Geragos: Surveillance ordered on accuser's family
Attorney says he was concerned pop star might be victimized
SANTA MARIA, California (CNN) -- Celebrity criminal attorney Mark Geragos said Friday that he ordered surveillance on the family of Michael Jackson's teenage accuser because he was "gravely concerned" that they might be scheming to extract money from the pop star.
"I was trying to prevent a crime against my client," Geragos told jurors in Jackson's child molestation trial. "I thought they were going to shake him down."
Geragos said he asked private investigator Brad Miller to keep tabs on the family to find out "where they were, what they were doing and who they were meeting with." He also asked Miller to record a statement with the family so that they would be "locked into" their version of events and could not later change their story.
He described the results of Miller's investigation of the family as "negative," and he said he concluded, "Michael should have nothing to do with them."
"It was a pending train wreck," he said.
However, Geragos denied involvement in any conspiracy to hold the family against their will, as the prosecution alleges.
Testifying for the defense, Geragos said he was hired to represent Jackson in February 2003, during what he described as a "whirlwind" after the entertainer appeared in "Living With Michael Jackson," an unflattering television documentary by British journalist Martin Bashir.
Jackson replaced Geragos in April 2004 with his current attorney, Thomas Mesereau Jr.
At the time, Geragos was in the middle of representing Scott Peterson -- later sentenced to death for the murder of his pregnant wife, Laci -- and Jackson said he made the decision because "it is imperative that I have the full attention of those who are representing me."
Geragos 'pulled the plug' on TV interview
In Bashir's documentary, Jackson was shown holding hands with a then-13-year-old boy now accusing him of molestation. The singer defended his practice of letting children sleep with him in his bed. The program set off an international media firestorm.
"People were making all kinds of allegations ... specifically about one young man, and I was to look into that," Geragos said. His "first concern" was whether the state Division of Children and Family Services might try to take away Jackson's three children.
Shortly after being hired, Geragos went to Jackson's Neverland Ranch for his planned interview with "60 Minutes" journalist Ed Bradley. While there, he said, a Jackson associate told him things about the boy and his family "that were giving me great pause" -- particularly the fact that the boy was calling Jackson "daddy."
Geragos said he had a conversation with Jackson objecting to how the boy was referring to him. He said he eventually "pulled the plug" on the interview.
"It was not going to happen," he said.
Geragos also testified that he had associates in his office perform a database search, which turned up a lawsuit the boy's family filed against J.C. Penney, alleging that they had been mistreated in an altercation with the retailer's security guards. The family received a $155,000 settlement in that case in 2000, according to earlier trial testimony.
Geragos said the J.C. Penney case raised alarm bells because "my client is frequently the target of litigation."
However, under prosecution questioning, Geragos said he never advised Jackson that he should stop sleeping with children.
"I wasn't there to give him advice about that," he said.
Money for rebuttal program
Earlier Friday, David LeGrand, Jackson's former business attorney, retook the stand for more questioning, after testifying much of Thursday.
LeGrand said he was involved in the decision to bring Geragos on board to represent Jackson. During the media outcry over the documentary, LeGrand said, he and other Jackson associates "were concerned" that the pop star needed a criminal attorney.
LeGrand also was questioned Friday about a company he helped set up, the Fire Mountain Corp., which received $3 million that the Fox TV network paid Jackson for a program rebutting Bashir's documentary.
Prosecutor Gordon Auchincloss pressed LeGrand on whether Fire Mountain had been set up to keep the money away from Bank of America, which had first priority on any new Jackson income to repay the debt he owed to the bank.
"It was not my intent to conceal," LeGrand said. "It was my intent to protect the cash flow."
Jackson was indicted last year on 10 felony counts for incidents that include a lewd act on a child; conspiracy to commit abduction, false imprisonment and extortion; and the use of an intoxicant before the commission of a felony.
Jackson has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
CNN's Dree De Clamecy contributed to this report.
