Michael Jackson 's teenage accuser told jurors this evening of taking part in nights of heavy drinking with the entertainer as the sex abuse trial resumed after a morning of high drama in which a judge threatened to jail the pop star.
The boy, a cancer survivor, told of how Jackson gave him wine, calling it "Jesus Juice," and then plied him with vodka, whiskey and rum, even though the youth warned Jackson he had only one kidney and should not drink.
The testimony came after a tense morning in which Santa Barbara County Judge Rodney Melville threatened to jail Jackson and make him forfeit his $3 million bail because the pop star failed to show up in court for the opening of the morning session.
Judge Melville gave the 46-year-old Jackson a one hour deadline to get to court and the superstar, looking wan and shaken after a visit to a nearby hospital, showed up in court a few minutes after the deadline expired.
He had told his attorney he had a back ailment and he walked slowly into court dressed in pajama bottoms and sandals and using the arm of an aide for support.
The jury was then brought in and the judge told them, "Mr Jackson had a medical problem this morning and it was necessary for me to order his appearance." He told the jury they should not draw a negative inference from that.
"If one of you had called in sick or not appeared, or if one of the attorneys did, I would do the same thing. The trial is going to go forward (and) this has nothing to do with guilt or innocence."
Judge Melville did not say what sanctions, if any, he would taken against Jackson. The boy, now 15-years-old, resumed his second day of testifying in the child molestation case that threatens to destroy Jackson's career and put the self-styled Peter Pan in prison for more than 20 years if found guilty.
The boy told the court that Jackson flew him and his family to Miami ostensibly to give a press conference to defend the superstar after a controversial TV documentary in which Jackson said he shared his bed with young boys. In the documentary he was shown holding hands with the youth who is now his accuser.
The boy said Jackson played a "let's pretend" game with him in which the youth pretended to be a student who did something bad at school and Jackson was the principal.
Then the youth said Jackson gave him a soda can with wine in it and asked if he had ever heard of "Jesus Juice." "He told me, 'You know how Jesus has drunk wine. Well, we call it Jesus Juice,'" the boy said.
Agencies