Macaulay testified for Michael today

[Trauma-san]

Macaulay Culkin, who's become pretty much a recluse over the last 10 years, showed up in court today in california and testified in the Michael Jackson child molestation case.  Of course his testimony is pretty important, since he famously spent years and years traveling and even living with Michael in the 90's.  He wasn't going to testify or grant any interviews about it, but changed his mind after prosecutors drew his name out and claimed Michael had molested him as well. 

Anyways.

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http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/a...us_050511182815

Agence France Presse

Actor Macaulay Culkin denies being molested by Jackson

SANTA MARIA, United States (AFP) - Former child actor Macaulay Culkin took the witness stand at Michael Jackson's child sex trial and denied being molested or seeing the singer fondle any other young boys.


Culkin, 24, of "Home Alone" fame, acknowledged that he often slept in Jackson's bed during regular visits he made to the star's Neverland Ranch between the age of nine and 14.

However, he dismissed allegations that he had been fondled by Jackson as "absolutely ridiculous."

Last month, a former chef at Jackson's Neverland ranch testified that he had seen Jackson with his hand inside Culkin's shorts, touching the boy, in 1991.

Asked by lead defence attorney, Thomas Mesereau, if he had ever been molested by Jackson, Culkin replied: "Never."

"I've never seen him do anything improper with anybody," he added.

Culkin was the third person called in Jackon's defence to deny allegations that he molested them during visits to Neverland as young boys in the 1990s.

He was also the first big name from the defence's celebrity-studded witness list, which includes the likes of Stevie Wonder and Elizabeth Taylor, to testify in the trial.

Culkin, who appeared relaxed and confident, testified that he would be so exhausted after playing around the ranch all day, that he would just flop somewhere in Jackson's bedroom in the evening.

However, he bridled at prosecutor Ron Zonen's suggestion that Jackson may have molested him without his knowledge while he was sound asleep.

"I find that unlikely," he said. "I think I'd realise if something like that would happen."

Prosecutors have brought up the uncharged molestation claims dating back more than a decade in a bid to convince jurors Jackson has a history of sexually abusing young boys.

Jackson, 46, has insisted his love of children, and the sleepovers, are pure and innocent.

The self-crowned "King of Pop" stands charged with molesting a 13-year-old boy two years ago, serving alcohol to the recovering cancer patient and conspiring to hold him and his family captive.

Under cross-examination, Culkin insisted that the idea of him sharing a bed with a 35-year-old had never been an issue for his parents.

"He was very childlike," he said of Jackson at the time. "He's more of a father now, but he still has childlike qualities."

Referring to pornography seized by police from Jackson's bedroom, prosecutor Zonen challenged the witness to state whether such material was consistent with a "childlike" personality.

"Overall he's still a human being ... I don't find it inappropriate," Culkin replied, adding that by the age of 12 he was keeping a copy of "Playboy" under his own bed.

Culkin's 45-minute appearance on the witness stand drew approving reviews from legal analysts.

"He's a great witness ... unflappable," said Ann Bremner, a former prosecutor following the trial.

Bremner noted, however, that jurors would be well aware that Culkin was a trained actor.


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I like how they basically trash the whole testimony with the last sentence, by saying "oh, of course, everybody knows Macaulay's a great actor".  Come on man.

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http://www.presstelegram.com/Stories/0,141...2864029,00.html

Culkin takes stand in Jackson case

By Associated Press

SANTA MARIA - Actor Macaulay Culkin calmly and confidently testified Wednesday that he was never molested by Michael Jackson and told jurors that he and the pop star have a bond based on the shared experience of being children thrust into stardom.
The 24-year-old star of the "Home Alone" movies was the third young man to testify at Jackson's child molestation trial that as boys they slept with the adult Jackson at his Neverland ranch and were neither molested nor inappropriately touched, as prosecution witnesses have alleged.

"Do you have reason to believe Mr. Jackson molested you at any time," defense attorney Thomas Mesereau Jr. asked.

"Not at all," said Culkin, who entered court through a back way but later left through the front door, his hands clasped behind his back except when he tried to tame his wind-blown hair.

Culkin testified that he and Jackson were drawn together by their common experience as child performers, although he laughingly noted that "it was not like a child actors' self-help group."

"Anyone who was a child performer," he said, "we keep an eye out for each other."

Jackson, 46, is accused of molesting a 13-year-old boy in 2003, giving him wine and conspiring to hold the boy's family captive to get them to rebut a documentary in which the boy appeared with Jackson, who told an interviewer he let children sleep in his bed but it was innocent.

Culkin became part of the case when prosecutors were allowed to present testimony about Jackson's past to suggest he has a pattern of abusing boys. The testimony included an ex-chef who said he saw Jackson with a hand up Culkin's shorts as Jackson held the boy up to a video game.

Culkin, wearing a suit with an open-neck shirt, appeared relaxed and answered questions directly during his testimony, which lasted less than 90 minutes.

Several times during cross-examination, Senior Deputy District Attorney Ron Zonen cut off his answers, drawing an admonishment from Superior Court Judge Rodney S. Melville.

Culkin testified that he was 9 or 10 years old when he met Jackson and that he slept in Jackson's bed several times between the ages of 10 and 14, sometimes with other boys as well. He said the sleepovers weren't planned and that he and others would just fall asleep when they were tired.

Zonen suggested he could have been molested while he was asleep.

"I find that unlikely," Culkin said. "I think I'd realize that something like that was happening to me."

Under questioning by Mesereau, Culkin also denied that Jackson would try to manipulate him with gifts so that the pop star could later touch Culkin.

Asked if Jackson ever pressured him, Culkin said, "He never pressured me to do anything at all. He was just my friend. He never pressured me to go to sleep at a particular time or to eat my vegetables."

He testified that his life changed after he starred in "Home Alone" and spoke of "photographers in the bushes and profiteers _ people out to get you. It was something that just happened."

Culkin said he and Jackson often talked about missing out on their childhoods.

"It wasn't like therapy," he said, "but we talked about how these kind of things happen."

Culkin also spoke of Jackson leading an insular life and how he would have to go shopping in stores after hours.

The young actor called the charges against Jackson "absolutely ridiculous" and said he only learned of the allegations made about him when someone told him he should watch CNN.

"It was amazing to me that nobody even approached me and asked if these allegations were true," he said.

On cross-examination, Zonen asked Culkin if prosecutors had tried repeatedly to contact him but had been rebuffed.

"Not that I know of, no," Culkin said.

Prosecutors seized on Culkin comments in which he described Jackson as childlike and about how guests in Jackson's room were free to look at memorabilia.

The prosecution has shown the jury dozens of sexually explicit magazines found in his room during a November 2003 search, and have alleged that Jackson showed the material to his accuser and the boy's brother.

Asked if he thought it was childlike to have such material, Culkin said, "When I was 12 or 13 years old I had a couple of Playboys under my bed."

When Zonen described the content of the magazines and asked if they were childlike, Culkin said, "I don't think there's anything wrong with having those things."

Culkin himself faces a court hearing next month on two misdemeanor drug counts in Oklahoma City. He was arrested Sept. 17, 2004, after police alleged found more than a half-ounce of marijuana and several tablets of the prescription medication Xanax in a car in which he was a passenger.

Culkin has pleaded innocent to the charges and is free on $4,000 bail.

In another trial development, Jackson's lawyers announced they would play a video made by Jackson's videographer during the making of the "Living With Michael Jackson" documentary.

The defense contends that outtakes will show that much of what ended up in the documentary was taken out of context.

The judge agreed to allow the entire two-hour, 40-minute tape to be played despite prosecution assertions that the defense only be allowed to show material that it claims would correct misleading information in the documentary.

___ Associated Press Writer Tim Molloy contributed to this report.


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The news is saying that the prosecution was afraid to grill Macaulay too hard, because generally he's a likeable guy, and since he grew up in front of America, it would be a bad idea to beat him up too much on the stand, because the Jury are all likely to be fans, and remember him as a cute kid getting rudely attacked by the prosecution. 

[KURUPTION-81]

u can tell the prosecution r clutching at straws when they suggest he could have been molestd while sleeping.

[Woozie]