Mesereau said the mother went to comedian Jay Leno for money and Leno was so suspicious that he called Santa Barbara police to tell them he had been contacted and ”something was wrong. They were looking for a mark.”

The mother also approached comedian George Lopez and a Los Angeles TV weatherman who staged a fund-raiser for the child at a comedy club, the lawyer said. “At the fund-raiser, there was (the boy) in the lobby of the Laugh Factory with his hand out, prodded by (his mother),” Mesereau said.

He said celebrities including Mike Tyson and Jim Carrey turned the family away, but Jackson was too sympathetic.“The most vulnerable celebrity became the mark, Michael Jackson,” Mesereau said.

....Jackson was depicted by his attorney as a humanitarian who built his Neverland ranch to give children something he never had – a childhood. He said that an appeal for help by the accuser’s family touched Jackson’s heart and “he took time away from his career to help this family, not knowing that the trap was being set.”

Here's the chat transcript I conducted for the WaPo the first day of jury selection.