SANTA MARIA, Calif. (AP) – The judge in Michael Jackson’s trial on Thursday cleared the way for another possible courtroom face-off between the singer and the boy accusing him of molestation.

The day after the defense rested, Judge Rodney S. Melville agreed to prosecutors’ request that during their rebuttal case they be allowed to show the jury a videotape of a July 2003 law enforcement interview of the boy to show that his story has been consistent.

The defense said they would then want to question the boy about the tape during the defense rebuttal.

Defense attorneys said they may also want to question the boy’s mother; a psychologist who interviewed the boy, Stan J. Katz; and Larry Feldman, the attorney who sent him to the psychologist.

Defense attorneys did not say they would necessarily call all of those witnesses but said they wanted them available.

The judge said the witnesses, who all testified earlier in the trial, should be alerted.

The prosecution rebuttal began Wednesday after the defense rested its case without putting Jackson on the stand.

Jackson, 46, is charged with molesting the cancer survivor in February or March 2003. The pop star is also accused of giving the boy alcohol and conspiring to hold his family captive to get them to rebut a documentary in which the teenager appeared with Jackson as the entertainer said he let children into his bed for innocent sleepovers at his Neverland Ranch.


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