Forget all these stories that Mark Geragos was hired to represent Michael Jackson just yesterday. Or the day before. Were we all born yesterday? Geragos has been on the case since last March.
That’s right. Jackson has known for most of the year, even if he didn’t want to acknowledge it, that trouble was brewing at Neverland. The child who is now the subject of this molestation allegation began to raise questions about their relationship late last winter. Jackson -- who is not completely out of touch with reality -- responded by bringing in an expert defender.
Jackson’s camp, I am told, is more than ready to do battle with his accuser and his family. I am told that the mother of the child involved will be held up to severe scrutiny. In fact, Jackson’s side will likely argue that when he tried to break off his involvement with helping the boy and his family financially, the mother became, and I am quoting a Jackson insider, “a scorned woman.”
“She’s very screwed up,” said one source. “There’s videotape of her acting weird, too. And Michael was very kind to her, even getting an apartment for her boyfriend.”
But the argument will be that when this woman, who is financially so dependent that she claimed to have lived in a barn, was told by Jackson’s people that the party was over, she ran to a lawyer to see what she could get out of it.
Remember, everyone in this country is guaranteed a defense, even if you don’t agree with it.
But as I wrote in this space yesterday, a lot of the evidence in the Jackson case will come down to videotape. There is lots of it, too, some of which may show the boy and his family singing the praises of Jackson, defending and explaining his odd lifestyle. If so, they will be hard-pressed to explain their own behavior now. For example: In one interview last winter, the mother of the boy told a reporter: "Michael has pet names for all of my children, and [one of them] even calls him Daddy. He is the father they never had." She said all her children were “hoping to spend a lot more time with him in the future."
The sudden change in Jackson’s schedule, by the way, throws a monkey wrench into his promotional plans for his new greatest hits album. Michael and his entourage were three days away from leaving for Paris and Berlin, where enthusiastic fans would have greeted him. Here in the U.S., the album has so far not made any of the early top 10 of the week lists at major retailers like Tower, Virgin or HMV.