| Jackson
Witness' Credibility Hit |
By Mark
Bendeich
The brother of Michael
Jackson's accuser was back on the witness stand
for the third day Wednesday, as the pop star's
attorney tried to damage the witness' credibility
by getting him to contradict his own testimony
and that of a psychologist who interviewed him
and his brother.
Defense attorney Thomas Mesereau
continued to catch the 14-year-old boy in many
inconsistencies,
mostly about details of the Neverland ranch.
 |
| The boy reiterated he was sure it was the
exact magazine Jackson showed them in a suitcase
full of magazines. "Michael Jackson
never showed you that magazine, Barely Legal,
did he?" Mesereau said in an accusatory
tone. |
For
instance, the boy told the grand jury he could
get the key to the wine
cellar any time
he wanted, told the jury Tuesday he could not.
Mesereau asked, "Why did you not tell the
truth yesterday?" The brother responded
that the key was on the hook, but he did not
actually have the key.
In another exchange, Mesereau
asked the boy about the number of times the family
left Neverland,
when they were allegedly being held against their
will.
Among the charges is that Jackson
conspired to hold the boy's family captive to
get them to
rebut a damaging TV documentary in which Jackson
said he allowed children to sleep in his bedroom. "How
many times did your family escape Neverland so
you could go back to escape again?" Mesereau
asked. District Attorney Thomas Sneddon objected,
and the boy didn't answer.
On Monday, the accuser's brother
testified about allegedly witnessing two molestations
in the
master bedroom at Neverland. But Mesereau got
the boy to acknowledge Tuesday that Jackson had
not really shown him or his
brother a particular sexually explicit magazine.
The boy appeared caught by
surprise when Mesereau confronted him with his
testimony from Monday
that Jackson showed him and his brother a magazine
called Barely Legal, which was displayed by District
Attorney Tom Sneddon as a significant piece of
evidence seized from Jackson's home.
The boy reiterated he was sure
it was the exact magazine Jackson showed them
in a suitcase full
of magazines. "Michael Jackson never showed
you that magazine, Barely Legal, did he?" Mesereau
said in an accusatory tone. "Yes," said
the boy.
"But when you look at
the date it was August 2003," Mesereau
said, pointing out that the family left Jackson's
Neverland ranch for the last time in March
2003. "I didn't say it was exactly the one
he showed us," the boy said defensively,
adding later, "I
said he showed us those type of magazines."
The boy testified Monday that he twice saw Jackson
touching his brother's genitals with his hand.
But Mesereau noted Katz had told a grand jury
on March 29, 2004, that the boy had told Katz
he saw Jackson's genitals touching the accuser's
buttocks in the second alleged molestation.
The boy denied making the statement
to Katz and refused the lawyer's request that
he look at
the transcript.
The witness' own account of the alleged molestations
Monday was largely consistent with the one he
gave last year to the grand jury.
"If in fact he told Dr.
Katz something very different two years ago,
that's going to be a problem
for the prosecution," said former San
Francisco district attorney Jim Hammer. Jackson,
46, is accused of molesting a 13-year-old
cancer survivor at Neverland in 2003, giving
him alcohol and conspiring to hold the boy's
family captive.
After court recessed Tuesday,
Jackson spokeswoman Raymone K. Bain said in a
statement that the
singer "felt better today" than he
did Monday. She said that the "scurrilous
and salacious accusations and details, all
untrue, were hurtful and embarrassing to Mr.
Jackson" and the singer feels
that Mesereau is "doing an excellent job."  Back
to to
| Bolivia
Indian Groups Vow to 'Battle' President |
Bolivian Indians blocked roads
with boulders on Wednesday and vowed a "face-to-face
battle" against President Carlos Mesa, whose
quickly withdrawn resignation offer failed to
ease turmoil.
Mesa had gambled that the offer,
which Congress rebuffed in a dramatic late-night
session on
Tuesday, would generate a show of support and
calm widespread street protests against his policies
to encourage foreign investment in energy.
However, several leaders of
the poor indigenous majority, furious over what
they see as the looting
of Bolivia's natural wealth, came together to
say that Mesa's actions would only fuel more
protests that have paralyzed parts of the country.
"We're going now to a
face-to-face battle against Mesa's government," said
Evo Morales, head of Movement Toward Socialism,
or MAS.
Television images showed highways
strewn with boulders to stop traffic as Indian
women in
purple shawls and bowler hats sat in the road.
Radio
reported calm in the protest hotbed of El Alto,
a mostly indigenous outgrowth of the capital.
Morales said the protesters
intended to remain nonviolent, but keep pressure
on Mesa. "The president has lied to the
Bolivian people. The problem isn't the blockades.
It's the energy
law that Mesa wants to force on us in favor
of the multinationals, and that's why he blackmailed
us with his resignation," Morales said.
Labor unions joined Morales
and other Indian protest leaders from coca-growing
regions to
sign a deal backing further protests, which
have become a platform for a long list of grievances
in South America's poorest country.
Most opposition leaders do
not want Mesa to quit, but demand that he give
them more say
over the
economy. The popular president, however, said
he would push ahead with his energy-sector
plans and did not fear more protests.
"You can't be afraid when
you know that 99 percent of Bolivians are against
these blockades," Mesa
told reporters on Wednesday, looking a bit
tired after celebrations of his decision to stay
in
office stretched on past midnight.
Morales is pushing for the
government to raise royalties charged to foreign
companies
such
as Brazil's Petrobras and BP, so more funds
can
be raised for the poor if investment rises
in Bolivia's natural gas reserves, some
of the world's
largest.
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