WEDNESDAY’S ACTION
The defense rested after its final witness, comedian Chris Tucker, said he thought the singer’s accuser, whom Tucker met in 2001 when the boy was battling cancer, was unusually cunning for a 12-year-old. Defense attorneys wrapped up a three-week effort to depict the boy and his mother as shakedown specialists.
50 CALLED: Only a few of the celebrities on a witness list of about 300 names were called to testify by the defense, and Jackson did not take the stand. His lawyers called 50 witnesses in all.
VISITORS: Tucker told the jury that his suspicions about the accuser and his family arose when they came to the set of a movie he was filming in Las Vegas and wouldn’t leave. Tucker paid for their hotel and expenses, but after several weeks they were still there.
`AIN’T RIGHT’: The comedian also testified that after family members learned Jackson was in Florida, they wanted to fly to Miami; Tucker said he arranged a private flight, but once in Florida he warned Jackson to be wary. “I said, `Michael, something ain’t right,”‘ Tucker said.
NEXT STEP: Prosecutors have begun their rebuttal.
Getty/AFP photo by Frazer Harrison
Actor and comic Chris Tucker arrives Wednesday at the Santa Barbara County Courthouse in Santa Maria, Calif.
