By Lisa Sweetingham
Court TV
SANTA MARIA, Calif. — Talk-show host Larry King was set to offer damaging testimony Thursday about the mother of Michael Jackson's accuser, but the judge in the pop star's child molestation trial ruled King's testimony inadmissible. The King of Talk was briefly questioned outside the presence of jurors Thursday morning about a 2004 breakfast meeting with Larry Feldman, the civil attorney representing the family of the King of Pop's accuser. "He thought the woman in this case, the mother, was a wacko — that was the term he used — and he thought she was in it for just the money," King said of the meeting at Nate N' Al's diner in Beverly Hills. "He had met with her. He didn't want to represent her. He advised her to see someone else and he informed the authorities. He didn't tell me which authorities." "Did he say that this woman told him she wanted money?" defense attorney Thomas Mesereau asked.
"No, I think he said he thinks she wants money," King said. Feldman's statements, according to King, were his opinions and he did not discuss any private conversations he had with the mother. "He just said she was a wacko," King said. "He said 'wacko' a couple of times, and he said, 'She's in this for the money.'" "When he said she was a wacko, did you ask Mr. Feldman what he meant?" Mesereau asked. "No, I think that's self-explanatory," King said.  | | Larry King was not allowed to testify Thursday. |
Feldman previously testified during the prosecution's case that he did not discuss confidential information about the case with King, and he denied ever telling King that the allegations were false. Another witness present at that breakfast meeting was also questioned Thursday morning. King's business associate Michael Viner confirmed what King stated, and also fell short of saying Feldman told them that the mother actually said she wanted money from Jackson. Superior Court Judge Rodney Melville ruled that neither man's statements were sufficient to impeach Feldman, and they were not allowed to testify before the jury. Charitable celebrities Testimony about the accuser's mother did come in, however, through casting assistant Azja Pryor, the ex-fiancee of actor Chris Tucker and mother of Tucker's 6-year-old son. Pryor, a petite beauty in a white pantsuit, said she met the accuser and his siblings through Tucker in October 2000, after the actor participated in a fundraiser at the Laugh Factory comedy club to help the boy's fight against cancer. Tucker is expected to testify for the defense next week, and Pryor said her former beau flew the children to a Raiders football game in Oakland, Calif., treated them to amusement park trips, and brought them to the premiere of his 2001 action flick, "Rush Hour 2." Pryor said she developed a special bond with the accuser's 16-year-old sister. When asked to describe her relationship with the mother, the witness began to cry. "It was based on the love that I shared for her children," she said, reaching for a tissue. "It's hard for me, because I really do love the kids a lot." The attorneys' tables are geared with microphones, and as Pryor wept District Attorney Thomas Sneddon could be heard by reporters in the press overflow room, faintly whispering to co-counsel: "It just makes my cross all the better." But Sneddon's cross-examination was short and uneventful. Pryor agreed that the mother never directly asked her for money and that she had considered them family. The defense contends that the family glommed on to celebrities they hoped to curry favors and cash from. Pryor told jurors that the mother praised her and Tucker — calling them angels sent to her family — to the point that it made her feel uncomfortable. "Didn't the mother tell you that her family all held hands and prayed to God they would meet Michael Jackson and Chris Tucker?" Mesereau asked. "Yes, she did," Pryor said, adding that the mother also praised Jackson, calling him an angel who helped cure her son's cancer. More: No signs of captivity | 
