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PrintableApril 24, 2005 -- ANALYSIS
WIFE NO. 2 WILL ZING
THE KING OF POP By DIANE DIMOND ----- April 24, 2005 -- ANALYSIS SANTA MARIA, Calif. — Put the doctor on hold — the ex-wife is coming to town! This week, the prosecution is supposed to wrap up its child-molestation case against Michael Jackson, and on the state's guest list is none other than the King of Pop's second ex-wife, Debbie Rowe, the mother of his two eldest children. She is a no-nonsense, Harley Davidson-riding woman who for years worked as the nurse at the office of Jackson's favorite doctor, his dermatologist and plastic surgeon, Dr. Arnold Klein. Rowe knows where the prescription-drug bodies are buried, she knows about Jackson's deep desire to have his own kids, and she is on record as having declared that he should not be around children. And, at this point in time, Debbie Rowe is mad! I think I feel another Jackson trip to the hospital coming on. Rowe hasn't been allowed to see her children since Jackson was charged with child molesting, and she is currently locked in a closed-door custody battle with her ex in a Los Angeles family court. District Attorney Tom Sneddon — who has been roundly criticized by reporters and talking-head pundits as having a weak case — will present Debbie Rowe as one of the prosecution's strongest conspiracy witnesses. Rowe is expected to testify about, among other things, the circumstances surrounding her appearance on the so-called rebuttal video Team Jackson sold for $3 million. Under the confidentiality terms of her divorce agreement, Rowe had to promise to never — ever — speak or write about her ex. She agreed never to talk about paternity issues, Jackson's mental or physical condition, his "sexual behavior" and lifestyle, his purported drug use and certain issues surrounding the location of the children. So the very fact that Rowe appeared in that rebuttal video means that Jackson had to have given her his permission. That would place MJ smack in the middle of what the prosecution says was a conspiracy. Suddenly, all those pundit declarations that the conspiracy portion of this case is weak become suspect. But Rowe will not be the only strong conspiracy witness this week. The prosecution has built its case around the notion that Jackson agreed to let Brit Martin Bashir follow him around in the hope that the resulting documentary, "Living With Michael Jackson," would boost his sagging career and faltering bottom line. When the effect was exactly the opposite — when the world cringed at the sight of Jackson's holding hands with his current accuser and declaring it perfectly normal to sleep with boys — the Jackson camp panicked, according to the prosecution, and promised a documentary of its own. That documentary was to feature Rowe as well as the current boy accuser and his family, each saying beautiful, loving things about the pop idol. But the boy's mother proved to be a problem, and that, the state says, is when the strong-arm tactics began. The accuser's mother testified here in court last week that when she and the kids were forced to participate in the filming, they followed a carefully prepared script. Court watchers laughed at the absurdity of it all. But now here comes Debbie Rowe — and she is expected to tell the same tale, of having been ordered to follow a script prepared by some (if not all) of the unindicted co-conspirators. That's exactly what Tom Sneddon promised in his opening statement. But it turns out that Rowe doesn't like to be told what to do any more than Jackson does — and now she has turned state's witness. If she wants to, Rowe could spill a lot of beans — because no matter what civil agreement of silence she signed in the past, it has been canceled out by the subpoena she received to testify in the criminal case. She could turn out to be the type of witness who "volunteers" things during testimony. And, oh, what tales she could tell!  | |
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hahahahahah.....i wish i could have seen diane diamonds face when debbie was testifying. it shoves everytihng diane wrote right up her arse | |
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Jackson's Ex-Wife the Best Defense By Joal Ryan
Thu Apr 28, 9:19 PM ET In his opening argument, Michael Jackson prosecutor Tom Sneddon promised jurors that the singer's ex-wife would "testify to some interesting evidence" in his molestation and conspiracy trial. And Debbie Rowe did. It just turned out her evidence was most interesting to the defense. A day that began with Jackson's lawyers moving to strike all of Rowe's testimony from Wednesday ended with the team deciding it could live with statements like this: "Michael [is] a wonderful person." According to Rowe's testimony, her former husband is also: "Generous. To a fault. Giving and kind." "A good father. Great with kids. Put[s] other people ahead of him." "A brilliant businessman." A prosecution witness, Rowe was called to the Santa Maria, California, courthouse to bolster the prosecution's conspiracy case. Instead, she helped the defense preview its case. Rowe said Jackson, brilliant though he may be, was removed from the day-to-day workings of his far-flung operation by "opportunistic vultures" who sought to exploit his troubles--and sometimes even stoke his troubles--for their financial gain. The portrayal of Jackson-as-victim is Defense Strategy 101. So is the slamming of ex-Jackson business associate Frederic Marc Schaffel and ex-Jackson managers Dieter Weizner and Ronald Konitzer. The defense is actively trying to distance their star client from the three men--all identified by the prosecution as unindicted coconspirators, all tagged by Rowe as liars and members of the "opportunistic vulture" society. Schaffel is suing Jackson over allegedly unpaid loans, and on Thursday, according to the Associated Press, unsuccessfully tried to get a lien put on Neverland Ranch. Rowe, meanwhile, had even more opinions as to who were the "vultures" in Jackson's camp, but Superior Court Judge Rodney S. Melville cut her off. "Sounds like she's got a long list," he said. The ex-nurse did have a long list. Blunt and plain-spoken, Rowe said she thought Schaffel was "full of s---." When a question by defense attorney Thomas Mesereau Jr. made her briefly think the prosecution had bugged her telephone, she blurted out, "Damn you, guys. You never share anything." According to Court TV, she even took a swipe at ex-Jackson lawyer Mark Geragos. About the only person Rowe didn't have a snap judgment for was the defendant. Per reports, Rowe choked up when she talked about the entertainer she met at the dermatologist's in the 1980s. (She worked at the office; he was a client.) Divorced from Jackson since 1999, and currently fighting for visitation rights to their two children, Rowe said she still considered him a friend--"if [only] he'd talk to me." It was her desire to help her friend, and their children, that led her to sit down for a videotaped interview orchestrated by the Jackson camp in February 2003, Rowe insisted on the stand. Prosecutors had insisted Rowe was coerced into going on camera and saying nice things about Jackson, much as it insists the singer's young accuser and his family were. Both interviews were conducted in response to the controversial Martin Bashir documentary, Living with Michael Jackson. Sneddon's opening argument said Rowe would talk about being "scripted," ordered to undergo a "complete rehearsal," and stopped whenever Jackson's henchmen "didn't like her answers." But for the second day in a row, Rowe didn't talk about any of those things--no matter how many time prosecutor Ronald Zonen tried. "Did you, in fact, make changes in your interview in accordance with [Schaffel's] request?" Zonen asked, trying to fire up the case for arm-twisting. "Only if it didn't change the meaning of what I had to say," Rowe replied, dampening the case for arm-twisting. "Did anybody offer you anything in response to your doing this [interview]?" went another hopeful Zonen question. "No," went another deflating Rowe response. "I was excited to see Michael and the children when this was all over." "At some point in time, did you take a look at a script?" went yet another Zonen question. "No," went yet another--and possibly case-destroying--Rowe response. There were written-out questions, Rowe said, but she didn't want to look at them. She didn't say anybody forced her to look at them, either. As for the prosecution's charge that Jackson used their children as bargaining chips to secure her help, Rowe said no promises were ever made--and certainly not by Jackson. She said that after the interview a pleased Schaffel told her she'd be coming up to Neverland soon. But nothing ever happened. Rowe still hasn't seen her children since 2001. Zonen did get Rowe to concede that she fudged a bit in the interview. But she said the misstatements were all hers, including one where she described herself as being part of the Jackson family. She said she just wanted to protect her children from nosy media inquiries. Also on the stand: Iris Finsilver, a Rowe attorney, who was present for the rebuttal video taping. In other business, Sneddon announced he'd wrap his case Tuesday. Jackson, 46, is accused of masturbating a boy, then 13, serving alcohol to the child and conspiring to hold him and his family captive. The pop star has pleaded innocent to all charges |
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