In an interesting legal maneuver in the Michael Jackson trial, Santa Barbara County Superior Court Judge Rodney Melville has not yet ruled on a motion by Senior Deputy District Attorney Ron Zonen for permission to ask witnesses for the defense about alleged character evidence against Jackson.
Released Wednesday, the motion reads in part that Jackson, “Has taken numerous children into his room and bed while heavily addicted to Demerol and other controlled substances … has been reckless in his care and treatment of his own children by dangling one over the balcony of his hotel and by exposing the others to danger in a public crowd … (and) maintains a large quantity of sexually explicit material and shows it to children for purposes of his own sexual gratification.”
Zonen also requested permission to introduce evidence about two other boys Jackson allegedly molested during the 1990s.
The prosecutor argued that such information should be allowed because defense questioning of three witnesses who prosecutors claimed were molested by Jackson amounted to solicitation of their endorsement of the entertainer’s character.
Defense attorney Robert Sanger argued against this interpretation, and the motion, in a response released Thursday saying, “It is simply evidence that Mr. Jackson did not commit lewd acts with the witnesses.”