CLIFTON, N.J. – A potential witness in the Michael Jackson trial was accused of having sex with a minor in the basement of her home after telling her he had seen the pop star seduce a girl.
Ahmad Elatab was being held on $25,000 bail in the Passaic County Jail in Paterson on Thursday, facing charges of sexual assault, criminal sexual contact and impairing the morals of a minor. He was not given the option of posting 10 percent in cash to gain his release, and must have no contact with the alleged victim in the case, police Capt. Robert Rowan said.
Police said a 14-year-old Paramus Catholic High School girl who knew the 18-year-old from a belly-dancing class invited Elatab to her home while her parents were sleeping on April 11.
They watched pornographic discs and other computer-generated images that Elatab had brought, police said, and the girl told them Elatab bragged that he had been at Jackson's Neverland Ranch and had seen the pop star seduce a girl.
Authorities were alerted when a teacher intercepted a graphic note of the encounter that the girl was passing to a classmate.
The girl told officers some parts of the encounter were consensual, but she also said some were not because she said some acts were forced on her. Elatab was arrested Tuesday.
Authorities said Elatab said the sex was consensual and he denied telling the girl he saw Jackson seduce a girl. Elatab admitted he told the girl how "smooth" Jackson is and that he knows how to talk to women, police said.
Elatab is on the list of potential defense witnesses for Jackson's child molestation trial in California.
He befriended Jackson's cancer-stricken accuser and said the boy told him Jackson helped him fight the illness through meditation.
Elatab said he spoke with the boy when Jackson took them on an outing to a Toys 'R' Us store in 2003. He said the boy believed his cancer was gone because of Jackson.
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