Posted on 11/21/2003 5:07:27 AM PST by randita
Posted on Fri, Nov. 21, 2003
REVENGE PLOT ON JACKO?
By JOHN F. MORRISON morrisj@phillynews.com
COULD IT have been a "scorned woman" who did Michael Jackson in?
A TV reporter said yesterday that when Jackson tried to end financial support for the family of the 12-year-old boy who has accused the singer of molestation, the boy's mother "ran to a lawyer."
Jackson's legal team is expected to argue that the boy's mother became "scorned" when Jackson stopped supporting her and the boy, and decided to get revenge.
"She's very screwed up," a source told Fox News reporter Roger Friedman. "There's videotape of her acting weird, too.
"Michael was very kind to her, even getting an apartment for her boyfriend," Friedman reported.
The world was treated yesterday to the spectacle of the one-time pop superstar being led into a sheriff's office in handcuffs.
Cameras closed in on the handcuffs as the ultimate humiliation of a man who once topped the pop charts with multimillion-selling music videos and packed theaters all over the world at live performances.
Jackson arrived in Santa Barbara, Calif., by private jet from Nevada and was driven in a black Suburban SUV with tinted windows to the sheriff's office.
There, he was officially charged with lewd and lascivious acts with a child under 14, punishable by serious jail time.
The 5-foot-11 Jackson, 45, weighed in at 120 pounds, was mugged and fingerprinted, posted $3 million bail and turned in his passport, then was driven off in the van, his every movement monitored by reporters and TV crews from around the world.
He was wearing a black coat and pants with a white shirt and white tie. When he left the office after a 35-minute booking process, he flashed a V sign at reporters.
He got back in the Suburban and, with a police motorcycle escort, pulled away. Jackson later flew back to a Las Vegas-area airport, where he flashed a peace sign before disappearing into an awaiting vehicle with his three children covered by blankets.
An arraignment date of Jan. 9 was set.
With cameras permitted in the courtroom, it promises to be one of the most sensational celebrity trials in history.
After the booking yesterday, Jackson's high-profile lawyer, Mark Geragos, who also is representing accused killer Scott Peterson, told reporters that Jackson posted bail about 4 p.m. Philadelphia time.
"He is greatly outraged," Geragos said. He said Jackson and his legal team plan to "confront these charges head-on" and fight them "to the end."
Jackson's brother, Jermaine, denounced the allegations in a CNN interview as "nothing but a modern-day lynching."
"This is what they want to see, him in handcuffs. You got it," Jermaine Jackson said. "But it won't be for long, I promise you."
In Los Angeles, Jackson spokesman Stuart Backerman issued this statement on behalf of the singer:
"The big lie against Michael Jackson is anchored in the most vicious allegation imaginable, one that resonates across every culture: the spectacle of harming a child. That spectacle invites outrage, and it should. But this spectacle is rooted in a lie.
"Michael said, 'Lies run sprints, but the truth runs marathons. The truth will win this marathon in court.'
"Michael is going to defend himself with the force of his spirit, as would anyone falsely accused of something so monstrous."
The warrant for Jackson's arrest was issued Wednesday after a daylong search Tuesday of his 2,600-acre Neverland Ranch, outside of Santa Barbara. Some 70 agents of the county sheriff's and district attorney's offices participated.
It was not known what, if any, evidence was found. The affidavit detailing the charges against Jackson has been sealed for 45 days, meaning it will be early January before the public gets a look at it.
Jackson was in Las Vegas making a music video when the officers descended on his ranch "by surprise," as his family has said.
He left the North Las Vegas Airport yesterday morning on a leased jet. It landed at the Santa Barbara Municipal Airport shortly before noon and rolled its nose into the partly opened doors of a hangar.
A caravan of vehicles, including the SUV, left the airport a few minutes later. Its progress over the California highways was followed all the way by TV cameras in helicopters.
When Jackson gets his day in court, he will be face to face with the man who associates say was very frustrated in 1993 when the first molestation case was filed against Jackson, but then dropped when the alleged victim refused to testify.
District Attorney Thomas W. Sneddon Jr., who has been a Santa Barbara prosecutor for 34 years, 21 as D.A., went as far as having Jackson's genitalia photographed at that time. It was said that Jackson settled with the 13-year-old boy's family for as much as $20 million.
Sneddon told Vanity Fair that the photos matched descriptions of Jackson's genitalia as given by boys to investigators.
But Sneddon says that when that case "went to bed...it went out of my mind. I haven't given it a passing thought."
Sneddon, a one-time boxer, has earned his nickname "Mad Dog" for his tenacious pursuit of perpetrators, observers say.
The D.A.'s pursuit of Jackson in the 1993 case inspired the singer to write a song, "D.S." in 1995 that barely disguised its subject.
Some of the lyrics go:
They wanna get my ass
Dead or alive
You know he really tried to take me
Down by surprise
I bet he missioned with the CIA
He don't do half what he say
In a profile last February, the National District Attorneys Association called Sneddon "the only D.A. in the nation to have an angry song written about him by pop megastar Michael Jackson."
The new accusations are reportedly from a cancer patient who met Jackson when he said his "last wish" was to meet the superstar.
Sources said he told a psychologist that Jackson plied him with "wine and sleeping pills" and molested him at the Neverland Ranch. The psychologist went to authorities.
The sources said Jackson supported the boy's family, entertained them at Neverland and gave them expensive gifts.
Jackson admitted on a TV documentary earlier this year that he enjoyed snuggling with children in the same bed and denied there was anything sexual about it.
The sight of their hero in manacles must have been especially hard on the many fans, now in middle age, who remember the cute little boy with the big afro who, at the age of 5, was the lead singer of the popular Jackson Five in 1963.
They followed his career through his ragingly popular albums "Thriller" (1982), "Bad" (1987), and "Dangerous" (1991).
And they watched him turn weirder and weirder with repeated plastic surgery, a lighter and lighter skin tone, and increasingly bizarre behavior.
His mugshot after he was booked yesterday seems a ghastly parody of that sweet-faced boy of the innocent '60s.
© 2003 Philadelphia Daily News and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved. http://www.philly.com
Geragos is getting more realistic this time. At least he hasn't blamed a satanic cult -- yet.
Both she and Jackson are wacko, obviously. And she has allowed her son to become a victim of Jackson. I pray for the boy's future... poor kid!
There's the race card rearing it's ugly head. you can only say things like that if you are black.
I am wondering though how it applies to Jermain's white brother Michael?
But that doesn't rhyme Michael. If you are going to use the sing song defence you better get some help from Johnny Cochran (If the glove doesn't fit-You must acquit) or at least consult Jesse Jackson.
Name one person on either side of this case that is not screwed up.
Michael is screwed up. Any parent who would allow their children to spend the night with him is screwed up. And now, the boy, no doubt, is screwed up.
Well, sort of. Maybe face to face parts.
I suspect the description is either small and retracted, or non existant. I suspect he is completly sexless and innocent of these charges. Yet to admit it would hurt record sales. Though at this point it won't matter much therefore he probably will not pay them off this time.
Jacko’s Bail Thanks to Reputed Mobster?Michael Jackson’s finances are a little better than we thought. That may be because Miami loan king Al Malnik is on his side and in his corner.
I am told that Malnik was instrumental in a recent restructuring of Jackson’s finances — no mean feat considering his tumultuous history. I am also told that Jackson’s ability to pay his $3 million bail and legal bills in the multi millions may come from Malnik’s largesse and interest in his career.
On the new "Greatest Hits" album, Malnik’s name is one of the few who are mentioned under "Special thanks" from the singer.
Malnik was the lawyer for late mobster Meyer Lansky and when Lansky died in 1983, Reader’s Digest called Malnik the mobster’s "heir apparent," a moniker that has been repeated frequently.
Malnik has become very close to Jackson in recent years. And according to my sources, he’s loaned Jackson money — lots of it.
The 69-year-old lawyer is the owner of a famous restaurant called the Forge in Miami. But his real business is loaning money, just what Jackson needs right now. His firm, Title Loans of America, according to the Palm Beach Post, is a national chain of loan stores that makes money from the interest charged on quick cash offered to people who need cash, and fast.
The New York Times reported in 2000 that Malnik was cited by the New Jersey Casino Control Commission in 1980 and 1992 as "a person of unsuitable character."
Malnik is popular on the Miami social scene with his new wife Nancy, and he has always denied mob ties. He was arrested and tried in April 1969 for income tax evasion but was subsequently acquitted, according to the Miami Herald.
Calls to Malnik at The Forge went unreturned.
Perhaps, but I suspect you're in for a rude awakening.
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