Yet more bad news for singer Michael Jackson:
SANTA MARIA, Calif. Mar 28, 2005 — In a stinging setback for Michael Jackson, a judge ruled Monday that the jury can hear allegations that the pop star molested or had designs on five other boys, including actor Macaulay Culkin and two youngsters who reached multimillion-dollar settlements with the singer.
District Attorney Tom Sneddon said Jackson’s inappropriate activities with these boys included kissing, hugging and inserting his hands into their pants. He also said there was a pattern of “grooming,” or preparing the boys for molestation, but did not elaborate.
The incidents allegedly occurred 12 to 15 years ago, and the prosecutor acknowledged that only one of the five boys has agreed to testify at Jackson’s molestation trial. All other testimony would come from third parties, including the mothers of the two boys who won settlements.
Jackson, 46, is on trial on charges he molested one boy then 13 at his Neverland ranch in 2003.
In most criminal cases, evidence of past behavior is not admissible against a defendant. However, the California Legislature changed that in 1995, specifically in cases of child molestation and domestic violence.
Sneddon said the testimony about the five cases will show that Jackson has a consistent pattern of abuse.
And that is the crux of the issue: everyone and his mother plus people on Mars (and that includes Alan Keyes, Dennis Kucinich and Peggy Noonan) know about the past allegations — which never went to trial. To exclude the details from the trial would not give jurors the whole picture. Is it that Jackson is a magnet who attracts the allegations? Is it that Jackson is considered an easy mark by parents and kids who see him as an easy target to shake down with cruel falshoods? Or can it be good, old-fashioned racism as Jackson recently suggested.
Or maybe in the end, all of this will show a pattern that is troubling that goes beyond rationalization or public relations spin. We truly don’t know (yet) but now it’ll all be out on the table.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.