by Giles Hewitt
SANTA MARIA, California - Mercurial superstar Michael Jackson, wearing slippers and pyjamas, Thursday turned up more than an hour late for a court showdown with his child sex accuser after an angry judge issued a warrant for his arrest.
In a dramatic turn of events, tough-talking trial judge Rodney Melville ordered that the star be arrested and said he would lose his three million dollars bail unless he turned up at court within an hour.
"I`m forfeiting his bail, I`m issuing a warrant for his arrest, and I`m holding the order for an hour," Melville said after the star failed to turn at 8:30 am (1630 GMT) to hear his alleged victim testify against him.
The judge issued the stunning order even after Jackson`s lawyer Thomas Mesereau said the star was being treated in a hospital emergency for a "serious back problem."
Just over an hour later, a dishevelled and distressed- looking Jackson, 46, wearing slippers and what appeared to be pyjamas, arrived at the courtroom about two minutes after the 9:35 am (1735 GMT) deadline for his arrest passed.
Assisted by aides and accompanied by his parents, Jackson, his usually-immaculate hair apparently uncombed, shuffled slowly and shakily into the courtroom.
The fate of his arrest warrant was not immediately clear, but his trial resumed with Jackson`s 15-year-old molestation accuser taking the witness stand to testify against him for the second day.
The judge did not immediately confirm he would quash the bench warrant, but told jurors they should not draw any "adverse inferences" from the morning`s events.
"Michael Jackson had a medical problem this morning and it was necessary for me to order his appearance," Melville said, adding that if any jurors or attorneys had failed to turn up on time he would have done the same thing.
The star`s publicist Raymone Bain told Jackson had been delayed in a hospital emergency room for three hours after seeking pre-dawn treatment for back pain.
"His back went out," she said. "He went to the emergency room to get a muscle relaxant but we don`t why it took so long."
The Santa Ynez Cottage Hospital, about 60 kilometers (37 miles) from Santa Maria, confirmed that Jackson had been treated.
Thursday`s proceedings are seen as one of the most critical days of testimony in the trial of the world`s most famous defendant.
Jackson`s accuser, who began testifying on Wednesday, faces a gruelling day in which he is expected to offer graphic details of his alleged molestation at the hands of the pop icon two years ago.
The prosecution alleges that Jackson plied the teenager with alcohol and molested him on several occasions at his Neverland Ranch two years ago, when the boy was a 13-year-old recovering cancer victim.
If convicted on those charges and another of conspiring to kidnap his young accuser`s family, the pop star could be jailed for 20 years.
On Wednesday, the boy told jurors he had considered Jackson "the coolest guy in the world" and "my best friend ever" when he met the singer on his first visit to Neverland around four years ago.
He said Jackson had invited him to the ranch the first time they talked, when the star phoned his hospital room where he was undergoing chemotherapy. Contact with the singer had been initiated through a family friend who owned a comedy club in Los Angeles.
On that first visit, he testified to surfing Internet porn sites with his younger brother and Jackson, after having received his parent`s permission, on Jackson`s suggestion, to spend the night in the singer`s bedroom.
While looking at one adult site that pictured a woman lifting her shirt to expose her breasts, the boy said Jackson had made the brothers laugh by commenting "Got milk?"
The teenager took the witness stand after his brother, now 14, had testified to twice witnessing Jackson fondling his sibling at the fantasy-style ranch in February and March 2003.
Sporting short-cropped hair and neatly dressed in a blue shirt and dark pants, the boy was composed and responded in a low monotone to the questions of lead prosecutor Thomas Sneddon.
His first task for the court had been to identify Jackson, who sat impassive and upright at the defendant`s table and stared fixedly at his young accuser as he testified.
The boy also suggested that Jackson, on a later visit to Neverland when his cancer was in remission, had duped him into participating in British journalist Martin Bashir`s documentary "Living With Michael Jackson."
03/10/2005 19:13 GMT