Woman obtained more than $18,000 in welfare payments

The mother of the teenage boy who accused Michael Jackson of sexual molestation was charged Tuesday with five felony counts of welfare fraud.

Jackson was acquitted of all charges in June. The complaint, filed Tuesday in Los Angeles County Superior Court, alleges the mother fraudulently obtained nearly $18,800 in welfare payments between November 2001 and March 2003. The complaint accuses her of failing to disclose to welfare workers, on four separate applications, that she and her family received money from a civil suit settlement and had help paying rent, СNN reports. . She was charged with one count of obtaining aid by misrepresentation and four counts of perjury for making false applications for aid. An arraignment was set for September 7. CNN is withholding the woman's name so as not to identify her minor son. Also Tuesday, Jackson's lead defense attorney, Thomas Mesereau Jr., told CNN that his strategy of getting the mother on the witness stand to challenge her credibility was almost derailed when "certain individuals" prematurely reported the alleged fraud to welfare officials.