SANTA MARIA, California - The sister of Michael Jackson's young accuser told jurors at his sex abuse trial she once stumbled on the pop star serving wine to her brother and two other young boys in a secret cellar at his Neverland Valley Ranch.
The girl, now an 18-year-old college student,
described the scene as she recounted a week the family spent at Neverland in February 2003 following the broadcast of a controversial British documentary about Jackson.
The girl's testimony offered jurors the first direct account of the events at Neverland around the time prosecutors say Jackson's aides moved to isolate and intimidate her family and the pop star sexually abused her brother.
Dressed in a conservative black suit and speaking firmly but often so softly that many in the courtroom had trouble understanding her, the girl said she was mostly left alone while her two brothers spent most of their time during that week with Jackson.
"Me and my brother are very close and this all just felt like he didn't want to talk to me, he didn't want to be near me, he was distant," she said. "It felt weird. I just knew something. "
Jackson, 46, is charged with molesting the boy, plying him with alcohol in order to seduce him, and conspiring to commit false imprisonment, child abduction and extortion. Jackson, who faces more than two decades in prison, has pleaded innocent.
The sister said Jackson and the boys made her feel unwelcome when she tried to spend time with them but that once she followed as they went down a flight of stairs hidden behind a jukebox in Neverland's arcade room.
She found Jackson in a wine cellar, pouring wine into cups for himself, her brothers and another boy, the son of a Jackson aide. The self-styled "King of Pop" gave her wine too, the girl said, which she did not finish.
On another occasion, the girl said, she followed her brothers and found them laying with Jackson on his bed, watching a movie. Empty alcohol bottles and glasses sat on a nightstand, desk and elsewhere.
Earlier in her testimony, the girl said Jackson flew her family to Miami on the day before the documentary, by British journalist Martin Bashir, was set for broadcast in February 2003 and took them to his hotel suite.
The documentary, by British journalist Martin Bashir, had already been broadcast in Britain. It showed Jackson and his accuser holding hands and nuzzling while the superstar tells of sharing his bed with boys.
"He (Jackson) was kind of, like, upset about it. He didn't want us to see it," the girl said. She added that at one point her mother left the suite but was brought back by Jackson's aides.
Her brother and Jackson spent several minutes alone behind closed doors that day, she said, adding her brother was behaving strangely hyper.
On the flight back to Neverland, the sister said, she watched as Jackson and her brother whispered and passed a Diet Coke can back and forth. The entertainer then gave him his watch and glittery black jacket.
Prosecutors say Jackson gave his young accuser, who had a kidney removed as part of treatment for cancer, wine hidden in soda cans.
The girl also described leaving Neverland in the middle of the night after feeling "scared" by aggressive Jackson advisers who were pressuring them into making a videotape to rebut Bashir's documentary.
Jackson's lead attorney, Tom Mesereau, was expected to cross-examine the girl on Friday. He said during his opening statement in the case that Jackson was a victim of his young accuser's mother, who wanted to shake him down for money.
- REUTERS
SANTA MARIA, California - The sister of Michael Jackson's young accuser told jurors at his sex abuse trial she once stumbled on the pop star serving wine to her brother and two other young boys in a secret cellar at his Neverland Valley Ranch.
The girl, now an 18-year-old college student,
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