SANTA MARIA, Calif.- The judge in the Michael Jackson molestation case on Friday rejected a prosecution request to close the courtroom when the teenage accuser takes the stand at the pop star's trial.
The defense and a coalition of media covering the case, including The Associated Press, had argued that the testimony should be open.
Prosecutors wanted it closed to protect the child from the intense media coverage in the case, proposing that reporters be allowed to hear the testimony through an audio feed.
Judge Rodney Melville also ruled that dozens of adult books, magazines and DVDs seized at Jackson's Neverland ranch - one with the fingerprints of Jackson and the accuser - can be used as evidence in the trial. Jury selection begins Monday.
However, the judge said the prosecution could not refer to the material as pornography, obscenity or erotic. Instead, the words "adult" or "sexually explicit" can be used, he said.
Prosecutor Ron Zonen said the 50 print and video items that were seized in 2003 included graphic sexual material that was both heterosexual and homosexual in nature. The material also included nude photos of models who may have been 18 but looked much younger, he said.
The items will show Jackson had a "prurient interest" in boys or was intended to be shown to children as "grooming material" to make them more accommodating to sexual advances, Zonen alleged.
Defense attorney Thomas Mesereau Jr. countered that all the materials seized were legal. In the case of the magazine with the prints, he said evidence will show Jackson took it away from his accuser and locked it up.
Melville ruled that several items could not be used as evidence, including three books seized in 1993 that allegedly show pictures of nude adolescents.
Jackson, 46, has pleaded not guilty to charges of molesting a 13-year-old boy and plying him with alcohol. The boy is now 15.
