WHY MICHAEL WILL GO FREE

Michael Jackson will go free!”

That was the confident boast of the singer’s defense team behind the scenes at the outset of Jackson’s trial on sexual molestation charges.

The ENQUIRER has obtained bombshell documents and other new information that will damage the credibility of the accuser’s family.

And an inside source has revealed exclusively to The ENQUIRER what celebrity witnesses will say in Jackson’s behalf when they testify.

“Jackson’s lawyer Thomas Mesereau is going to argue that this whole family is a bunch of con artists, liars and fakers who were out to take Michael for a ride,” the source declared.

“And it wasn’t on the Neverland Ferris wheel! “His lawyer is confident: Jackson will go free.”

Mesereau has called the accuser’s mother a grifter who had tried to exploit her cancer-stricken son to scam money from numerous other celebrities before targeting Jackson.

‘NOTHING HAPPENED’
At the trial, Macaulay Culkin will tell how he stayed at Jackson’s Neverland ranch on many childhood sleepovers, according to the source.

“He’ll admit to sharing Jackson’s bedroom, but he’ll deny any wrongdoing by Michael.

“He’ll explain that sleeping in Michael’s bedroom doesn’t mean sleeping on the bed — Jackson’s bedroom is two stories and has three bathrooms!

“He’ll say, as he’s said before: ‘Nothing happened. I mean we played video games.’

Jay Leno will tell how in 2000 he fielded a phone call from the boy and could hear the mother clearly in the background.

Leno felt something was fishy and he later told Santa Barbara police about the call.”

Said a Jackson insider: “Leno told cops this family tried to hustle him.”

The source disclosed: “Corey Feldman will tell the jury that he shared a room with Jackson a couple of times. But they never shared a bed and he never saw Jackson act in an inappropriate way to a child.

“Wade Robson, Britney Spears‘ choreographer, was one of Jackson’s closest friends as a boy. He slept over many times. He’s going to say, as he’s always maintained: ‘Nothing strange ever happened.’ “

‘GO TO HELL!’
Brett Ratner was the director of “Rush Hour” and invited Michael’s accuser onto the set.

“He will tell how the kid would sit in his director’s chair,” said the source. “When Ratner told him to get up, the kid said: ‘Go to hell!’

“It was Ratner’s feeling: ‘If someone tried to fondle him, he’d punch them in the face.’ He thinks the jury will see that.”

Jackson’s defense team also believes the jury will see a pattern of lies and deception by the accuser’s family. An October 2001 police report obtained exclusively by The ENQUIRER reveals that the accuser’s mother claimed she’d been assaulted by her husband.

“She spent much of the time speaking about her marriage and the numerous incidents of domestic violence initiated by her spouse against her which she did not report,” an officer stated.

“The incidents included head injuries, holding her head underwater, making her stand outside naked, throwing victim’s little dog against a wall, causing an approximately 3-inch-long scar on her left foot when he cut her and constantly degrading her.”

In another police report from September 2001, also obtained by The ENQUIRER, the mother claimed her husband beat her head with his closed fist, ripped out her phone and called her a whore. The husband was arrested for spousal abuse.

But the insider disclosed: “She previously testified under oath that her husband never touched her.

“Then she told cops he’d been beating her for 17 years. So the defense will be using that to show the woman’s pattern of lies.”

The police officer also reported tales of abuse from the accuser’s sister.

“She stated her father would punish her and her brothers if he felt they did not listen or if they said something wrong by punching them in their stomach or slapping them,” he wrote.

‘ALL LIES’
Said the insider: “At the trial, attorney Mesereau will show that this is all lies. The daughter and the mother concoct these stories.”

In an interview, attorney H. Russell Halpern, who is representing the accuser’s father, said: “I would say Mr. Mesereau probably has a lot to work with when it comes to the mother’s credibility!

“At various times, even under oath, she described my client as being a peaceful, loving husband. And then, still under oath, she’d say the opposite.”

An incident involving a JCPenney store will also cast doubt on the mother’s credibility, the defense believes.

“The accuser’s family got $152,000 in a settlement with JCPenney and Tower Records after claiming they were beaten by security guards for the two companies,” said the source.

“The family alleged that Jackson’s accuser, his mother and his brother were beaten in a parking lot in 1998 after the boy left the store with clothes they hadn’t paid for.

“Mesereau will bring in evidence to show she amended her complaint a year later to include allegations that guards in the parking lot had squeezed her nipples and molested her in the vaginal area.

“The defense intends to call an employee from the law firm that represented the mother, who will testify that the woman admitted she’d lied.”

HELD HOSTAGE?
The defense is also set to demolish the family’s claim they were held hostage by Jackson’s people.

Instead, Mesereau said, the mother had asked Jackson for security — and that explains why she and her family were almost constantly accompanied by Jackson employees for a six-week period.

“The defense will call witnesses to show that during the family’s alleged imprisonment they managed to spend $3,312 of Jackson’s money on hotel bills, clothes, bikini waxes, pedicures and large batches of women’s underwear!” the source added.

“Mesereau and his team believe with all they have, if they can present it to the jury, Michael Jackson will go free.”

— ALAN SMITH