US: Michael Jackson's team was "extremely agitated" following the broadcast of a British TV documentary highlighting his friendships with children, a former employee of his company said yesterday.
Public relations executive Ann Gabriel told the court on the third day of Jackson's trial on child molestation charges that the Martin Bashir TV documentary "Living With Michael Jackson" had become an "absolute disaster" for the 46-year-old singer.
Asked by prosecution attorney Gordon Ainchloss how she would rate on a scale of one to 10 the negative impact of the documentary, in which Mr Jackson admitted sharing his bedroom with children, she replied "a 25".
The Jackson team sought to make a video rebuttal involving the family at the centre of the allegations, and at one point had to scramble to bring them back to Neverland, she said. Mr Jackson's team later told the employee they had the mother on tape and would make her look like a "crack whore".
The defence is expected to attack Ms Gabriel's testimony by claiming that she was not working for Jackson but had been hired by his associates without his knowledge. Ms Gabriel, who worked for Jackson's company for just a week, told the prosecution that she had never met the star.
At the outset of the third day of the singer's trial on charges of sexual molestation of a 13-year-old boy, administering alcohol to a boy and multiple charges of conspiracy involving extortion and false imprisonment, Jackson appeared animated and agitated.
Dressed in a black suit, white and gold waistcoat and his customary armband, Mr Jackson talked at length with his attorneys during a delay, gesticulating and frequently waving his arms around.
Under cross examination by the prosecution, Ms Gabriel described how she had been hired by Jackson's company to undertake "crisis management" in the wake of the Bashir documentary. "I felt the documentary was put together in a way that portrayed Michael Jackson in a particularly negative way," she said. As the crisis deepened in the days following the broadcast: "There were documents released on smokinggun.com that in conjunction with the documentary I felt were beyond a disaster." The documents related to the 1993 allegation of child sexual abuse against Mr Jackson which were settled out of court.
A key element of the conspiracy charge is that Mr Jackson and others kept the family at Neverland against their will and forced them to take part in a rebuttal video.
But 10 days after Bashir's documentary was broadcast, Ms Gabriel said she received a phone call from Marc Shaffel, a Jackson adviser, who told her that the mother had taken her two boys from the ranch early that morning.
Later the same day, Mr Shaffel called her to say that the family had been brought back and that the situation was "under control".
"I didn't understand why he would be so concerned about them leaving the ranch," she said.
The trial continues.