Accuser has history of changing his story – MSNBC

[b]Accuser has history of changing his story[/b] Attorney says boy recanted claim of abuse by parents MSNBC News Services Updated: 7:29 p.m. ET Feb. 22, 2005 The alleged victim in the Michael Jackson child molestation case had previously accused both his parents of abuse, according to a report by NBC News’ Mike Taibbi on MSNBC’s “The Abrams Report.” In March 1996, the then 7-year-old accuser became sick at school. He became upset, however, when a school official tried to call his mother, saying that she had beaten him and was afraid she would beat him again if the school notified her, according to Russell Halpern, the attorney for the accuser’s father. Documents obtained exclusively by NBC News show an investigation was begun by family services into alleged abuse of the boy by his parents. But the boy changed his story and the allegation was declared “unfounded.” According to Halpern, the boy denied ever being beaten by either parent. The accuser and his siblings, including a younger brother who also is a prosecution witness in the case against Jackson, have been linked to previous episodes in which they changed their stories. In 2000, the accuser’s mother claimed that she was beaten and sexually abused by a JC Penney’s security guard after a shoplifting incident that led to a lawsuit. The accuser and his siblings backed her story in what a defense psychiatrist called “clearly rehearsed testimony.” The sex abuse charge was never mentioned in the settlement JC Penney’s offered without admitting any wrongdoing. The next year, police responded to a call at the family’s home during the parents’ bitter divorce. At first, Jackson’s accuser and his siblings told a social worker they had witnessed “no hitting, just yelling” by their father over the years “and not a lot of yelling.” Their mother was not present during this interview. But days later, with their mother present, the children changed their story, claiming instead that they we subjected to daily beatings from their father that included punching, kicking, breaking bones, holding the mother’s head under water and constant threats to kill them all. The accuser’s father was charged and plead no contest to one charge of spousal abuse and one charge of cruelty to a child in exchange for probation. Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7014043/