Posted by Michael Jackson accuser: ‘I don’t like him anymore’ By Linda Deutsch ASSOCIATED PRESS 2:05 p.m. March 15, 2005 Associated Press … The prosecution then called a series of law enforcement witnesses. Santa Barbara County sheriff’s Sgt. Steve Robel showed items seized from Neverland during a Nov. 18, 2003, search, including a sex magazine called Teenage with a woman on the cover, a black-and-white image of a nude woman and a book called “The Chop Suey Club” by photographer Bruce Weber. [b]Robel said he found the items in a closed box at the foot of Jackson’s bed. The relevance of the items was attacked by defense attorney Robert Sanger. “You know of no witness who saw any of these items,” he asked. “No,” Robel said. “None of these items are per se illegal to possess?” asked the lawyer. “No, they are not illegal to possess,” Robel said. Asked if the models in the magazine were over age 18, Robel said, “They’re supposed to be, yes.” Sanger said the black-and-white photo is a collector’s item called “The Glory of de Dienes Women,” and he asked Robel if the “The Chop Suey Club,” featuring a young man in a straw hat on the cover, was seized because investigators believed it to be sexual in nature. Robel said yes. Sanger said the book was sent to Jackson unsolicited by Weber, who has photographed the Jackson 5 and other famous people. Asked if he was aware that it had a photo of Jackson friend Elizabeth Taylor, Robel said he was not.[/b] Terry Flaa, a former sheriff’s investigator who is now with the Santa Maria Police Department, testified about early stages of the Jackson case. Flaa said that in March 2003 he decided not to investigate two child welfare complaints involving Jackson after learning of an interview by Los Angeles County children’s services authorities in which the boy’s family said nothing had happened. The complaints were demands for investigations made by Los Angeles attorney Gloria Allred and psychologist Carole Lieberman after the documentary aired. [b] The next witness, sheriff’s Lt. Jeff Klapackis, said he ordered the Jackson investigation reopened after talking with the family’s attorney, Larry Feldman, and psychologist Stan Katz, who had interviewed the boy and his brother. Prosecutors say the molestation allegations came to light came during the boys’ interviews with Katz. [/b] Full article Source: [url=http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/state/20050315-1405-ca-michaeljackson.html]http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/state/2…aeljackson.html[/url]
[u][b]MORE FROM THE AP:[/b][/u] … [b]The prosecution then called law enforcement witnesses including Santa Barbara County sheriff’s Sgt. Steve Robel, the lead investigator who first interviewed the boy and his family. Robel acknowledged under cross-examination that he encouraged the family to go forward with its claims, telling them, “We’re going to try our best to make this case work.” Defense attorney Robert Sanger confronted Robel with those and other statements from recorded interviews, including his first meeting with the boy, his brother and sister. He quoted Robel as saying, “One thing I want to emphasize is you guys are doing the right thing here. … I don’t care how much money they have. He’s the one who’s done wrong. … We’re going to try to bring him to justice.” Sanger asked: “That’s not the statement of someone with an open mind who’s trying to find the truth, is it?” Robel said that during his training he was taught to make such a statement to alleged victims. “That statement is to reassure them,” he said, “because they were terrified when they came forward. It took us two weeks to get them to come in.” Sanger asked: “Isn’t the technique you are taught to tell them (is) to be honest and not to tell them they’re right, everyone else is wrong?” The witness answered that that was not the technique he was taught. “And from the beginning you have made a concerted effort to make this case work?” asked Sanger. “Yup, I did,” said Robel. In response to a number of questions, Robel said he could not remember and would have to go over recordings of interviews. He was told to return Wednesday. Among points he was pressed on was whether the accuser, when he first saw the rebuttal video, told Robel that 99.9 percent of it was not true. The boy testified Monday that most of it was true. Sanger also raised inconsistencies in the boy’s statements about the alleged molestation. He asked Robel whether the boy initially alleged that Jackson had masturbated him five times. Robel said that was true. But the lawyer suggested Jackson was not charged with that many incidents because the investigation showed Jackson wasn’t at Neverland on some of the dates that were alleged. “Your investigation disclosed on the (the family’s) last days at Neverland there were not five occasions when the molestation could have occurred,” Sanger asserted. “No, that’s not correct,” said Robel, but he acknowledged “two or three days” when Jackson was not present. He also acknowledged that in the boy’s first interview he gave different versions of when he was first molested, saying it was before the family had an interview with child welfare workers, then saying it was afterward, then saying it was before and after. Prosecutors now contend all the molestation occurred after the interviews with the child services workers. As Jackson left court he was asked how he was doing during the crucial phase of the trial and how he was feeling since the back injury he claimed to have suffered last week. “I’m doing pretty good,” he said. “I’m in pain.”[/b] Full article: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2005/03/15/state/n121941S50.DTL