Mother testifies in trial of Jackson

SANTA MARIA, Calif. – The mother of the alleged victim in the Michael Jackson molestation case said Friday she did not remember a private investigator telling her that he was working for one of the pop star’s attorneys.

The 36-year-old woman, who came face to face with the pop star Friday for the first time since the case began, also claimed she did not know why she was called to testify and that she believed the purpose of the hearing was “just to bring me more torture.”

Jackson’s attorneys are trying to show that the accuser’s mother and prosecutors should have known private investigator Bradley Miller was working for Jackson’s then-attorney Mark Geragos when authorities seized items from Miller’s office.

The defense wants to exclude those items from evidence on grounds of attorney-client privilege, as well as some items taken from Jackson’s Neverland Ranch.

The accuser’s mother glanced briefly at Jackson, whom she had called “the devil” at a grand jury hearing earlier this year. Jackson, 46, stared at her throughout her testimony Friday.

Jackson has pleaded not guilty to child molestation, conspiracy and administering an intoxicating agent, alcohol.

During questioning of the mother, Jackson attorney Thomas Mesereau Jr. referred repeatedly to a transcript of an interview between Miller and the mother on Feb. 16, 2003, just days after her young son appeared holding hands with Jackson on a television special.

Mesereau noted that the transcript said Miller told her at the beginning and end of the interview that he was a private investigator working for “specifically an attorney named Mark Geragos, who works for Michael Jackson.”

She would not answer directly when Mesereau repeatedly asked if the document was false.

“I’m not denying it was said. I’m saying I don’t remember,” she testified.

The woman said she believed Miller was Jackson’s private investigator because someone named “Frank” had told her so before she met Miller. She did not further identify Frank, but later volunteered that “Frank, Vinnie” and others were involved in an alleged conspiracy to imprison her family in March 2003.

Earlier this year, an attorney representing former Jackson employees Vincent Amen and Frank Tyson said he believed his clients would be charged with intimidation of witnesses in the case.