Jackson’s Ex-Bodyguard Is Jailed

SANTA MARIA, Calif. â€”  A prosecution witness in the Michael Jackson trial -- the entertainer’s former bodyguard -- has been jailed in Las Vegas on suspicion of robbery, burglary and kidnapping.

Christopher Eric Carter, held at the Clark County Detention Center in lieu of $850,000 bail, was expected to corroborate key elements of the prosecution’s case, including allegations that Jackson gave alcohol to his teenage accuser.

Carter, 25, was arrested Feb. 19. Nine days earlier, Santa Barbara County Dist. Atty. Tom Sneddon told jurors the former bodyguard would testify that he saw children drinking at Jackson’s Neverland ranch and that he saw the star’s accuser so drunk that Carter prevented him from driving a golf cart.

The boy said Jackson encouraged him to drink, according to Sneddon.

The judge has ordered prosecution and defense witnesses not to discuss the case, so it was unclear whether the prosecution still intends to call Carter as a witness.

Anne Bremner, a Seattle attorney and a former prosecutor, said Carter’s arrest “would almost completely undermine his credibility� if the judge allowed the defense to address it in court.

“It’s not often that a very damaging witness messes up like that,� Bremner said. “The question is will the judge allow the questions to be asked?�

“He hasn’t been convicted,� she said, adding that the defense “will have to say it goes to his credibility.�

In testimony before the Santa Barbara County Grand Jury last year, Carter said he was an Air Force veteran who got to know Jackson while working security at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. He signed on as Jackson’s head of security in August 2002 and left -- by his own choice, he said -- in August 2003. In the meantime, he allegedly witnessed a number of events crucial to the case against Jackson.

He told the grand jury that on a charter jet from Miami to Santa Barbara he saw Jackson drinking wine from a soda can and passing it to his young accuser. At Neverland, he said, he tried to have a talk with the boy about his drinking, but the boy responded that Jackson had told him it was OK -- that it was part of “being a man.�

Jackson’s prosecutors suffered another setback Wednesday when the judge refused to allow testimony on more than 1,700 sexually explicit images authorities found in the entertainer’s home computers during a 2003 search.

Santa Barbara County Superior Court Judge Rodney S. Melville agreed with Jackson’s lawyers that the images should not be admitted as evidence because they could not be linked to Jackson or to the time his alleged victim was at the ranch.

Prosecutors have already introduced dozens of adult magazines and DVDs found at the entertainer’s home. And they spent much of the day Wednesday detailing the material, displaying for jurors 50 adult magazine covers and centerfolds found in a briefcase in Jackson’s bedroom.

Some of the material included photographs of nude or topless women. Others were graphic photographs of men and women engaged in sex acts.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Gordon Auchincloss said the prosecution wanted to introduce the images found in three of Jackson’s computers because they helped support testimony from his alleged victim. The accuser, a 15-year-old former cancer patient, contends that he viewed pornographic material with Jackson before the entertainer allegedly molested him.

An expert in child abuse testified this week that pedophiles often ready their victims for sexual abuse by exposing them to sexually explicit material.

Jackson, 46, is charged with molesting the boy four times, providing him with alcohol and conspiring to hold the boy and his family against their will at his Santa Ynez Valley ranch. If convicted, he faces 20 years in prison.

The entertainer, wearing a dark suit, walked slowly to his seat Wednesday morning. On Monday, a rumpled and weary Jackson was five minutes late to court and brought a doctor dressed in hospital scrubs to explain the tardiness.

It was Jackson who played the role of caretaker Wednesday.

As the day’s testimony was about to conclude, one of Jackson’s four attorneys appeared to become ill. Jackson rubbed the lawyer’s arm, then stood and wiped the man’s forehead with a handkerchief.

When court recessed, paramedics from the Santa Maria Fire Department treated attorney Brian Oxman in the courtroom. The 53-year-old lawyer was chatting and smiling as he was wheeled from the courtroom on a gurney. He was admitted overnight for observation for pneumonia, according to a statement by Marian Medical Center.