58th Session - Chris Tucker: The Accuser Is a Con Artist

Today, the defense attorneys ended their work by calling their final witness. Over the course of three weeks, the defense attorneys called 50 witnesses to the stand so that the accusations the prosecution team had brought against Michael Jackson over ten weeks—using 85 witnesses—could be neutralized. The defense attorneys have described Michael as a victim of the accuser’s mother’s financial motives and claimed that he used the influence he had over his children to exploit them for his own benefit, forcing them to lie and to invent fake stories about famous people. In line with this, the defense’s witnesses also described the accuser’s mother as a fraud and a con artist. At first, the defense attorneys had planned to spend nearly eight weeks on the case by calling 300 witnesses. But contrary to expectations, this time was reduced to three weeks and the number of witnesses was cut from 300 to 50. The list of 300 witnesses also included names such as Elizabeth Taylor, Stevie Wonder, and Kobe Bryant, who were not called to the stand. Michael was also supposed to be called by the defense attorneys, but that did not happen. It is expected that the jury members will be able to begin their final decision-making work on the case by the middle of next week. Chris Tucker, the 50th and final witness for the defense, testified that in 2001, when the accuser was 12 years old, he had met him for the first time at a charity club. He described the accuser as a con artist. Tucker said his suspicion about the accuser’s family began when they came to the filming location of one of his movies and refused to leave. Tucker said he had paid for their stay at a hotel. But after weeks passed, they were still staying at the hotel. He continued that when the accuser’s family realized that Michael Jackson was in Miami, they insisted that he take them there. And he had been forced to send the accuser’s family to Miami by a private flight. He added that after this incident in Florida, he had pulled Michael aside and warned him to be cautious when dealing with the accuser’s family. " I told him: Something isn’t right here. " Prosecutor Thomas Esdon addressed Tucker and said that he had invited the accuser’s family to attend his brother’s wedding celebration, but Tucker said they had invited themselves. When Esdon showed him a photo Tucker had taken with the accuser’s family at that celebration, Tucker said: " What a beautiful photo. Can I have it? " In response, Esdon, in an angry and hurried tone, told Tucker: " It depends on whether you’re a good boy or not. " At the end of today’s session, the prosecution team requested that the film related to the police interview with the accuser in 2003 be shown in court. The defense attorneys, in response, said that if the judge agrees to this request, then the accuser would need to be called back to the witness stand. Source: Associated Press / Reuters / CNN