Michael Jackson to face accuser's mother in court
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-09-16 09:18

Michael Jackson is expected to come face to face this week, for the first time since his arrest, with the mother of the teenage boy who accuses him of molestation.

Michael Jackson is expected to come face to face this week, for the first time since his arrest, with the mother of the teenage boy who accuses him of molestation. The woman has been subpoenaed to testify on September 17, 2004 by Jackson's attorneys as they seek to suppress evidence seized from Neverland, Jackson's central California ranch, and from the offices of a private investigator working for Jackson's former lawyer. Jackson is shown at the courthouse in Santa Maria, California August 16. [Reuters]

Defense attorneys want the woman to confirm that she knew that private investigator Brad Miller was working for former Jackson lawyer Mark Geragos and told police, thus making the evidence that was taken subject to attorney-client privilege.

Santa Barbara Superior Court Judge Rodney Melville has tentatively allowed about three dozen items of evidence taken from Neverland and Miller, but deferred a final decision until after further hearings.

Though much of the evidence remains sealed by the judge, who has clamped a tight lid of secrecy on the case, authorities are known to have seized computers, cameras, documents and video and audio tapes from Neverland.

Police raided Miller's office to retrieve videotaped interviews of Jackson's young accuser and his family in which they praise the singer and deny that he acted inappropriately with the boy. Those tapes are at the center of the case against Jackson, who is accused of bullying the family into participating in the interviews.

In court papers, the mother of the teenage boy is alleged to have called Jackson "the devil" and vowed never to take money from him. Prosecutors allege that Jackson sexually abused the boy and forced him, his brother and mother to stay at Neverland against their will.

Court officials say they have been notified by Jackson's attorneys that the entertainer plans to be in court for the mother's testimony.

Jackson has declined to attend most of the pretrial hearings in his case, but made a point of turning up in August, when Santa Barbara County District Attorney Tom Sneddon took the witness stand in a pretrial hearing.

The self-proclaimed "King of Pop" is scheduled to stand trial on January 31 on a 10-count indictment that charges him with child molestation and conspiracy. He has pleaded not guilty.