LOS ANGELES : LaToya’s Remarks Have No Merit, Jackson Lawyer Says

One of Michael Jackson’s lawyers took issue Thursday with comments by the entertainer’s sister suggesting that Jackson had molested young boys over a number of years.

“I don’t believe there’s any merit whatsoever to anything she said,” said Howard Weitzman, one of Jackson’s attorneys, echoing denials by Jackson’s mother and several other siblings. During a Tel Aviv news conference Wednesday, Jackson’s sister LaToya hinted that Jackson had molested young boys and paid off their parents to keep them quiet.

Weitzman is one of several lawyers representing Jackson, who is under investigation by police and who is facing a civil suit filed by a 13-year-old boy who alleges that he was molested. Johnnie Cochran Jr., a Los Angeles lawyer and former deputy district attorney, has recently joined Jackson’s legal team.

On Wednesday, LaToya Jackson’s husband said she was afraid to return to California to be deposed as part of the boy’s civil case. But the boy’s lawyer, Larry R. Feldman, said he is prepared to take her deposition “anywhere she desires.”