Jackson Jury May Hear of ’93 Allegations

Prosecutors in the Michael Jackson child-molestation trial said Wednesday they want to ask a judge next week to allow them to present evidence of past unproven acts of sexual misconduct by the pop star.

Prosecutors have said they have evidence of seven prior allegations of misconduct, including an alleged 1993 molestation of a boy who reportedly received a multimillion-dollar settlement.

This week, Santa Barbara County prosecutors served a subpoena seeking legal records from Larry Feldman, the attorney who represented the boy in the 1993 civil settlement. Evidence from that case could buttress the allegations of a 15-year-old Los Angeles boy who says Jackson, 46, sexually fondled him at his Neverland ranch in the Santa Ynez Valley in 2003.

Santa Barbara County Superior Court Judge Rodney S. Melville asked Jackson’s defense team to let him know by Friday whether they would be ready for a hearing next week or whether they want the hearing set at a later date. Melville said prosecutors would need to call witnesses outside the jury’s presence before he decides whether to allow such testimony.

Jackson’s attorney, Thomas A. Mesereau Jr., told the judge that he would also like to call witnesses to dispute allegations of past misconduct.

During a hearing before the trial, Melville said he would not rule on the admissibility of past, unproven acts until the prosecution presented evidence of the 2003 molestation at trial. The judge said he wanted to gauge the strength of the prosecution’s case before making his decision.

Testimony about the alleged molestation so far has come from two key witnesses: Jackson’s 15-year-old accuser and the boy’s younger brother. The accuser said Jackson fondled him twice while they were in bed together at Neverland. The brother said he saw Jackson molest his older brother two additional times while the older boy appeared to be sleeping.

But the boys were inconsistent in their testimony on cross-examination, and the accuser admitted this week that he had denied to a school official that Jackson had molested him, because he was afraid of more teasing from classmates. The accuser also said he was unsure about the dates that the alleged molestations took place.

If convicted on all counts, Jackson faces 20 years in prison.

In testimony Wednesday, the lead investigator in the case, Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Sgt. Steve Robel, said Jackson’s accuser broke down while talking to him about the alleged molestation for the first time in 2003.

“He basically became very, very quiet, folded his arms and just sunk down into his chair,” Robel said. “It took me about 10 minutes to reassure him that he was doing the right thing. And he, at one point in time, kind of got a little choked up.”

That testimony runs counter to allegations by Jackson’s defense team, which contends that the boy and his family eagerly came forward with false allegations in an effort to seek money from the pop star.

Robel said the boy told him that Jackson fondled him sexually five to seven times, in contrast to the two incidents the boy testified to last week in court.

The prosecution called only sheriff’s detectives as witnesses Wednesday, and they spent much of the time identifying evidence that was seized from Neverland while serving a search warrant in November 2003.

Detectives said they found adult magazines, books and DVDs throughout Jackson’s two-story bedroom suite.

The adult material was found in a closet, in the master bathroom and in a nightstand. A photograph of the accuser, the accuser’s brother and his older sister was found in a nightstand drawer along with adult magazines.

Among the materials found in the master bathroom was a book titled “Dressup: Play Acts and Fantasies of Childhood.”

The detectives said under cross-examination that all of the adult material was legal and available commercially. In his opening statement, Mesereau said the pop star enjoys reading adult magazines but has not shown them to children.

Jackson’s accuser and the accuser’s brother testified earlier in the trial that Jackson had shown them adult magazines and had once simulated a sex act with a mannequin in his bedroom. A mannequin was among the items seized during the search.

The testimony about the search of Neverland was slow and tedious. The courtroom, packed nearly to capacity for much of the trial, was little more than half full by Wednesday afternoon.