Travel adviser's testimony supports Brazil trip, wine-in-soda accounts
Sources: Singer's ex-wife to testify Wednesday
Tuesday, April 26, 2005 Posted: 1937 GMT (0337 HKT)
SANTA MARIA, California (CNN) -- An associate of Michael Jackson asked for one-way plane tickets to Brazil for the pop star's teenage accuser and his family in February 2003, days after they filmed a video designed to rebut a controversial television documentary, a travel consultant testified Tuesday.
Taking the stand in Jackson's child molestation trial, Cynthia Montgomery also said she advised flight crews handling private jet flights for Jackson to provide him with wine disguised in a soda can, after she was told by a flight attendant that Jackson had made that request.
Jackson's accuser and his younger brother have previously testified that Jackson shared the wine-filled soda cans with them, referring to the beverage as "Jesus juice."
However, Montgomery's motives and credibility came under attack by defense attorney Thomas Mesereau Jr., who made sure jurors knew she was testifying under a grant of immunity and had been questioned by the FBI about a secret videotape made of Jackson as he was on his way to surrender to police.
Montgomery and Jackson are suing each other.
Meanwhile, sources said Tuesday that Jackson's ex-wife, Debbie Rowe, will take the stand for the prosecution Wednesday. She is the mother of his two oldest children, Prince Michael, 8, and Paris, 7.
Rowe is expected to testify about a interview she gave supporting Jackson in 2003, as child molestation allegations swirled around him. The prosecution says she was pressured into making laudatory remarks by promises that she would have more access to her children, who live with Jackson.
Flight booked to Brazil
Montgomery told jurors that on February 25, 2003, Marc Schaffel, then president of Jackson's Neverland Valley Entertainment, asked her to book one-way tickets to Sao Paulo for the accuser and his mother, sister and brother, with a departure date of March 1.
However, under cross-examination, she said the plane tickets, which cost more than $15,000, were never actually purchased.
Montgomery also said that while Schaffel wanted one-way tickets, she had to book an "arbitrary" return trip because it was required by Brazilian regulations for travel by U.S. citizens.
The prosecution has charged that the trip to Brazil was part of a conspiracy by Jackson and five unindicted co-conspirators, including Schaffel, to control and intimidate the family after the broadcast of "Living With Michael Jackson," a television documentary by British journalist Martin Bashir that showed Jackson holding hands with his accuser.
The accuser's mother had previously testified that she was told by Jackson's associates that her family would have to go to Brazil for their own safety because she had done an inadequate job during the taping of a rebuttal video, shot about five days before Montgomery says Schaffel asked her to book the tickets.
Working with FBI
During cross-examination Mesereau questioned Montgomery about another plane trip on November 20, 2003, when Jackson flew from Las Vegas to Santa Barbara on a chartered private jet to surrender to police on child molestation charges.
Jackson was surreptitiously videotaped on that flight, operated by a charter company called Xtra Jet, which is now subject of an FBI investigation. Jackson also has filed an invasion-of-privacy lawsuit, naming Montgomery -- who booked the flight -- as one of the defendants. The suit charges that attempts were made to sell the video.
Montgomery admitted Tuesday that she has twice "spoken voluntarily" to the FBI about the incident and saw the videotape at FBI headquarters. She also said she was not aware that Jackson had been taped on the flight until she learned of it a day later.
"I am a witness for that case," she said.
Montgomery also said that "per my lawyer's instructions," she would not have testified in the Jackson trial unless the prosecution gave her immunity to protect her from possibly incriminating statements.
Mesereau got her to admit that she ignored a request to use a different charter company for the flight, after discussing the issue with Schaffel, whom Jackson's lawyers say was part of the taping plot.
"We thought it was in the best interest of our client to use Xtra Jet," she explained.
Montgomery said that while she and Schaffel had been friends for more than a decade, they haven't spoken since the taping incident and are no longer friends.
She has also filed suit against Jackson, trying to recover money she says she's owed for the Las Vegas flight.
A grand jury indicted Jackson, 46, last year on charges of molesting the boy, giving him alcohol and conspiring to hold him and his family captive in 2003. Jackson has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
CNN's Ted Rowlands and Dree De Clamecy contributed to this report.
