Actor Chris Tucker testified today that he had warned Michael Jackson about the family of the boy who said he was molested by the pop star.

Tucker, who is also a well-known comedian, said he befriended the accuser in 2000 when the boy, now 15, was suffering from cancer. The boy wanted to be a comedian and made friends with many performers, including Tucker, who gave the family cash and presents.

“I wasn’t aware that he was fond of that many comedians,” Tucker testified. “His father said I was his favorite comedian.… I didn’t know he was contacting the whole town.”

The accuser and Tucker developed a relationship that included gifts and visits to sporting events, Tucker testified. At one basketball game, the accuser was introduced and photographed with Kobe Bryant.

The boy “was smart, cunning at times, but I always overlooked it because he was just a little kid,” Tucker said, explaining how the boy would manipulate his illness.

“Chris, let me have this,” Tucker testified. “Let me have this. Come on, I’m not feeling great.”

At one point, the actor, known for such films as the “Rush Hour” series with Jackie Chan and the science fiction thriller “The Fifth Element,” said he brought the family to Las Vegas to watch him work on a film. The family stayed a long time at his expense, Tucker said.

“I was hoping they” weren’t taking advantage, he testified.

At another point, Tucker said, his doubts grew. The family was complaining it needed personal transportation, so Tucker tried to make arrangements to give them one of his unneeded vehicles.

“I started getting nervous,” Tucker said. The mother “started crying, not in the normal way. She started acting like frantically, like mentally. Something wasn’t right.”

After a British documentary aired in early February 2003, Tucker said the accuser called him for help in getting to see Jackson, who was in Miami. On the documentary, Jackson is shown holding hands with the boy. The pop star also explained how he slept innocently with children.

Tucker said he arranged for the family to fly on his chartered plane and he brought them to the hotel, where he took Jackson aside to warn him about the mother’s emotional grasp.

The mother “was frantically saying the same thing, ‘Michael is the father,’ ‘Chris is the brother.’ That’s why I took Michael to the room and said, ‘Something ain’t right.’ I hadn’t even been around her that much. It was just getting to be a little too much,” Tucker testified.

Going through notebooks about a year ago, he said he found the family’s phone number, so he called the accuser.

“I heard someone in the background say, ‘Get off that phone now!’ Tucker said, adding he thought the voice was the mother’s.

Source: LA Times

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