whose rights belong to Michael are worth between four and five billion dollars. The witness told the court that from 1999 to 2004, Michael spent 20 to 30 million dollars more each year than the income he was earning.

However, Duross O'Bryan replied to the prosecutor that this does not mean that Michael Jackson was bankrupt.

Mesereau, noting that Jackson’s financial information is unrelated to the case, reminded the court that in 2002 Michael had received a $100 million offer to hold a world tour. He added that if Michael accepted such an offer, he could resolve his financial problems within one day.

O'Bryan responded: “If solving these problems is that easy, why hasn’t Mr. Jackson tried to solve his financial problems so far?”

Mesereau answered: “Maybe these problems weren’t as serious as you have identified.”

The prosecution claims that Michael Jackson had the plaintiff’s family imprisoned in Neverland in order to pay his debts, and forced them in a video (the second part of the documentary Living with Michael Jackson) to praise him. And at exactly the same time, he sexually abuses the family’s son, who had been a cancer patient.

The prosecution also alleges that Michael tried to sell this documentary to the Fox television network and receive $7 million in return.

Mesereau said about this: “Let’s assume he had the opportunity to make a documentary film that could generate $7 million. This $7 million would not help much in solving his financial problems.” The witness gave a negative response.

Mesereau continued: “And this amount of money is not worth committing a crime either.” Due to the prosecutor’s objection and the judge’s approval, the witness did not answer this question.

To compensate for the blow that the prosecutor’s office had received in the witness stand from defending Michael’s former wife, Deborah “Debbie” Rowe, Thomas Esdon called a police inspector to the stand. The inspector was to testify that Rowe had told him during an interview last year that Michael was suffering from a sociopath, which caused him to display aggressive and dangerous behavior toward others, and that he saw his children as being in his possession.

He also claimed that Rowe told him that in the second part of the documentary “Living with Michael Jackson,” she was forced to say positive things about her former husband, and that her statements were not true.

During her two appearances on the witness stand, Rowe said that Michael is an amazing father and that his behavior with children is very good.

Rowe used many positive words to describe Michael, and none of them were “sociopath.”

Source: Associated Press