Jackson prosecutors expected to rest case this week
Stung by several recent rulings favourable to the defence, prosecutors in the Michael Jackson child-molestation case said they planned to wrap up their case as early as this week.
Jackson’s trial was scheduled to resume today following a three-day break. Judge Rodney Melville cancelled Friday’s court session when witnesses were not available to testify.
Melville denied prosecution requests on Thursday to present testimony on battered women’s syndrome as it relates to Janet Arvizo, the mother of Jackson’s accuser Gavin Arvizo, and to present salacious new testimony from a former Jackson employee.
Melville said, however, that he would allow the ex-employee, Kassim Abdool, to attempt to corroborate an account from Ralph Chacon, a former employee who says he saw Jackson commit a sex act on a child in 1992 or 1993.
Abdool and Chacon were among employees who lost a wrongful termination suit against Jackson in 1997 and were ordered to pay damages to the entertainer.
The judge also said on Thursday he would allow testimony from Chris Carter, a former Jackson security guard who was recently arrested for investigation of robbery in Las Vegas. Carter was among those expected to testify this week.
Prosecutors said last week they planned to rest their case during this, the trial’s ninth week, clearing the way for Jackson’s attorneys to begin their defence of the pop star.
Jackson, 46, is accused of molesting then 13-year-old Gavin Arvizo in February or March 2003, giving the boy alcohol and conspiring to hold the boy’s family captive to get them to rebut a TV documentary in which Jackson appeared with the boy and said he allowed children to sleep in his bed. Jackson called the sleeping arrangement an innocent, non-sexual practice.
Jackson denies all charges; the trial continues.
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