SANTA MARIA, California - Pop icon Michael Jackson got his child molestation accuser drunk on the day a damaging documentary was broadcast about their relationship, the boy`s brother suggested on Monday.
The 14-year-old brother of the alleged teenage victim testified that Jackson gave his sibling what appeared to be alcohol in a cold drink can in his suite at a luxury hotel in the eastern US city of Miami on February 6, 2003.
Prosecutors allege that Jackson, 46, took advantage of the then 13-year-old cancer patient -- who only had one kidney -- after breaking down his inhibitions with wine and other alcohol that was sometimes served in soft-drink cans.
"He was stumbling around and he had a soda can in his hand," the alleged victim`s brother said of his sibling as he took the witness stand in Jackson`s trial.
"He wasn`t acting right, he was acting funny. I saw the brim (sic) of his 7-Up can -- 7-Up is clear and I saw red on the can," he said.
The boy said the incident took place on the day of the broadcast of the explosive television film that launched the police investigation that led to Jackson`s arrest.
The boys visited Jackson`s room at a resort in Miami, where Jackson had flown his future accuser, the boy`s brother and sister and their mother ahead of the airing of journalist Martin Bashir`s film.
The boys` sister told the court last week that the family had spent most of the day in Jackson`s suite and that the star was "upset" over the documentary and did not want the family to see it.
The younger brother was expected to testify that he witnessed Jackson fondling his brother on at least two occasions at the star`s Neverland Ranch in the days and weeks following the broadcast of Bashir`s film which sparked the child abuse firestorm.
Jackson has denied 10 charges, including child molestation, plying the boy with alcohol to seduce him and conspiracy to kidnap the accuser and his family and hold them prisoner until the made a video clearing the star of suspicion.
If convicted at his trial in the California town of Santa Maria, the faded "King of Pop" could be jailed for up to 20 years.
03/07/2005 20:20 GMT