Witness Lashes Out at Jackson’s Attorney

Witness Lashes Out at Jackson’s Attorney By LINDA DEUTSCH AP Special Correspondent The Associated Press SANTA MARIA, Calif. Mar 29, 2005 — A prosecution witness lashed out at Michael Jackson’s attorney from the witness stand Tuesday, quoting another witness saying: “You have made this court like O.J.’s court or Robert Blake’s court.” Jamie Masada, a comedy club owner believed to have put Jackson in touch with the boy who now accuses him of molestation, sparred with Thomas Mesereau Jr. throughout a long cross-examination, mostly trying to keep the tone light and frequently drawing laughter. The tone changed when Masada, who owns the Laugh Factory club in Hollywood, was asked by Mesereau about comedian Louise Palanker, who testified last week. “She wants to be a comic,” he said. “We help them. Sometimes you have to give them bad news.” “You’ve told her she’s not funny?” asked Mesereau. “Let me tell you,” Masada said. “I find you more funny than she is.” Masada said Palanker had been in touch with him since she testified and that she once referred to O.J. Simpson’s acquittal in the 1994 killings of his ex-wife and her friend and Blake’s recent acquittal in the 2003 slaying of his wife. “She said that you have made this court like O.J.’s court or Robert Blake’s court, and you lied and changed the words around,” Masada said. … The boy became involved with the Laugh Factory when he, his brother and his sister attended a comedy camp there. The relationship with Masada and various comedians continued when the boy became ill with cancer. Masada played down his role in bringing Jackson together with the boy and said only that he made a number of calls to people, including music producer Quincy Jones, to try to fulfill the ailing boy’s wish to meet Jackson. “I don’t know if the message got to him or the fact that he called the next day was by the will of God,” he said. Masada said he had never met Jackson. “This is the first time I’ve seen him,” he said, turning to Jackson and asking, “How are you?” The defendant waved. When Jackson left at the end of the day, he was asked about the levity. “You can use a little comic relief sometimes,” Jackson said. The day ended with testimony by a charter jet flight attendant who served Jackson and members of the accuser’s family on a trip from Miami to Santa Barbara. Cynthia Ann Bell contradicted a prosecution claim that Jackson ordered wine to be served in Coke cans and then shared the wine with the accuser. Bell said the idea of serving Jackson alcoholic beverages in soda cans was her idea, and that it became a routine on all of his flights because “Michael Jackson is a very private drinker.” She also described Jackson as a nervous flier who could not stand turbulence and sometimes had a flight land because of it. She suggested the drinking was to relieve his anxiety. She said she did not see Jackson share his drink with anyone and that she saw the accuser sitting next to Jackson but that Jackson’s children Prince and Paris were always either beside him or on his lap during the flight. She also described the accuser on that flight as “loud, obnoxious, like ‘Serve me my food, this isn’t warm.’ It was embarrassing to have him on board.” When Bell identified a photograph of the accuser, Mesereau asked her, “You told the grand jury he’s a weird kid?” “Yes, I did,” she said. On her way out of court, Bell shook hands with Jackson. Source: http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory?id=624787