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Why Accuser's Dean Waited
Roger Friedman
Jeffrey Alpert, an instructor at the famed Hollywood High School for the Performing Arts, caused a sensation today. It came out in cross examination that Alpert — when he was the dean in March 2003 at John Burroughs Middle School in Los Angeles — asked Michael Jackson's accuser if anything had happened between them. The boy, on the stand today, told defense attorney Tom Mesereau that twice he told Alpert nothing had happened.
This pushes Alpert into the spotlight of this case, like it or not. I'm told that he still has not been subpoenaed but will testify if that happens.
Already arguments are being made about the timing of this witness, and questions are asked why he waited so long to come forward. His attorney, Tom Forsyth (search), says that Alpert is a private person and that he wanted to see if the Jackson trial was really going to take place. Once it started, he contacted the Los Angeles Bar Association and was referred to Forsyth. He did not already have an attorney.
Forsyth says he made Alpert's information available to both sides in the case. He was actually a little surprised today when the boy readily admitted to remembering the exact same conversation.
Mesereau also had the boy confirm on the stand today that he has been something of a disciplinary problem. He has also been a vocal critic of the teachers in his school.
Ironically — and we told you this exclusively when the story first broke in November 2003 — the boy was attending John Burroughs Middle School under a false pretense. His mother used her boyfriend's address to get her kids into Burroughs rather than send them to school in their own East Los Angeles district.
The mother, as I reported in those early days, met her boyfriend, a U.S. Army major, at a Sea Cadets program for her sons. Initially, according to my sources, she cleaned his apartment in exchange for use of his address on St. Andrews Place in the mid-Wilshire section of Los Angeles. Eventually the relationship became romantic. The two had a child last year and married.
Apparently Alpert and perhaps other teachers will testify to the accusing boy's personality — and that he did not become belligerent or aggressive after his experience with Jackson but that he was always that way. That would jibe with a story this column reported last year about the boy's time on the set of "Rush Hour 2." Director Brett Ratner recalled that when he asked the boy to vacate his director's chair, the 13-year-old told him off with four-letter words.
This would also line up with an interview comedy club owner Jamie Masada gave to a British reporter on Feb. 4, 2003 — two days before the Martin Bashir special aired in the United States. He said the boy was not gullible and would absolutely report immediately anything that might seem wrong about Jackson.
Roger Friedman
Jeffrey Alpert, an instructor at the famed Hollywood High School for the Performing Arts, caused a sensation today. It came out in cross examination that Alpert — when he was the dean in March 2003 at John Burroughs Middle School in Los Angeles — asked Michael Jackson's accuser if anything had happened between them. The boy, on the stand today, told defense attorney Tom Mesereau that twice he told Alpert nothing had happened.
This pushes Alpert into the spotlight of this case, like it or not. I'm told that he still has not been subpoenaed but will testify if that happens.
Already arguments are being made about the timing of this witness, and questions are asked why he waited so long to come forward. His attorney, Tom Forsyth (search), says that Alpert is a private person and that he wanted to see if the Jackson trial was really going to take place. Once it started, he contacted the Los Angeles Bar Association and was referred to Forsyth. He did not already have an attorney.
Forsyth says he made Alpert's information available to both sides in the case. He was actually a little surprised today when the boy readily admitted to remembering the exact same conversation.
Mesereau also had the boy confirm on the stand today that he has been something of a disciplinary problem. He has also been a vocal critic of the teachers in his school.
Ironically — and we told you this exclusively when the story first broke in November 2003 — the boy was attending John Burroughs Middle School under a false pretense. His mother used her boyfriend's address to get her kids into Burroughs rather than send them to school in their own East Los Angeles district.
The mother, as I reported in those early days, met her boyfriend, a U.S. Army major, at a Sea Cadets program for her sons. Initially, according to my sources, she cleaned his apartment in exchange for use of his address on St. Andrews Place in the mid-Wilshire section of Los Angeles. Eventually the relationship became romantic. The two had a child last year and married.
Apparently Alpert and perhaps other teachers will testify to the accusing boy's personality — and that he did not become belligerent or aggressive after his experience with Jackson but that he was always that way. That would jibe with a story this column reported last year about the boy's time on the set of "Rush Hour 2." Director Brett Ratner recalled that when he asked the boy to vacate his director's chair, the 13-year-old told him off with four-letter words.
This would also line up with an interview comedy club owner Jamie Masada gave to a British reporter on Feb. 4, 2003 — two days before the Martin Bashir special aired in the United States. He said the boy was not gullible and would absolutely report immediately anything that might seem wrong about Jackson.
