Jackson's ex-wife says 'vultures' surrounded him

SANTA MARIA, California - Michael Jackson's ex-wife told jurors today that the entertainer was surrounded by "opportunistic vultures" out to take advantage of a man she knew privately to be kind, selfless and "generous to a fault."

The testimony by Debbie Rowe, the mother of Jackson's two oldest children, was a setback to prosecutors who had called her as a witness to link the 46-year-old entertainer to an alleged conspiracy to imprison the family of a then-13-year-old boy who accuses him of sexual molestation.

Jackson, 46, faces charges of holding the boy's family at his Neverland estate and bullying them into making a videotaped interview singing his praises in early 2003, just as his public image was unraveling in the wake of a televised documentary in which he defended his practice of sharing his bed with children.

Rowe, who never lived with Jackson but was married to him from 1997 to 1999, also filmed a nine-hour interview as part of Jackson's public relations effort, but she denied her answers were scripted, contrary to a claim by prosecutors.

Rowe said the only direct contact she had had with Jackson in the six years since their divorce came when he called to ask her to grant that taped interview.

She said she had done so in the hope of being able to see their children, Prince Michael and Paris.

Prosecutors, who plan to rest their case next week, have suggested Jackson manipulated Rowe by dangling the prospect of a renewed relationship between her and the children.

Rowe surrendered her parental rights as part of her divorce and at one point was only able to see the children for eight hours every 45 days. She has since sued and recovered her parental rights.

She remains in a court fight with Jackson over visitation, but admitted that after so many years, returning to the children now as their mother was "complicated."

Jackson has a third child, Prince Michael II, by an unknown mother.

'DIFFERENT MICHAELS'

"I wanted to see my children and possibly get to renew my relationship with Mr. Jackson," said Rowe, who took the witness stand in a dark suit.

She said she had not seen the children or spoken to Jackson since the 2003 interview. Even so, she said she still considered Jackson "a friend - if he'd talk to me."

At one point, Rowe, who said she had not spoken to Jackson since the 2003 phone call, turned to the entertainer to help answer when describing when she had toured together with him. The unusual exchange, in which Jackson nodded in response, drew an objection from prosecutor Ron Zonen and a rebuke from the judge.

Rowe reserved her anger for Jackson's associates, among them Marc Schaffel, an unindicted co-conspirator in the case against the one-time "King of Pop."

Schaffel, Rowe said, was a liar, who claimed Jackson owed him a million dollars and who once bragged that he had made US$7.5 million from the interview she gave with him present.

After the interview, she said she had repeatedly called Schaffel for over nine months to see when she could see her children, but said such a meeting was never arranged.

She said she did not want to believe that the decision to shut her out had been made by Jackson himself. Under cross-examination, she recalled telling police, that Jackson was "easily manipulated, especially if he's scared."

"There are different Michaels. There's my Michael," Rowe said tearfully, "and then there's the Michael that everyone else sees."

Jackson, who has pleaded innocent, faces more than 20 years in prison if convicted of all 10 criminal charges against him.

Rowe, who had been expected to be a high-voltage witness for the prosecution, spent a total of only about an hour answering their questions over two days.

Jackson attorney Tom Mesereau first asked Santa Barbara County Superior Court Judge Rodney Melville to strike Rowe's testimony, arguing she had not testified in the way that prosecutors had said she would.

He later withdrew that motion after completing his cross-examination where Rowe praised Jackson.

- REUTERS