Michael Jackson trial starts with a Thriller

Michael Jackson's molestation trial starts Monday with a "thriller." The defense will present evidence from a mystery witness who will testify that the mother of Jackson's teenage accuser has previously lied under oath about a sexual assault and coached her son to give false statements.

The witness, a paralegal who worked for the law firm representing the accuser's mother in another case, has told Jackson's lawyers that the woman falsely accused J.C. Penney security guards of beating and sexually assaulting her. The family sued the clothing store after a scuffle that broke out when the boy, then seven, was accused of shoplifting. The woman claimed that she was beaten and groped by the store's employees. The case was eventually settled in 2001 for $137,500.

Thomas Mesereau, Jackson's lead defense attorney, told the court that the woman also testified in the JC Penney case that her husband never hit her but later alleged in her divorce papers that he beat the family for years and had inappropriately touched her daughter. Mesereau also stated the woman hid assets from the settlement in order to get welfare from Los Angeles County.

Prosecutor Ron Zonen argued that the question was not how the mother acquired or spent money but whether Jackson molested the thirteen-year-old boy. Jackson, 46, could face up to 20 years in prison if found guilty.