By TIM MOLLOY
Associated Press Writer
SANTA MARIA, Calif. -- The jury in Michael Jackson's child molestation trial was shown pictures Thursday of the singer's young accuser and family with celebrities such as Kobe Bryant and actor Chris Tucker as the boy's sister took the witness stand to testify about their encounters with the pop star.
The prosecution laid groundwork for the sister's testimony by calling a Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Department photographer who videotaped a Nov. 18, 2003, raid on Jackson's Neverland ranch, where he is alleged to have molested the boy and held the family captive in a conspiracy with associates.
Now 18 and a college freshman, the sister said her family went to Neverland to meet Jackson soon after one of her two brothers was diagnosed with cancer in the summer of 2000.
Speaking softly and calmly, she testified on issues ranging from the family's alleged physical abuse by her father to how they met celebrities. She did not immediately describe how they met Jackson.
The young woman said the number of times her father hit her mother was "too many to count, so many" and that the father also hit her and her brothers "lots" of times. She said her parents argued on their first visit to Neverland and her father threw a soda can at her mother, making her cry.
The defense has told the jury that the mother once stated in a civil lawsuit that she was not abused by her husband, then claimed in their divorce that he beat her. The prosecution says the mother lied in the civil case because she feared another beating.
The sister talked about meeting celebrities including Tucker, Paul Rodriguez, George Lopez and comedian Louise Palanker at a comedy camp they attended in 1999 at the Laugh Factory, a Hollywood club. Prosecutors say the accuser was introduced to Jackson through Jamie Masada, the club owner.
She did not explain how they met Bryant, but the prosecution showed a photo of the Los Angeles Lakers star at a table with his arm around the boy, who looks sickly. On the table is a team jersey that was given to the boy, whose brother is seen in a doorway.
In opening statements, the defense said Bryant doesn't know who they are.
The witness also answered questions about renovations made to the home of her grandparents as her brother was recovering from cancer.
The defense claims the family received $20,000 from Palanker for the renovation but it instead went toward a big-screen TV and DVD player and the builder was never paid. The claim is part of a defense portrayal of the mother as using her children and her son's cancer to get money from celebrities.
The witness said renovations were necessary to make the room suitable for her brother's recuperation and the TV and DVD player were gifts to cheer him up.
During the playing of the sheriff's videotape, Jackson, 46, watched quietly, a finger pressed to his cheek, and the jury took notes. Jackson's mother, Katherine, and brother Jackie observed from the audience.
The prosecution alleges that Jackson conspired to hold the family to force them to help with a rebuttal to the Feb. 6, 2003, airing of a documentary, in which Jackson said he allowed young boys to sleep in his bed. Prosecutors allege that the accuser, who appeared in the program, was molested after the show aired.
The videotape gave jurors their first look at the singer's master bedroom suite where he allegedly molested the then-13-year-old boy, a cancer patient befriended by Jackson.
The tape included shots of his cluttered bedroom, but none of the sexually explicit magazines that the prosecution has said were found in the suite.
The video, shot by Sheriff's Department photographer Albert Lafferty, showed a sparkling bedspread, pictures of Marilyn Monroe and Shirley Temple, several TVs and stacks of videos.
Two rooms that investigators called the "doll room" and the "toy room" were filled with dolls, mannequins and figurines of such characters as Bat Man, Superman and C-3PO, Boba Fett and R2-D2 from "Star Wars," as well as SpongeBob SquarePants. There were dolls of every size and a dollhouse.
Under cross-examination, the defense established that the nearby bedrooms of each of Jackson's children had a lock with a code keypad. Lafferty also acknowledged that there was something that looked like a classroom but he couldn't recall seeing little desks that a defense attorney mentioned.
The defense has claimed that the accuser and his brother were sometimes out of control during visits to Neverland and got into private areas and onto the estate's rides by memorizing security codes.
The pictures presented by the prosecution also showed a clock in the foyer of Jackson's home and a huge clock overlooking the train station in the amusement park area of Neverland.
The presence of the clocks may figure in the case because the accuser's mother contends that during the alleged captivity she wasn't even allowed to know what time it was.
On Wednesday, the prosecution called Ann Marie Kite, who was hired by an ex-boyfriend to help rehabilitate Jackson's public image after the documentary aired. She testified that his associates arranged a smear campaign that was to include portraying the accuser's mother as a "crack."
But in an aggressive cross-examination, Kite said she was concerned during her six days of employment that Jackson was a victim of people in his inner circle who either botched his public relations or deliberately tried to damage his reputation.
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