Jackson accuser's sister testifies

Prosecutors show jurors video of singer's Neverland Ranch





SANTA MARIA, California (CNN) -- The sister of the teenager accusing Michael Jackson of child molestation said her brother seemed to withdraw from their family in the weeks after a controversial television documentary featuring he and Jackson aired two years ago.

"He really didn't want to talk to me," she testified, adding, "I just knew something" was wrong.

Her testimony will continue Friday morning.

The prosecution witness told jurors Jackson associates kept the family at a California hotel for several days, telling them they could not leave "because there were death threats on us" after versions of the documentary aired on British TV and ABC.

Family members were told they were going to be taken to Brazil, and they were taken to buy luggage and clothes and have passport photos taken, she said.

The now 18-year-old woman also said that the day before the American version of the documentary "Living With Michael Jackson" aired on ABC in February 2003, Jackson associates flew the family to a resort in Miami, Florida.

The sister said she, her mother and her two brothers were flown on a private jet, along with comedian Chris Tucker, where they stayed in a room one floor below Jackson's. She described the trip as last-minute.

The next day, she said she saw Jackson take her then 13-year-old brother into a room in his suite and shut the door.

"He pulled him aside into his room," she said, testifying that her brother and Jackson were alone together for 15 to 30 minutes. She said the same scenario happened "two or three times" over the course of a day when she and members of her family were together in Jackson's suite.

Speaking softly and referring to the singer as "Mr. Jackson," she said the family spent the entire day in Jackson's suite, adding that he "was kind of like upset" about the documentary and urged the family not to watch it.

Prosecutors say the trip to Miami was designed to keep the family from seeing the documentary, in which Jackson and his teenage accuser were shown holding hands and the pop star defended his practice of allowing children to sleep in his bed.

The sister testified that on the way back from Miami on the private jet, she saw Jackson and her brother both drinking from a Diet Coke can. She also said she saw Jackson give her brother a watch and the jacket he was wearing.

In the indictment against Jackson, prosecutors put the watch's value at $75,000.

The prosecution has accused Jackson of giving the accuser and his younger brother alcohol, putting what he called "Jesus juice" into empty soft drink cans.

She described one incident in which she saw Jackson drinking what appeared to be alcohol with her brothers and another young boy in a room next to the wine cellar, which was accessible only through a stairway concealed behind a jukebox at Neverland Ranch.

Jackson was pouring a "clear" liquid into cups for the brothers and offered her a cup, she said. She described the liquid as tasting "funny and weird" and said she didn't finish it.

She also testified that during the family's first visit to Jackson's Neverland Ranch in 2000, she was present during a conversation in which the accuser brought up the subject of being allowed to sleep in Jackson's bed. Her father and Jackson were also present, she said.

Amid defense objections, she didn't testify as to where her brothers slept. But she did say that while she and her parents slept in adjoining rooms in a guest house, her brothers stayed elsewhere.

She said the involvement between Jackson and her family began in the summer of 1999, when she and her brothers attended a comedy camp sponsored by the Laugh Factory, a comedy club owned by Jamie Masada.

At the time, the accuser was extremely ill with cancer and was not expected to live. His cancer has since gone into remission.

The teen told Masada that he wanted to meet three celebrities -- Adam Sandler, Tucker and Jackson. The girl said he got to meet Jackson and Tucker, who later became a "friend" of the family.

She also told jurors that she and her mother, as well as her brothers, were abused by their father. Asked how many times she had seen her father hit her mother, she answered, "Too many to count. So many." Asked how many times she and her brothers had been hit, she said, "Lots."

The sister also said she witnessed a fight between her parents at Neverland during which her father threw a can of soda at her mother. They later divorced.

The claims of abuse are expected to be a source of contention between the prosecution and defense.

Video tour of Neverland

Earlier, jurors watched a video tour of the ranch's main residence, including the two-story master bedroom suite where Jackson is accused of molesting the teenager.

Among the items that could be seen in the video: A life-sized male doll dressed in a Boy Scout uniform and an ornate red-and-gold throne-like chair on which a male doll sat with his hands on his hips.

A framed print of the Last Supper hung over his bed. Two framed pictures of Elizabeth Taylor decorated the bathroom.

Jackson appeared pensive as the video played, putting two fingers up to his face and watching intently.

The footage was taken by Albert Lafferty, a videographer for the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Department, to show how the property looked before investigators executed a search warrant on November 18, 2003.

The video showed the house cluttered with shoe boxes, books and a variety of objects stacked on the floors.

Inside the master bedroom, which had a keypad to control entry, were a crib and several large cardboard cutouts, including one of child star Shirley Temple and another showing two toddlers kissing. A photo illustration showing Jackson with a cherub was on top of a piano.

Jurors were also shown a room that prosecutors referred to as the "doll room," featuring hundreds of dolls, and a "toy room" that was filled with life-sized toys based on movie characters, including Batman and Darth Vader.

Jackson, 46, was indicted in April by a state grand jury on 10 felony counts for incidents that allegedly occurred in February and March 2003: four counts of committing a lewd act on a child; one count of conspiracy to commit child abduction, false imprisonment and extortion; one count of attempting to commit a lewd act on a child; and four counts of administering an intoxicating agent to assist in the commission of a felony.

He has pleaded not guilty.