SANTA MARIA, California - Michael Jackson's lawyers will seek to undermine Wednesday the credibility of a 14-year-old boy and his explosive testimony that he twice witnessed the pop icon molesting his brother.
After grilling the teenager for two hours in a shortened court session on Tuesday, Jackson's lead attorney Thomas Mesereau is set to continue his cross-examination aimed at exposing enough contradictions in the boy's evidence to place his entire testimony in doubt.
Under Mesereau's probing, the young witness has already stumbled over the details of a raunchy magazine he claimed Jackson showed him and his brother, and admitted to lying under oath in a separate lawsuit.
But he has stuck solidly to his graphic eye-witness account of the alleged molestation by Jackson and his claims that the pop star plied the brothers with wine and exposed them to pornography at his Neverland Ranch.
The lurid detail of his testimony prompted a response from Jackson's spokeswoman, Raymone Bain, who said the "scurrilous and salacious accusations and details, all untrue, were hurtful and embarrassing" to her client.
As the only person who claims to have witnessed the molestation, the teenager is considered one of the most crucial players in Jackson's trial.
The defence contends that the alleged victim and his family concocted the abuse allegation to extort money from the superstar, and that the two brothers ran wild at Neverland, using security codes to access rooms where they helped themselves to alcohol and pornographic material.
Shown a picture of a suitcase containing stacked pornographic magazines, the boy identified a magazine at the top of the pile -- a copy of "Barely Legal" -- as one that Jackson had shown him and his brother.
But he was tripped up when Mesereau pointed out that the issue was dated August 2003, several months after he and his family left Neverland for good.
"That wasn't exactly the one he showed us," the boy explained. "I just said he showed us those types of magazines."
Mesereau also sought to cast doubt on the most important part of the boy's testimony: That he had twice entered Jackson's split-level bedroom in February 2003 and caught the star molesting his brother -- a then 13-year-old recovering cancer patient.
Mesereau got the chubby teenager to admit that an alarm in the hallway to the bedroom had gone off on both occasions, potentially warning Jackson that someone was approaching.
The boy conceded that the alarm had sounded, but insisted it could only be heard from inside the bedroom if the door was open, which he said it was not.
Mesereau also said the boy had given conflicting accounts of the molestation in previous statements to a child psychologist, sherrif's deputies and a grand jury.
The witness stuck by the testimony he gave jurors, insisting that he could not recall offering different versions on the other occasions.
But he did admit to lying under oath about five years ago -- when he was eight or nine years old -- in a deposition for a lawsuit filed by his mother against a department store.
He admitted that his statements that his parents never fought and that his father never beat him were untrue.
"Did someone tell you to lie?" asked Mesereau, who has portrayed the boys' mother as a financial predator who coached her children to fabricate stories to win cash settlements in lawsuits.
"I don't remember," the boy said.
On Monday, he had recounted entering Jackson's bedroom and seeing the pop star lying on his back on the bed beside his brother, who was "curled up" and facing away from the entertainer with his eyes closed.
Jackson's had his left hand in his brother's underpants and was pleasuring himself with the other hand, he told the jurors who could send Jackson, 46, to jail for up to 20 years.
He said he saw an almost identical scene when he walked into the bedroom about two days later.
He also claimed Jackson had once briefly appeared naked and sporting an erection in front of the brothers as they watched television on the star's immense bed.
Jackson stands accused on 10 counts, including child molestation, plying the boy with alcohol to seduce him and conspiring to kidnap the accuser and his family and hold them prisoner at Neverland.
He has denied all the charges.
03/09/2005 09:01 GMT