[b]Debbie Does Damage to D.A.’s Case, Calls Michael “Wonderful Person”[/b] Apr. 28, 2005 ON THE DOCKET Day 41: Testimony from prosecution witnesses TAKING THE STAND Debbie Rowe, Jackson’s ex-wife, mother of his two eldest children, consented to a sit-down interview on her former husband’s behalf in February 2003 Iris Joan Finsilver, a longtime attorney for Rowe, sat in on much of the woman’s videotaped Jackson testimonial [b]POINTS FOR THE PROSECUTION[/b] Prosecutor Tom Sneddon announced he’d put his case out of its misery, er, wrap things up on Tuesday. At least Sneddon didn’t call in Rowe to help corroborate the most damning charge–the molestation allegation. As it is, Rowe only kicked down what is arguably the prosecution’s weakest charge–the conspiracy allegation. [b]POINTS FOR THE DEFENSE[/b] All you need to know is this: For some unsaid reason, the defense began the day wanting to strike all of Rowe’s testimony from Wednesday. By the time Rowe was finished hailing her former husband as a “generous,” “giving” man who’s “great with kids,” the defense was more than happy to have her comments entered into the record. To recap: Rowe was brought in to talk about how Jackson’s toadies treated her like the accuser’s family, twisting her arm to participate in the rebuttal video and doing mean things like making her answer to a “script of questions.” Rowe ended up talking about how she was “excited” to help Jackson, how she insisted on talking off the top of her head and how she intended to portray Jackson as a “wonderful person…and great father.” Rowe seemed to understand the prosecution’s case better than the prosecution. Again, the prosecution used the word “script” when referring to what its Jackson indictment spells out as the nefarious “script of questions.” When asked if she’d looked at a “script” the day of her video shoot, Rowe said no. Then she seemed to figure out that prosecutor Ronald Zonen probably was talking about written-out questions and not an actual screenplay and added that, no, she hadn’t looked at those, either. Here’s a script Rowe seemed to be reading from on the stand: Jackson Defense Strategies. After denying any suggestion that she was forced to make her rebuttal video, Rowe suggested that Jackson was the real victim–a man exploited by “opportunistic vultures,” including three of his unindicted coconspirators. Source: http://www.eonline.com/News/Specials/Jackson/Scorecard/050429.html
E! Scorecard: Debbie Does Damage to D.A.’s Case
Posted by