Defense attorneys’ decision to use old case files

Michael Jackson’s defense attorneys plan to use evidence from the 2001 case in which the complainant’s mother sued the Tower Records store.

The defense attorneys believe that the 2001 case shows that this family are “professional complainants” and have a history of conspiring to commit fraud.

In 2001, the complainant’s family committed theft from the Tower Record store and were pursued by the store’s security guards. They were arrested along with the clothes they had taken without paying for them. After this incident, the complainant’s mother, in retaliation, accused the guards of assault and sued the store. Later, she claimed that when the guards attacked them, she was sexually abused by one of them named J.C. Penney. To prevent their store from being tarnished, the store’s officials persuaded the complainant’s mother to drop the lawsuit in exchange for paying $150,000.

The prosecutor’s office intends to limit the documents related to this case on the grounds that they are not connected to the current charges.

In a brief released on Thursday, the defense team stated that the complainant’s mother’s lawsuit against that store shows the complainant family’s history in relation to false claims and allegations that have not been confirmed by other witnesses—records that have become more visible over time.

The defense attorneys also pointed out that the boy (the current complainant in Michael’s case) had been diagnosed with cancer at the time the lawsuit was filed in 2001, and that this issue—despite reasons that were unrelated—had aroused the sympathy of the members of the jury at the time, resulting in a verdict in their favor.

Source: AP