#24 Postby cycloneye » Wed Mar 02, 2005 4:06 pm
SANTA MARIA, California (CNN) -- A public relations expert hired by a lawyer for Michael Jackson to control damage -- after a 2003 TV documentary -- testified Wednesday that she was fired after she questioned the way the family of a boy, who appeared in the movie, was being treated.
In the documentary, Jackson is shown holding hands with the 13-year-old boy who later accused him of child molestation.
Ann Kite, who also goes by the professional name Ann Gabriel, told jurors in Jackson's trial that she was hired by his Las Vegas-based lawyer, David LeGrand, less than a week after the documentary, "Living With Michael Jackson," aired on Britain's ITV on February 3, 2003.
A different version, based on the same material, later aired in the United States on ABC.
Kite described the program as "an absolute disaster" for the pop star and that, on a damage scale from one to 10, she would put it at "a 25."
But during cross-examination, Kite's self-description as a crisis management expert was challenged. And she acknowledged that the singer never participated in the damage control efforts.
In addition to holding hands with the boy, Jackson also defended his practice of allowing children to sleep in his bedroom at Neverland ranch, where the alleged molestation took place.
On February 13, 2003, Kite said she had a telephone conversation with Fredric Marc Schaffel, a Jackson associate, who expressed concern that the accuser's mother, who had been staying at Neverland with the boy and two of her other children, took the children and left the ranch late at night.
Several hours later, Kite said she received another phone call from Schaffel in which he told her that "the situation had been contained" -- a statement she said made her "very uncomfortable." She was later told that the family was back at the ranch.
Kite said LeGrand refused to answer when she asked him how the situation had been contained. She testified that she told him, "Don't make me believe these people were hunted down like dogs and brought back to the ranch."
Kite told jurors that she also had a conversation that day with Jackson associate Ronald Konitzer, in which she told him she was "very concerned" that Jackson was being exposed to even more negative publicity by what was going on with the boy's family.
Two days later, she said, she was pulled off the set of the syndicated television show "Access Hollywood," where she was preparing to make a statement on Jackson's behalf. She said that Mark Geragos, a criminal defense attorney who then represented Jackson, had called the producers and told them she had been fired and no longer spoke for Jackson.
Kite said she was later asked to sign a confidentiality agreement, which she believed was "designed to shut me up," but refused.
She also testified that several days after her termination, she had a phone conversation with LeGrand in which he told her that the family no longer presented a problem for Jackson because his camp had the boy's mother on tape and planned to portray her as "a crack whore."
Kite's testimony is an effort by the prosecution to support its contention that after the documentary backfired on Jackson, he and his associates tried to isolate the boy and his family and intimidate them into participating in a rebuttal video -- a campaign that included holding them captive at Neverland.
One of the 10 counts in the indictment against Jackson alleges that he and five associates, who were not indicted, conspired to commit child abduction, false imprisonment and extortion. Schaffel and Konitzer were among those named as unindicted co-conspirators.
Kite testified that during her efforts to control the damage, she worked closely with Konitzer, Schaffel and Geragos, who was later replaced as Jackson's criminal attorney. But she told jurors that Jackson's associates, particularly Schaffel, disagreed with her about what to do. She said their ideas included trying to enlist help from Jackson's ex-wife, Debbie Rowe, who is the mother of two of his children.
Kite said she advised against using Rowe because "I didn't think she was the strongest candidate." But she said Schaffel told her Rowe would say whatever Jackson asked her to say.
Kite said her crisis plan involved trying to get the media focus back on Jackson's music, rather than his actions, and she recommended that he make a "strong on-camera rebuttal" to the documentary.
Under cross-examination, Kite conceded that Jackson himself was never part of the damage control efforts. She also said that during the six days she worked for the Jackson camp, her only face-to-face meeting was with LeGrand. She never met Jackson, and all of the contact with his other associates was by phone, she said.
She said that Jackson signed her paychecks, but she never met him and dealt only with his associates.
Kite also revealed during cross-examination that she had a personal relationship with LeGrand that began in the fall of 2002 and ended shortly before he hired her.
In his cross-examination, defense attorney Thomas Mesereau Jr. challenged Kite's description of herself as a crisis management expert, getting her to admit that the only other celebrity client she had was an obscure Las Vegas entertainer whose act included self-hypnosis.
"You really weren't very experienced in the area of celebrity crisis management," Mesereau said, asking Kite why she described herself that way.
"I've seen a lot," she replied.
Mesereau also suggested that Kite had a conflict of interest because in late 1990s, she was involved in an effort to put music on the Internet -- a move opposed by Jackson and his record company, Sony. But Kite said she did not believe it was a conflict because LeGrand, who had hired her, was involved in the same effort.
Jackson, 46, arrived at the courthouse in Santa Maria Wednesday morning with his mother, Katherine, and one of his brothers. He was wearing a black jacket over a white vest with black dots and a gold striped arm band.
He 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 to the charges.
The trial was delayed for about 30 minutes Wednesday morning while attorneys in the case held a discussion behind closed doors. Santa Barbara County Superior Court Judge Rodney Melville later explained to jurors that the delay was to deal with a "legal problem" that had arisen Tuesday.
The judge also read jurors the law governing how they should evaluate statements from alleged co-conspirators in the case.
An interesting testimony today from this public relations expert.
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