Thursday, March 10, 2005
Judge issues order for Jackson's arrest
Mercurial superstar Michael Jackson, wearing slippers and pyjamas, on Thursday turned up more than an hour late for a court showdown with his child sex accuser after a judge issued a warrant for his arrest.
In a dramatic turn of events, Judge Rodney Melville ordered the pop icon arrested and said he would lose his $US3 million ($3.79 million) bail unless he showed up at court within an hour.
"I'm forfeiting his bail, I'm issuing a warrant for his arrest, and I'm holding the order for an hour," Judge Melville said after the star failed to turn up at the required time to hear his alleged victim testify against him.
The judge issued the stunning order even after Jackson's lawyer, Thomas Mesereau, said the star was being treated in a hospital emergency for a "serious back problem".
Just over an hour later, a dishevelled and distressed-looking Jackson, 46, wearing slippers and pyjama bottoms, arrived at the courtroom about two minutes after the deadline for his arrest passed.
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Assisted by aides and accompanied by his parents, Jackson, his usually-immaculate hair uncombed, shuffled slowly and unsteadily into the courtroom.
The fate of the arrest warrant was not immediately clear, but his trial resumed with Jackson's 15-year-old molestation accuser taking the witness stand to testify against him for the second day.
The judge did not immediately confirm he would quash the bench warrant, but told jurors they should not draw any "adverse inferences" from the morning's events.
Jackson's publicist Raymone Bain said the star was delayed in a hospital emergency room for three hours after seeking pre-dawn treatment for back pain.
"His back went out," she said. "He went to the emergency room to get a muscle relaxant but we don't know why it took so long."
Thursday's proceedings are seen as one of the most critical in the trial of the world's most famous defendant.
Jackson's young accuser, who began testifying on Wednesday, began a gruelling day in which he is expected to offer graphic details of his alleged sex abuse at the hands of the pop icon two years ago.
The prosecution alleges that Jackson plied the teenager with alcohol and molested him on several occasions at his Neverland Ranch two years ago, when the boy was a 13-year-old recovering cancer victim.
If convicted on those charges and another of conspiring to kidnap his young accuser's family, the pop star could be jailed for 20 years.
The boy told jurors on Thursday that his mother feared for her children's lives at Neverland and that the singer plied him with him wine that the pop icon dubbed "Jesus juice" and urged him to keep quiet about the drinking.
The softly-spoken youth said he and his brother drank wine and vodka with Jackson "every night" the star was at home at Neverland and played a bizarre drinking game while making crank telephone calls.
The teenager also said that Jackson served him alcohol in his hotel suite in the southeastern US city of Miami and aboard his private jet.
During a flight on Jackson's jet from Miami to California in February 2003, the star handed the boy a Diet Coke can that was apparently filled with wine and asked if the boy had heard of "Jesus juice".
"He said, 'you know how Jesus drank wine, well we call it Jesus juice,"' the boy said, adding that he took a sip of the alcohol and told Jackson that it tasted "ugly".
Before Jackson's plane took off on the return trip to California, the boy claimed that Jackson gave him a watch that he told him was worth $US75,000 ($94,625), urging the boy never to tell anyone of their drinking exploits.
"He said not to tell anyone about the Jesus juice and said this is like a symbol that we'll be friends forever," the boy said.
The teenager took the witness stand on Wednesday after his brother, now 14, had testified to twice witnessing Jackson fondling his sibling at the fantasy-style ranch in February and March 2003
