Santa Maria- Tensions boiled over at the Michael Jackson sex trial Friday, as the prosecutor trying the case and a member of the King of Pop's defense team had a confrontation out of jury earshot that got so explosive a bailiff had to break it up.
Santa Barbara County District Attorney Tom Sneddon became incensed during a break in the proceedings when defense attorney Robert Sanger walked too close to the prosecution's table in the courtroom, witnesses said.
Sneddon put his hands up and ordered Sanger to halt, courtroom insiders said, sparking an angry exchange that drew the attention of a court guard, who broke the men apart. A courtroom source said Judge Rodney Melville planned to go behind closed doors today and admonish both sides over the outburst.
The verbal fireworks came as the mothers of two of Jacko's former pre-teen playmates took the stand to insist that no hanky panky went on with their children, and that they didn't mind them sleeping in Jackson's bed.
"I feel like he's a member of the family," said Joy Robson, whose 22-year-old son Wade became an intimate Jacko pal in the early 1990s. "I trust him. I trust him with my children."
Robson, whose daughter Chantal also shared Jacko's bed, took the stand for the Jackson defense a day after her son told jurors that the singer never molested him.
The Robson family's testimony contradicts that of one of the singer's former servants, who testified for the prosecution and claimed she saw young Robson showering with Jackson.
Marie Lisbeth Barnes - the mom of another young Jackson pal, Brett Barnes, who testified on Thursday - took the stand and said she believed the singer never did anything untoward with her boy.
