« Second Annual National Race to Stop Child Sexual Abuse | Main | Ex-Boy Scout official faces child porn charges »
March 29, 2005
CULKIN NAMED AS JACKO SEX VICTIM
HOME Alone star Macaulay Culkin was named in court last night as a Michael Jackson sex abuse victim.
The King of Pop's child molestation trial will hear claims that he assaulted the star when he was a child.
But Culkin, now 24, said he won't testify at the trial in California. Earlier, Judge Rodney Melville ruled that prosecution evidence about five alleged victims would be allowed.
One of the five is Jordy Chandler - the boy who got a $25million out-of-court settlement from Jacko in the 1990s to drop sex abuse claims.
The bombshell for the defence came after legal arguments in the Santa Maria courthouse, where Jackson denies charges of molesting and falsely imprisoning 13-year-old Gavin Arvizo.
Judge Melville ruled: 'I am going to permit the testimony with regard to the sex offences and alleged pattern of grooming leading up to the sex offences against Jason Francia, Wade Robson, Macaulay Culkin, Jordan Chandler and Brett Barnes.'
All of the people named are now in their twenties.
It is believed to be the first time that Culkin has ever been named as an alleged victim of Jackson.
Police interviewed blond Culkin when original child abuse allegations first surfaced against Jackson in 1993The actor - then just 12 and a regular at Jacko's Neverland ranch - has denied ever being sexually molested by the singer.
He previously said: 'We had very similar experiences in childhood. Michael's still a kid. I'm still a kid.
'We're both going to be about eight years old forever in some places because we never had a chance to be eight when we actually were.
'That's kind of the beautiful and the cursed part of our lives.'
Also on the list is 23-year-old Jason Francia - the son of Jackson's former maid Bianca Francia.
His mother received a $2million payment from Jackson in 1993 and never gave evidence in court. Wade Robson is a former choreographer for Britney Spears and now a fledgling Hollywood director.
Australian Robson, now 22, admitted in 1993 that he had slept with Jackson but insisted they were simply friends.
He once said: 'We both had pyjamas on. He sleeps on one side and I sleep on the other. It's a big bed and we just go to sleep.
'He wouldn't hurt anybody.' The two met when Wade - who lived near Brisbane - won a local Michael Jackson dance competition in 1987He later went to Los Angeles to stay with Jackson and appeared in his videos for the songs Black Or White and Heal The World.
Fellow Aussie Brett Barnes, 23, met Jackson after writing a fan letter to the King of Pop in the early 1990s.
The pair exchanged letters and phone calls for months before Jackson invited the boy to CaliforniaBarnes became the superstar singer's companion for two years and has admitted sharing a bed with Jackson - but again said nothing sexual ever took place.
But the main member of the list is Jordy.
Prosecutors in the Arvizo case had wanted the jury - who were kept out of yesterday's hearing - to hear evidence of a group known as 'the Jackson 7'.
But the judge ruled that just the evidence about the named five boys would be heard.
Testimony about two boys - Jimmy Safechuck and Jonathon Spence - would not be admissible, the judge said.
The judge added that potentially explosive evidence from Chandler's mother June and Francia's mother Blanca would be allowedJason is the only boy of the five named who is set to testify for the prosecution.
During the hearing, Thomas Mesereau, defending, insisted that the court could not allow the evidence if it 'supports fairness, justice, the presumption of innocence and the burden of proof'.
He said those being called were 'all out there for a buck'.
He said: 'How can you prove a crime without an alleged victim?
'They are also trying to bring in evidence from many, many years ago.
'These are from '92, '93 - this is the year 2005.'
Of Macaulay, now 24, Mesereau said: 'Mr Culkin has repeatedly made statements that he was a friend of Mr Jackson's and has never been molested.
Posted by Nealus at March 29, 2005 08:39 PM
