Santa Maria, Calif. ? The mother of two of Michael Jackson’s children described the pop star as a “good father, great with kids” Thursday during tearful testimony in his child molestation trial that again turned the tables on prosecutors who called her to the stand.

Jackson’s ex-wife Deborah Rowe also depicted the entertainer as a victim of “opportunistic vultures” in his inner circle who sought to make millions from his troubles.

By portraying Jackson as a victim of his associates, Rowe may have undermined the prosecution’s child molestation case. That is because she was called to bolster a charge that the singer and his associates conspired to hold the accuser’s family captive to make a video praising him.

Rowe also delivered potentially damaging testimony to the prosecution a day earlier during comments about a video she made praising Jackson.

Her testimony Thursday was sometimes teary, sometimes salty and sarcastic. At one point she said “Damn you” to prosecutors in an apparent misunderstanding about a question.

She seemed to lament the state of her relationship with Jackson when a defense lawyer asked if she still considered Jackson a friend. “Yeah,” she said, adding, “if he’d talk to me.”

When asked to describe Jackson, she caught her breath and said: “Generous to a fault, good father, great with kids, puts other people ahead of him. Brilliant businessman.”

She later became teary-eyed when she described her feelings about Jackson, who at one point dabbed at his eyes. Rowe only spoke positively of her ex-husband and reserved expressions of ill will for a group of men now named as unindicted co-conspirators with Jackson.

Jackson, 46, is accused of molesting a 13-year-old cancer patient in February or March 2003, giving him alcohol and conspiring to hold the accuser’s family captive to get them to rebut the “Living with Michael Jackson” documentary, in which the singer said he lets children sleep in his bed.

The prosecution announced it probably would rest its case Tuesday.