Mother of alleged victim initially said, “I trust my children with him”

New revelations in Michael Jackson case [b]Mother of alleged victim initially said, “I trust my children with him”[/b] By Mike Taibbi NBC News correspondent Today show Updated: 9:26 a.m. ET [b]March 16, 2004[/b] Michael Jackson has called the charges that he molested a 12-year-old cancer patient “a big lie,” insisting he’s totally innocent. But what exactly does the alleged victim and his family say that Jackson did? And what are they saying now? NBC News correspondent Mike Taibbi has explosive details in this exclusive report. When the controversial British documentary “Living with Michael Jackson” aired in the U.S. on February 6th last year, Beverly Hills psychiatrist Dr. Carole Lieberman was among a handful of child advocates who quickly fired off a detailed complaint. “I felt enough was enough. I just couldn’t believe that the world was standing by and letting these children be potentially harmed.” On the day of the broadcast, Santa Barbara County District Attorney Tom Sneddon said what appeared on screen was no substitute “for credible, cooperative victims,” but later would dismiss as unimportant an early investigation by Los Angeles County that said allegations that Jackson abused his eventual accuser were “unfounded.” Sneddon says, “To call that an investigation is a misnomer, it was an interview plain and simple and that’s all it was.” NBC News can report exclusively that just two weeks after that documentary aired, the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department began its own official investigation of Jackson’s possible abuse of his alleged victim and that Dr. Lieberman’s letter of complaint was a key reason the probe was started. It was February 18th, last year [2003]. The investigation of “Suspected Child Abuse” was given a case number and daily report number. One early entry, from last March 10th: an account of an interview by three Los Angeles social workers of the accuser and his brother, sister and mother at the apartment of the mother’s boyfriend. From the accuser, then a 12-year-old cancer patient: “Michael is like a father to me, he’s never done anything to me sexually.” And the boy “never slept in bed with Michael,” his “mother… always aware of what goes on in Neverland.” From his mother: “Michael is like a father to my children, he loves them and I trust my children with him.” [b]She said Michael’s kind, and misunderstood and “an important part of (her son’s) recovery” from cancer. Sometimes, the mother said, her kids “would be on Michael’s bed, watching TV and eating S’mores. But as for the allegations that they share a bed, it is ‘no.'” Her children “were never solely alone with Jackson…there’s always someone around.” She said Michael has, “never been anything but wonderful. My children have never felt uncomfortable in his presence. Michael has been a blessing.”[/b] The accuser’s older sister was “teary eyed,” according to the report, adding, “Michael is so kind and loving.” [b]The father, interviewed separately, says “there’s no reason to suspect any wrongdoing” by Jackson, adding that he too “attributed (his son’s) recovery to Jackson.”[/b] On April 16th, the Santa Barbara’s sheriff’s department reached a conclusion. [b]”Based on the interviews with the children and their father, it was determined that the elements of criminal activity were not met. Therefore, this investigation was classified as a suspected sexual abuse incident report, with no further action required. Case closed.”[/b] Case closed after a two-month investigation that took place much of the period when Jackson is said to have molested his alleged victim 7 times. But the case wasn’t closed. [b]NBC News learned that on June 13th last year it was dramatically resumed, when Santa Barbara’s investigators heard — as NBC News is reporting for the first time — version number two of the story told by the accuser and his family in their own words.[/b] The family told this version of the story to psychologist Dr. Stan Katz. In the documents we reviewed, Katz told Santa Barbara’s investigator the details. The records quote Katz saying the accuser claimed he “drank alcohol every night and got buzzed… whiskey, vodka and Bacardi,” and that when his head hurt from the drinking, “Michael said keep drinking, it will make it feel better.” He said Michael “showed (him) pictures of naked women on the computer,” that he once “saw Michael just standing there, naked for a moment,” and that Michael told him “he (Michael) had to masturbate or he’d go crazy.” According to the documents Katz said the accuser’s brother told him, “That on a flight back from Miami he saw Michael ‘licking (the accuser’s) head’ as the boy slept against Michael’s chest.” That Michael provided “wine, vodka and tequila on numerous occasions.” That one of Jackson’s security guards “told us he’d kill us and our parents if we told about the alcohol.” And that Michael “talked a lot about sex.” He said he and his brother “constantly sleep in Michael’s room with Michael and (his brother) in Michael’s bed.” He gave graphic details NBC News will not repeat about at least two incidents of inappropriate sexual touching initiated on the accuser by Michael. The documents quote Katz saying the accuser’s sister told him Michael “gave her some wine,” and that she saw Michael “kissing him on the cheek, hugging him, always rubbing him.” According to the report Katz said the family claimed, about their earlier interviews, “they made them say Michael’s a father figure, he’s great, he’d never do anything bad.” Katz said he believed the family was telling him the truth. “I don’t get the feeling the mom is lying about anything, though she may distort — I really felt the kids were credible.” Credible enough that formal charges of molestation have been brought against Michael Jackson. But we now know the details of the two totally opposite stories told by the family for the record and thus the question remains: which story to believe?” The one about Michael as a loving father figure, a safe haven, a blessing? Or the one that describes a predator who plied his vulnerable young victim with alcohol and his own sexual obsessions? Both stories, and any explanations, would surely be tested at a trial which NBC News has been told won’t begin until well into 2005. Source: http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4513744/