BY MICHELLE CARUSO
DAILY NEWS WEST COAST BUREAU CHIEF

LOS ANGELES - Jermaine Jackson feared his kid brother Michael might be guilty of child molestation, but backed him at trial because he thought the pop star would commit suicide in prison, according to a bombshell book proposal obtained by the Daily News.

In a tell-all outline shopped to publishers just weeks after Michael's arrest in November 2003, Jermaine described the Pop King as a sometimes out-of-control drug and booze abuser with a calculating mean streak and "a thing for young children."

The eight-page proposal for "Legacy: Surviving the Best and the Worst," lists Michael Jackson's preferred substances as Vicodin, Demerol, codeine, Percocet, cocaine, Jack Daniels and wine.

"Does he really know what he does with these kids?" Jermaine wondered.

"I don't want to tell you my brother's innocent. I am not certain that he is," Jermaine said in the tome-teaser drafted by author Stacy Brown, who co-authored "Michael Jackson: The Man Behind the Mask" with the singer's former publicist, Bob Jones.

But Jermaine's still-unpublished tale is the ultimate insider look at the troubled star.

He admits that the family has protected Jacko's image and says that Jackson also cheats, lies and even changed the color of his skin.

Even the pop star's behavior with his own nephews has left his family "shaken," according to Jermaine. He recounts the family coming together after the death of brother Tito's ex-wife in the mid 1990s and finding Michael sitting on a bed with Tito's young sons and holding them in a disturbing manner.

Jermaine also dished about the singer's bizarre behavior shortly before he surrendered to authorities to face charges in November 2003.

Holed up in a Las Vegas hotel room, Michael calmly watched a "Pinocchio" DVD with his three children in his lap, but he later flew into a rage, trashing the room and breaking every glass, lamp and dish in it.

The protective big brother vowed to help Michael beat the rap because "Michael couldn't survive one day in prison ... He'd commit suicide."

Other bombshell teasers in Jermaine's outline include:

# That during the Jackson 5 days, Michael's brothers feared he was gay. The brothers met lots of women while touring and all eventually fell in love. "But Michael, well, he wasn't interested. We used to quietly say that we couldn't have a gay brother."

# Michael hates Jews because he thinks Hollywood moguls Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen stole the idea for Dreamworks studio, including the boy-on-the moon logo, from him.

"But the Jews are the powerful ones and they have done a lot to put my brother in his place ... just another n-----."

# That a devious and calculating Michael squashed his brothers' solo musical careers.

But the family stood behind Michael despite pain, doubts and misgivings, unwilling to give up on "our little brother."