Macaulay Culkin to Testify for [Jackson]
by Roger Friedman
May 11, 2005
Former child star Macaulay Culkin, 24, will testify today in Michael Jackson's child molestation trial.
His appearance will be a major moment in this strange and often uncomfortable ordeal. Culkin could be the best thing that has happened to Jackson – or the worst.
Culkin's first order of business on the stand will be to refute testimony given earlier by a former Neverland employee. Philip LeMarque, who worked at Jackson's ranch from 1990 to 1991, said Jackson fondled the child star when he was around 10.
LeMarque told the jury that he had seen Jackson and Culkin playing a video game in the middle of the night. Jackson was holding Culkin, who was too short to reach the machine, and the singer's hands went under Culkin's shorts, LeMarque said.
But LeMarque had a checkered history at Neverland. He and his wife, who also worked at the ranch, attempted to sell their story to the tabloids twice in the early 1990s. They also took money from the National Enquirer to give reporters access to Neverland when Elizabeth Taylor married Larry Fortensky there.
Private investigator Paul Barresi, acting then as a "tabloid story broker," later said the LeMarques changed their Culkin tale, making it sound worse as the bidding war for the story increased. In the end, Barresi himself sold the story.
I've known Macaulay Culkin since he was about 12. He's a good kid, and so are his siblings. But he's suffered from the stigma of having been Jackson's alleged "victim" for years, even though he's denied publicly that anything illegal, sinister or inappropriate ever happened between him and the pop star.
Today he gets to set the story straight.
Other testimony given on Tuesday was not so helpful to Jackson's defense. Joe Marcus, the manager of Neverland, underwent a rocky cross-examination by Assistant District Attorney Gordon Auchincloss.
Marcus, who has worked for Jackson for 18 years, constantly looked over to Jackson for help during his ordeal on the stand. That did not look good.
Marcus' worst moment came when he admitted to having lied to the police investigators who raided Neverland on Nov. 18, 2003. He had told them he was unaware that Jackson shared his bed with children.
Marcus may well be telling the truth about a lot of other things. But his lack of preparedness as a witness, coupled with a plodding testimonial style, didn't do much to help Jackson's case.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,156155,00.html