Jackson Judge Gives Victories to Both Sides

The judge in the Michael Jackson child molestation case handed small victories to both sides Friday as he disposed of long-standing motions before opening statements begin Monday.

Superior Court Judge Rodney S. Melville ruled on 21 motions, but only about 10 were discussed. The jury and eight alternates were not present.

Jackson appeared in court Friday, though in the past he has sometimes skipped such proceedings. Wearing black, he arrived early and engaged in animated discussions with his defense team during the breaks.

He received permission to leave after the last break, about midday.

Jackson, 46, is charged with molesting a 13-year-old boy at the star’s Neverland ranch in 2003. He is also accused of giving the boy alcohol and conspiring to keep the boy and his family from leaving the ranch.

The case will rely on the testimony of the boy, now 15, and his relatives. Among Friday’s motions were defense efforts to include evidence that could cast doubt on the credibility of key witnesses, especially the mother of the accuser.

“The credibility of this accuser is obviously central to the entire case,” defense lawyer Thomas A. Mesereau Jr. told Melville.

Mesereau asked that prior litigation involving the family be admitted and that the lawyer for the mother of the accuser be required to testify. Melville ruled that some information from a case in which the family received a settlement from a department store could be allowed.

The family maintained that the store falsely accused the boy, then about 7, of shoplifting. There was also a scuffle in the parking lot involving security guards during which, the mother of the boy maintained, she was sexually assaulted. The family eventually sued and a settlement of at least $100,000 was achieved.

The defense wanted the case included because it hopes to use it to demonstrate “a pattern of false accusations involving sexual assault,” Mesereau said.

Melville granted a prosecution motion to exclude any reference to the mother’s alleged extramarital conduct, but he left the door open to revisit the issue. The judge also backed the prosecution by ruling against defense hopes to mention the mother’s use of psychiatric medication.

Amid those efforts, Deputy Dist. Atty. Ron Zonen tried to bring the discussion back to what he said he believes is the heart of the case.

“This case is about whether or not a man who acknowledges sleeping with children slept with this child and what he did when he slept with this child,” the prosecutor said.

One of the likely bits of evidence is the 2003 documentary “Living With Michael Jackson” by Martin Bashir, which raises questions about Jackson’s relationships with young boys at the Neverland ranch. In an interview shown in the documentary, Jackson is seen holding hands with the boy who later said he was molested by the star. The boy also laid his head on Jackson’s shoulder.

Jackson employees also recorded the interview, and the defense wanted to include those tapes in the presentation to the jury of eight women and four men. Melville tentatively rejected that request, adding that he would see how the case developed and could revisit the issue.

Bashir is expected to be the first prosecution witness.

The defense unsuccessfully sought to have the district attorney’s office recused from the case. In the past, Jackson supporters have accused Dist. Atty. Tom Sneddon of having a grudge against Jackson, stemming from a 1993 child molestation case that did not lead to criminal action.

Melville had rejected a previous motion to recuse Sneddon, but the motion that was rejected Friday was broader, seeking to bar the entire staff.

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Times correspondent Connell reported from Santa Maria and Times staff writer Muskal from Los Angeles.