[url]http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20050527/en_af...HNlYwMlJVRPUCUl[/url]
Both sides close cases in Jackson trial after jurors see explosive video 7 minutes ago
SANTA MARIA, United States (AFP) - Testimony in Michael Jackson's child sex trial ended dramatically after jurors saw a devastating video of a teen telling of his alleged abuse at the hands of the superstar.
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Both sides rested their cases unexpectedly Friday and are expected to present closing arguments next week, before handing the case over to jurors who could jail Jackson for up to 20 years, if he is found guilty on all counts.
"Both sides have rested," Judge Rodney Melville told the panel. "You've heard all of the evidence that you heard in this case."
But prosecutors dealt Jackson a crushing blow on Friday by showing the 12-strong panel a videotape of a police interview with the then 13-year-old boy who accused Jackson of abusing him in February and March of 2003.
The nervous teen, his voice cracking with emotion, told in graphic detail in the video the defense had tried desperately to block how Jackson molested him five times and got him drunk on at least one of the occasions.
During his testimony in March, the boy said he only remembered being abused on two occasions.
In the video, the forlorn-looking boy sat on a couch as he told officers in July 2003 how Jackson gave him alcohol and then began talking to him about sex ahead of the first alleged molestation.
"He said boys have to masturbate because if they don't they go crazy," the boy recalled Jackson saying as they lay on Jackson's bed at his Neverland Ranch in California.
"He said that he wanted to show me how to masturbate. I said, 'no.' He said he would do it for me," the boy said hesitantly, his voice cracking.
"He grabbed me in my private area. He put his hand in my pants ... he started masturbating me," the boy said of one of the many occasions on which he slept in the same bed as the 46-year-old "King of Pop."
Jackson, who has pleaded innocent 10 charges including molestation, plying the boy with alcohol, and plotting to kidnap the boy and his family, once took the boy's hand and put it on the singer's crotch, the boy claimed.
Melville allowed prosecutors to play the explosive tape over vehement defense objections, but told jurors the film was intended to allow them to judge the accuser's "demeanor and attitude," not to establish if he was telling the truth.
Legal analysts said the screening of the video had done enormous harm to Jackson's defense, which up until now had done a fair job of casting doubt on the veracity of the claims.
"This was the best ending the prosecution could hope for," said former prosecutor Craig Smith, who is following the trial.
"I thought it was some of the most devastating evidence that was presented in this case and it is the last thing the jurors will hear before closing arguments," said fellow expert Jim Moret.
"They will have four days to think about what they saw," Moret said referring to the impact of the video on jurors of having one final look at the accuser who was not overwhelmingly convincing when he testified in March.
Jackson's lawyers contend that the boy's family made up the allegations in a bid to extort the star and that the accuser's mother is a greedy fraudster who coached her children to lie under oath.
Earlier in the four-month-old trial, the mother and at least one of her children admitted to lying under oath on various occasions, and Jackson's team managed to undermine many of their claims.
The boy and his now 14-year-old younger brother are the only two direct witnesses to the alleged abuse at the hands of the superstar, a fact that is likely to give his video appearance before jurors a powerful impact.
Closing arguments from each side in the trial of the world's most famous criminal defendant were expected to begin as soon as Wednesday and jurors would begin deliberating on Jackson's fate soon after they wind up.
Court sources said each side was considering limiting closing arguments to about three hours. The prosecution, will kick off the final statements, the defense will follow, and prosecutors will then get one final word before jurors get the case.
The trial, which officially kicked off with jury selection on January 31 and testimony began on February 28, had initially been expected to last around six months but has speeded towards a finale.
The "King of Pop" himself never took the witness stand to speak out in his own defense.