Santa Maria: A judge in Michael Jackson’s child molestation trial on Monday ruled that prosecutors can call the singer’s former wife, Debbie Rowe, to testify against him amid a shake-up of Jackson’s defence team. Lead defence attorney Tom Mesereau filed a notice with the court saying family attorney Brian Oxman would no longer be part of the case, but he offered no reason. Rowe, mother of two of Jackson’s children, was expected to take the witness stand this week to testify that she was part of an effort to salvage the onetime King of Pop’s image following the broadcast of a devastating British documentary. Prosecutor Ron Zonen said she’d tell jurors that Jackson’s henchmen pressured her into giving a “highly scripted” video interview supporting him in exchange for visits with her two children. Jackson’s

camp panicked after the documentary, ‘Living with Michael Jackson’, aired in February 2003 and showing him nuzzling with the young teen who would later accuse him of child molestation and defending his practice of sharing a bed with boys. The 46-year-old pop icon is accused of conspiring to imprison the boy’s family at his Neverland Ranch.— AFP