SANTA MARIA, Calif. – Travel agent Cynthia Montgomery testified Tuesday that she arranged for a flight to Brazil for the family of the boy who says he was molested by Michael Jackson.
Montgomery said the tickets were never purchased but that she prepared the itinerary for the accuser, his siblings and mother to go to Brazil.
A Jackson aide wanted the tickets to be one-way, she said, but that was not possible so a return date was made up.
The flight booker’s testimony deals with one of the acts the prosecution has cited to support its charge that Jackson and his aides conspired to control the family of the accuser.
Jackson, 46, is also charged with molesting the boy at his Neverland ranch and with giving the boy alcohol to aid in the commission of a felony.
At the end of February 2003, Jackson aide Marc Schaffel asked her to arrange for four tickets for the family to go to Sao Paulo, Brazil, she said.
But because one-way tickets couldn’t be sold, she said she “chose a date arbitrarily. Then I called him to tell him what I had done and why I had done it.”
The video was meant to rebut a British documentary that aired in February 2003. The accuser was shown in the documentary holding hands with Jackson, who said he slept with young children, but not in a sexual manner.
After Montgomery, Hamid Moslehi, a videographer for Jackson, took the stand. He testified about the rebuttal video he shot on Feb. 19, 2003. He also was the videographer for the interview with Debbie Rowe, Jackson’s estranged second wife and mother of two of his children who is expected to testify this week.
Moslehi testified that during the Rowe interview, the commentator was given scripted questions to ask and consulted with a Jackson aide about the questions.
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