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Accuser’s brother admits lying

Boy admitted false testimony during JC Penney lawsuit
/ Source: The Associated Press

A 14-year-old boy who testified that Michael Jackson molested his brother acknowledged under cross-examination Tuesday that the pop star didn’t show him a sex magazine that the prosecution had introduced into evidence. The witness also said he lied under oath in a separate civil lawsuit.

The teenager, who visited Jackson’s Neverland ranch for the last time in March 2003, became confused after Jackson attorney Thomas Mesereau showed him a copy of Barely Legal magazine dated August 2003.

The boy had testified on Monday that the magazine was one of those that Jackson had showed to him and his brother.

Confronted with the conflicting dates, the boy said: “I never said it was exactly that one. That’s not exactly the one he showed us.”

He said he had looked at the magazine with District Attorney Tom Sneddon before it was presented as evidence.

Under further questioning by Mesereau, the boy also said he lied under oath in another case when he swore that his mother and father never fought and that his father never hit him.

“When you were asked if your dad ever hit you, you said 'never,”’ said Mesereau. “Were you telling the truth?”

“No,” said the boy, who is the only trial witness so far to testify that the molestation occurred.

Jackson’s attorney also referred to a civil suit the boys’ mother filed against a department store company over an encounter with security guards. The mother claimed she was sexually assaulted and the family was beaten by the store guards. The defense contends the suit shows the family has a history of filing false claims to get money.

“Did someone tell you to lie in the JC Penney case?” Mesereau asked.

“I don’t remember,” the boy said.

When Mesereau asked him to tell the jury why he lied under oath, the boy said: “I don’t remember. It was five years ago. I don’t remember nothing.”

Jackson, 46, is accused of molesting a 13-year-old boy cancer survivor at his Neverland estate in 2003 and giving him alcohol. He also is accused of conspiring to hold the boy’s family captive to get them to rebut a damaging documentary in which Jackson said he allowed children to sleep in his bedroom.

The 14-year-old boy became a crucial prosecution witness Monday when he testified to actually seeing molestation, saying he twice walked into Jackson’s bedroom and saw Jackson masturbating with one hand while the other was in his sleeping brother’s underwear.

Mesereau asked the boy Tuesday about an alarm system in Jackson’s house that alerts the singer when anyone is in the hall outside his bedroom.

“So the two times you claim you saw Michael Jackson touching your brother in bed, that alarm went off?” asked Mesereau.

“Yes,” said the boy.

When the boy testified about the alleged molestation on Monday he did not mention any bell or alarm system and said his brother slept through both incidents, snoring at one point.

After court recessed, Jackson spokeswoman Raymone K. Bain said in a statement that the singer “felt better today” than he did on Monday. She said that the “scurrilous and salacious accusations and details, all untrue, were hurtful and embarrassing to Mr. Jackson” and that the singer feels that Mesereau is “doing an excellent job.”