Witness: Family praised Jackson
Investigator admits she made no attempt to verify woman's claim
SANTA MARIA, California (CNN) -- Michael Jackson's teenage accuser told child welfare workers that he was not molested by the pop star and had not shared his bed, a social worker testified Tuesday.
"I asked him point blank if he had ever slept in bed with Michael Jackson," Irene Peters told jurors in Jackson's child molestation trial. "He said no."
The boy and his mother, brother and sister -- who were also interviewed by the California state Division of Children and Family Services -- had nothing but praise for Jackson, Peters said.
She said the accuser's mother told her that "Michael has been like a father figure to her children" and that he was responsible for helping her son's cancer go into remission.
Based on denials by the boy and his family, Peters said she concluded "the allegations of sexual abuse by Michael Jackson were unfounded at that time."
Two months later, Peters said, she also had an impromptu meeting with the family at a hamburger stand, and they all appeared to be doing fine.
Peters said, however, she made no effort to independently verify what the family told her, and she admitted that the mother was afraid she would lose her children if child welfare workers suspected abuse.
Peters and two other DCFS social workers from Los Angeles interviewed the family on February 20, 2003, about two weeks after the broadcast of "Living With Michael Jackson," a television documentary by British journalist Martin Bashir that showed the accuser, then 13, holding hands with the entertainer.
In the program, Jackson also defended as "loving" his practice of sharing his bed with children. The broadcast ignited a media firestorm and prompted a counselor at the boy's middle school to alert the DCFS.
Peters, who was assigned the task of investigating the neglect complaint, said she made contact with the boy's mother through his school.
During one of a series of phone calls to set up an interview, the mother insisted that the questioning take place at Jackson's Neverland Ranch in Santa Barbara County.
The interview was conducted in Los Angeles, at the home of the woman's then-boyfriend, whom she later married.
Peters said the mother began the interview by playing a tape of Jackson interacting with his sons, shot by his videographer.
The mother expressed her displeasure with Bashir for filming her children for his documentary without her consent, Peters said.
Peters said the mother told her that during the family's visits to Neverland she was aware of what her children were doing, and the woman denied that her sons had ever slept in Jackson's bed.
During the interview with the family, the children "all seemed to be in agreement with their mom," Peters said, adding that the family seemed happy and well-adjusted and "they all seemed spontaneous in their comments."
In a separate interview with the accuser, Peters said she "asked him if he had been touched inappropriately by Michael Jackson."
"He said no," Peters said. The boy appeared to be upset by the question and told her that his schoolmates had been teasing him because he held hands with Jackson in the video, she said.
Both the accuser and his younger brother, who also was interviewed separately, also described Jackson as a father figure.
Peters also said no one in the family complained during their interviews that they were being held against their will by Jackson's associates, as the prosecution alleges.
A Jackson bodyguard and several other people were present at the apartment where the interviews took place, but Peters said they were all asked to leave the room before the questioning began.
Jackson, 46, 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 pleaded not guilty to the charges.
In court Tuesday, the prosecution won a victory when Santa Barbara County Superior Court Judge Rodney Melville refused to reverse his decision to limit the testimony of Angel Vivanco, a former chef's assistant at Neverland who, the defense claims, developed a relationship with the accuser's older sister.
CNN's Dree De Clamecy and Stan Wilson contributed to this report.
