Jackson Accuser's Family Troubles

NOVEMBER 21--The uproar surrounding the Michael Jackson case will not be the first time the alleged victim's life has encountered significant tumult, court records reveal.

The 13-year-old boy's father was arrested last year on a variety of child abuse charges, including counts alleging that the man, a 37-year-old supermarket employee, may have "endangered" his son's health through "cruel and inhuman corporal punishment" that resulted in "a traumatic condition." The boy's father pleaded no contest last year to a single misdemeanor charge of willful cruelty to a child (he finished a court-ordered parenting class, according to a January 2003 court progress report). At left you'll find the misdemeanor complaint filed against the man, whose name (and those of his children) we've redacted to protect the identity of Jackson's alleged victim.

In an October 2001 divorce petition, the man's estranged wife alleged that he once threatened to kill her and the couple's three kids, including the child who has accused Jackson of molestation. The account of the alleged death threat was included in the wife's application for an order of protection, which the woman--who has sole custody of her children--included with the divorce filing. A Los Angeles Superior Court judge granted the 35-year-old woman's request for a protective order, which the man was charged with violating last year when he was arrested in the child abuse case.

Details from the couple's matrimonial case, which is still pending, could presumably be used in an attempt to discredit the mother and, by extension, her son's abuse account.

In a recent court bid for spousal and child support, the woman reported that she was unemployed and that her income was limited to a $769 monthly check from the federal Aid to Families with Dependent Children program. The woman stated her family had monthly expenses totaling $1340, which included rent of $425. The woman's support request was approved this March by an L.A. judge who ordered that $1499 be automatically deducted from her estranged husband's paycheck.

With Jackson supporters already whispering that the boy's molestation charges are part of a shakedown plot, the meager finances of the accuser's family are likely to be pinpointed as motivation for this supposed scheme. (3 pages)