SANTA MARIA, California - In the two months since opening arguments in Michael Jackson`s child-sex trial, jurors have heard explosive testimony and conflicting portrayals of the "King of Pop."
Jackson has pleaded innocent to the 10 charges of molesting a 13-year-old boy, plying him with alcohol and plotting to kidnap him in early 2003.
The following are key events since the start of jury selection.
-- Jan 31: Jury selection gets underway. Jackson, about 200 fans and more than 1,000 journalists turn up.
-- Feb 14: Lawyers unveil an all-star list of potential witnesses.
-- Feb 15: Jackson is rushed to hospital with influenza.
-- Feb 16: Jackson leaves hospital.
-- Feb 23: The jury is selected.
-- Feb 25: Judge Rodney Melville rules that the litigation history of the plaintiff`s family can be entered as evidence.
-- Feb 28: The rival lawyers make their opening arguments. The prosecution portrays Jackson as a sexual predator who lured children with alcohol and pornography. The defense team dismisses the charges as "bogus," saying the accuser`s mother preyed on celebrities. Melville unveils the previously sealed charges.
-- March 1: The defense says searches of Neverland found no DNA evidence of sexual abuse. Jurors watch the television documentary that led to the charges. Reporter Martin Bashir, who made the documentary, is grilled by the defense.
-- March 2: A publicist hired to salvage Jackson`s reputation says she feared at the time the plaintiff and his family had been "hunted down like dogs" by the star`s aides.
-- March 3: The plaintiff`s 18-year-old sister testifies that she felt trapped by a pall of fear and secrecy at Neverland, and that she saw Jackson plying her brother with wine.
-- March 4: The boy`s sister admits she had selectively lied about details of the case.
-- March 7: The plaintiff`s 14-year-old brother says he twice saw Jackson molesting the young boy. He says the pop star showed pornographic websites to the accuser and other boys and frequently gave them wine.
-- March 9: Jackson`s accuser testifies to sharing the star`s bedroom and surfing Internet porn sites. His brother admits giving contradictory accounts of the alleged molestation.
-- March 10: The accuser testifies that Jackson masturbated him twice. Melville issues an arrest warrant against Jackson for failing to show up on time, but quashes it after the star arrives an hour late, clad in pajamas and complaining of a back injury.
-- March 14: The accuser admits telling his former teacher that Jackson had never molested him.
-- March 15: The boy says he denied the abuse at the time for fear his classmates would torment him.
-- March 17: A former Neverland maid describes the estate as a "pleasure island" where boys ran amok, seemed drunk and spent nights with Jackson.
-- March 21: Jackson shows up disheveled and weeping because of what his publicist calls "excruciating" back pain.
-- March 22: A witness says the accuser`s mother made a desperate phone call two years ago saying "evil" people were holding her family against their will.
-- March 23: Jurors are shown dozens of pornographic magazines seized from Neverland.
-- March 25: Jurors are shown fingerprints from Jackson and his accuser found on an X-rated magazine.
-- March 28: Melville rules that prosecutors can present testimony about five past child sex claims against Jackson, in a massive blow to the defense.
-- April 4: The son of Jackson`s former maid tearfully tells how the star allegedly groped him three times between the ages of seven and 10.
-- April 7: A former Neverland guard says he saw the star performing oral sex on a young boy in the 1990s. A former maid says she saw Jackson kissing and fondling three young boys, including former child movie star Macaulay Culkin.
-- April 8: A former Neverland chef says he saw Jackson with his hand inside Culkin`s shorts in 1991.
-- April 11: The mother of a boy who won a multi-million dollar settlement from Jackson in 1994 says Jackson and the boy shared a bed repeatedly over four months after Jackson begged her to allow her son to sleep with him.
-- April 12: The current accuser`s stepfather says the boy`s mother made distressed phone calls home during her alleged captivity at Neverland.
-- April 13: The accuser`s mother says Jackson told her killers were stalking her kids after the broadcast of the Bashir documentary. Before testifying, she seeks constitutional protection to avoid questions about alleged welfare fraud.
-- April 14: The mother says Jackson aides held her family captive at Neverland and a Los Angeles hotel from February 21 to March 12, 2003. She says she feared her parents would be killed if she refused to take her children to Brazil.
-- April 15: The defense attacks the mother`s credibility, getting her to admit she lied under oath during a previous lawsuit. She says her family will never sue Jackson for civil damages.
-- April 18: The mother says Jackson "fooled the world" over the true nature of his relationships with children after conceding she saw lawyers before alerting police about the alleged crimes.
-- April 20: A former Neverland Ranch security officer says guards were ordered not to let Jackson`s future accuser leave the estate.
-- April 21: Melville denies a prosecution request to present expert testimony on battered women`s syndrome to shed light on the mother`s lies and odd behavior.
04/24/2005 12:44 GMT