Michael Jackson Beat it
Having had so so much plastic surgery on his face, Jackson is no longer recognizable as the cute little boy we loved to listen to on songs such as Ben and ABC. For many years he was only seen in public with a surgical mask, spent his time with a chimp and the likes of Emmanuel Lewis, Macaulay Culkin, Brooke Shields and Elizabeth Taylor, and it has been rumored that he slept in a hyperbaric chamber and bought the remains of The Elephant Man.
Jackson had two widely-publicized marriages in the 1990s, one to Elvis Presley’s daughter, Lisa Marie, and another to his dermatologist’s nurse, Debbie Rowe. Lisa Marie divorced him after two years, but swears they had a normal marriage in every way. Debbie Rowe bore Jackson two children, a boy and a girl, and divorced him after three years of marriage. A few years later he had another son, refused to discuss who the mother was, and dangled him outside the window of a hotel.
Being accused for the first time of child molestation in 1993 by a thirteen-year-old boy, Jackson reportedly paid the boy’s family twenty-five million dollars, and the case was dismissed. With all of the bizarre behavior that goes on around his amusement park home, dubbed “Neverland Ranch”, some believed every word of the boy’s accusations and some said Jackson was simply a boy that never grew up and was looking to live out the childhood he missed out on.
In November 2004 Jackson’s Neverland Ranch was searched and the pop star arrested a day later on child molestation charges. Soon it came to light that his accuser had appeared on a BBC documentary a year earlier defending the happenings at Neverland. The boy is a cancer patient and admitted to sharing a bed with Jackson on many occasion, but claimed then it it was all innocent.
More information came to light of the investigation in pretrial hearings and Jackson employed Scott Peterson’s attorney, Mark Geragos. As the then fourteen-year-old accuser testified, a grand jury indicted Jackson. Just before he pleaded not guilty to the felony charges against him, Jackson dismissed Geragos and hired Thomas Mesereau.
After a brief start in the jury selection process for his trial, it was delayed for a week as Jackson spent time in a hospital for the flu. The judge, Rodney S. Melville, assured judges that the illness was legitimate. Former child actor Corey Feldman who had previously spoke up in defense of Jackson admitted publicly at this time that while he spent time at Neverland in his early teens, he had been shown nude pictures of both males and females by Jackson.
In the prosecution’s opening statement, Santa Barbara County District Attorney, Thomas Sneddon, told the jury that Jackson had supplied his thirteen-year-old accuser with wine and pornography at Neverland. Sneddon also contended that Jackson had held the boy and his family captive at his ranch while they filmed the documentary on Jackson’s behalf and spoke in his favor.
Defense attorney Thomas Mesereau’s opening statement painted a picture of the boy’s mother as a con artist that cooked up schemes using her children to profit from them. The mother had sued people before for big dollars and had even used her son’s cancer to try and get money from other celebrities.
At this time talk show host Jay Leno, slated to appear for the defense as being one of the celebrities the boy had called to get money for his cancer treatment, asked the court to lift the gag order against speaking of Jackson in his monologue. While he waited, he had comedian Drew Carey tell Jackson jokes instead on The Tonight Show. The court eventually agreed to lift the gag order.
As the prosecution began their case, the eighteen-year-old sister of Jackson’s accuser testified in court that she saw Jackson share a Diet Coke can filled with wine with her brother. Another time she witnessed both of her brothers lying on a bed with Jackson and opened liquor bottles in view in the room. She also spoke of being detained by Jackson’s employees during the filming of the documentary and not being allowed to leave.
Not to be outdone by his sister, the younger brother took the stand at the trial as well. He twice saw Jackson masturbating while having his other hand in his brother’s pants, and also was asked by Jackson if he ever masturbated. He backed up his sister’s and the prosecutor’s claims of wine and pornography. Oddly, he stated there were seventeen stairs leading up to Jackson’s bedroom, and knew that because he always counted stairs. Mesereau was able to get the brother to admit that he had changed his view of the story a few times in court, perjuring himself.
After his siblings testimony, the accuser himself took the stand, and told the court that Jackson had asked him to refer to him as “Michael Daddy” and encouraged him to make the videotape exonerating Jackson, calling it the boy’s audition. For the second day of the accuser’s testimony, Jackson was nearly two hours late. Once he showed up wearing pajama bottoms, a dark blazer and slippers, he claimed he had a back problem.
As testimony resumed with Jackson watching in his odd attire, his accuser stated Jackson called the wine they shared, “Jesus Juice.” After saying that Jackson told him guys have to masturbate or they’ll start raping girls, he also explained being in bed with Jackson under the covers when Jackson began masturbating him in order to “teach” him how to do it.
To place the two boys in Jackson’s bedroom, a detective took the stand and talked of items found in Jackson’s bedroom on a search warrant, including pornographic magazines called Teenage, Finally Legal, Over Fifty, Juggs, Playboy and Hustler in a box at the foot of the bed. In the nightstand was a yet another pornographic magazine and a photo of the accuser with his brother and sister. The accuser’s and his brother’s fingerprints were found on some of the magazines.
Almost as if to keep showing everyone his odd behavior, Jackson appeared late to court again, this time accompanied by a scrubs-clad doctor. The doctor spent some time with Jackson in the courthouse bathroom and later called in a prescription for him. Jackson later said he was in a lot of pain, and his defense team explained it was his back problem from a few weeks earlier.
Even though Meserau had promised in his opening statements that comedian Louise Palanker would speak for the defense about the accuser’s mother asking for money to help pay medical bills and that Palanker was angry that money given for that instead went to buy a flat-screen television, she spoke for the prosecution instead. When Palanker testified, she said it was the father that she saw as the scam-happy parent, while she saw the mother as a lovely caring person. She also believed the family was being held against their will at Jackson’s ranch.
Another comedian, George Lopez, and his wife took the the stand and backed up Palanker’s belief’s about the accuser’s father. They said it was the father that was always begging for money, to the point where they had to eventually discontinue the relationship with the family. The mother was never the one doing the asking.
Perhaps helping the prosecution even more than Palanker and the Lopez’, was yet another comedian, Jamie Masada. He had once told the accuser’s mother that a person with a lot of money would buy them whatever they wanted if she would allow him take care of her son. She refused, saying she only wanted prayers and the person was never named. Masada, too, believed that the accuser’s family was being held against their will.
As the entertainment theme continued, even the family psychologist that appeared, Dr. Stan Katz, appeared regularly on the daytime reality show, Starting Over. He took the stand to speak briefly of his interviews with the accuser and his family. He also offered his thoughts after viewing tapes of Jackson’s 1993 accuser, although he had spoke much more in depth about it to the grand jury. Dr. Katz did tell this jury that he believed it was rare for preadolescents to make false accusations of sexual abuse.
Seemingly to prove Dr. Katz’ thoughts, the son of one of Jackson’s housekeepers testified that he was in therapy from the time he was thirteen to eighteen because of Jackson’s abuse of him. Now a twenty-four-year-old married youth mentor and auto parts salesman, he detailed how the abuse would start out playful with tickling and cuddling and later would turn to Jackson fondling his genitals. He also stated he was unaware that his mother received money from the TV magazine, Hard Copy, until just a few days before his testimony.
Once his mother took the stand, the housekeeper talked of seeing Jackson and a young boy showering together and seeing both of their pairs of underwear on the floor, Jackson’s being white and the boy’s being green. She also recalled seeing Jackson and another boy in bed together and nude from the waist up, watching TV.
A host of other employees spoke of witnessing Jackson doing inappropriate acts with young boys as well, among them a guard and a cook. The guard spoke of seeing Jackson performing oral sex on a boy. Later he hit Jackson with a wrongful termination suit, only to be counter-sued, making him go into bankruptcy. A maid and a cook both said they saw Jackson molesting actor Macaulay Culkin, although Culkin has always historically disputed this.
Jackson’s 1993 accuser’s mother testified that it was Jackson himself that made a tearful plea to her to allow her son to sleep in Jackson’s bed with him. When she eventually allowed it, he bought her a Cartier bracelet. She also states that she hasn’t had any contact with her son, now twenty-five, in eleven years.
The mother of the current accuser finally took the stand and asked not to be judged when she spoke of seeing Jackson lick her son’s head like a cat, yet she never bothered to do anything about it. She had been told if she kept quiet she could join her children and Jackson on his private plane.
The accuser’s mother pleaded the fifth amendment to testifying about her welfare fraud. She did, however, admit to lying under oath in a civil suit against a department store, whom she charged with harming her and her son. Also admitted is that she and her children were physically abused by her the husband, the children’s father.
The woman was told she and her three children needed to be holed up with Jackson at Neverland Ranch and speak on his behalf in the documentary because killers were after them. She said she soon realized Jackson and his henchmen were the real killers.
To speak of why the mother and her children were not allowed to leave, a one time Neverland Ranch guard testified he saw instructions stating that the accuser was not allowed to leave the property. He also stated he never saw anything improper going on, but he was also known to be a police officer. He was approached by a detective to go undercover as an informant, and he refused. Another guard is not allowed to offer testimony that Jackson had an erection, was with a young man and had asked for a jar of Vaseline.
Certainly allowed to leave the premises was Jackson’s ex-wife, Debbie Rowe. She took the stand and stated that she was currently in a custody dispute over her children and hadn’t seen them in two or three years. In 2003 after not speaking to her since their divorce in 1999, Jackson told her if she spoke kindly of him on the documentary, he would allow her to see her children.
Rowe stated that she and Jackson never lived together while married and after their divorce, she was only allowed to see her children for eight hours every forty-five days. As she told the court, there were two different Michaels – “my Michael” and Michael the entertainer, Jackson showed some rare emotion at the defense table, wiping his face afterwards with a tissue.
The prosecution brought witnesses stating that Jackson was in a bad place financially, being $244 million in debit, and spending $20 to $30 million more than he was making every year. They felt this was behind the desperation to clear his name. Shortly after, the prosecution rested.
Wade Robson, now a twenty-two-year-old choreographer, was the first to take the stand for the defense. It was his underwear that the housekeeper reportedly saw on the floor with Jackson’s as they showered together. He stated he never showered with Jackson and nothing inappropriate ever happened, although he does admit to sharing a bed with Jackson. Brett Barnes, now a twenty-three-year-old roulette dealer, also testified to sharing a bed with Jackson without any intimacy.
The big day finally arrived, and Macauly Culkin finally took the stand to defend himself and Jackson. He said he was amazed that no one called him to ask about the accuracy of a CNN report stating the maid had seen Jackson inappropriately touching him. Under cross-examination the actor admitted his attorney refused to take interviews about the subject, but declined any knowledge of the prosecutors trying to reach him during the 1993 case or for this one. He denied inappropriateness.
As proof against the current charges, the defense showed excerpts from the documentary which almost seemed to bolster the prosecution’s theory. After the host, Martin Bashir, said he didn’t like to fly because of the other drunken passengers, Jackson asked him if he was opposed to “”a little bit of Jesus Juice, a little bit of wine,” the exact words of the accuser.
A woman in charge of safety at Jackson’s Neverland Ranch testified that the accuser and his brother were quite reckless on the ranch and that their mother was never around to discipline them. Other employees, including the ranch manager, testified to similar behavior. She also testified that there were instructions there preventing the accuser and his family from leaving, but stated that was common practice for all the children. Later she admitted that the accuser was the only one she could remember having the written directions for.
The employees continue to support Jackson, as a former security guard at the ranch testified that he saw his brother and the accuser sneaking out of the wine cellar, but later admitted he never actually saw them holding a wine bottle. A Neverland chef testified that the eleven-year-old brother of the accuser asked him to make a milkshake with alcohol in it and threatened to tell on him to Jackson if he didn’t do it.
Speaking also of the alcohol habits of the boys is Jackson’s sixteen-year-old female cousin, Simone. She took the stand and testified she also saw the accuser and his brother stealing wine. She couldn’t keep her testimony straight, however, as she first said the boys didn’t see her, and later claimed they told her to be quiet and not say anything.
Professionals who had dealt personally with the mother take the stand. A social worker had been called in to investigate maternal neglect of the family before charges had been made against Jackson. She testified that when she was investigating the family she asked the accuser if he was abused by Michael Jackson and was told no. She later admitted during cross-examination that most young boys don’t admit being sexually molested when she asks them.
Mary Holzer, a paralegal, said the accuser’s mother had admitted to her that the bruises on her son’s body weren’t from the security guards in the department store as she had previously claimed in that course case, they were actually from her then-husband.
Disappointing some, talk show host Larry King was not allowed to testify, being that his opinion that the accuser’s mom was “whacko” and was just looking for money was hearsay. Another talk show host, Jay Leno, admitted that he was normally pretty accessible in his office and often answered his own phone. Surprising many, probably including the defense, he stated he was not asked for money by the accuser and his family, but did receive odd phone calls from the accuser calling him Leno’s biggest fan. He never spoke with the mother.
Yet another comedian, Chris Tucker took the stand and said he told Jackson to be careful of the accuser’s mother as he was suspicious of her. Tucker had originally met the accuser at a fundraiser and had been touched by his story of being cancer-inflicted. Eventually Tucker invited the accuser and his family to join him on the set of Rush Hour Two, but the director of the film asked Tucker to have them leave as they had proved too disruptive. The defense rested after his testimony.
In his closing arguments Deputy District Attorney Ronald Zonen wrapped it all up together with three major points. He showed pictures of what investigators found when they searched Michael Jackson’s home in November 2003. In a cabinet on one side was a jar of Vaseline, and on the other was a copy of “Barely Legal” magazine. Zonen also contended that all the victims were from the same type of family, broken homes and with mothers that were easily bought out with expensive things.
Since many of the Neverland Ranch employees knew everything that was going on, they also knew the documentary would show the Ranch in an unkind light. Zonen contended the employees willfully helped to keep the accuser and his family secluded on the ranch to create a new documentary to preserve life as they knew it.
Defense Attorney Thomas Mesereau painted quite a different picture. He admitted that Jackson had many faults, such as the alcoholism and pornography, but said his biggest fault was being too trusting of those he let into his home. Mesereau contended the biggest red flag that there was something up with the accuser and his family was that they took their story to two lawyers and a psychiatrist before even taking it to the police.
Mesereau also pointed to the timeline as being in question. He doesn’t believe it is plausible for Jackson to have a platonic relationship with the accuser for three years, and only then, after the documentary, begin molesting him. Mostly, he asked the jury, why does child after child continue to go into that bedroom of Michael Jackson if there are inappropriate things happening there?
After a week’s plus in deliberations, the jury has found Jackson innocent of all charges. While it wasn’t the desired outcome that many would have liked, it was certainly the outcome many had expected. The question now is if the jury really believed he was innocent or if they just couldn’t find their way to convicting a celebrity of molesting boys.
It certainly wouldn’t be the first time a celebrity wasn’t convicted despite many believing him guilty. The most recent was Robert Blake. He certainly looked guilty. His wife was shot while he supposedly went back into his favorite restaurant to retrieve his gun. He had the motive too, as he wanted her out of his and his daughter’s life. But the jury just couldn’t find Baretta guilty.
The most infamous trial is certainly that of OJ Simpson. The football hero was on trial for murdering his ex-wife and her male friend. There was not shortage of physical evidence and witnesses. From a bloody glove to blood in his vehicle and house and Kato Kaelin and a limo driver placing Simpson not where he was supposed to be or said he was. After a lengthy trial that took over our TV airwaves and made stars out of the prosecuting and defensive attorneys, the jury just couldn’t do it. They just couldn’t find such a previously pleasant man guilty of such a heinous crime.
And now Michael Jackson. This is the sweet little boy we remember from Gary, Indiana. We watched him grow up. It’s akin to calling the neighborhood boy guilty. It’s just so hard to be the one to make the decision to send him to prison.
Where does that leave Jackson now? He will still be seen as eccentric. And just like OJ, people will continue to make jokes at his expense over the likelihood of him committing the crime. His last album didn’t do well at all, and it was revealed during the trial that he is headed for bankruptcy. Is his professional life over? That could very well be. I haven’t seen OJ Simpson acting or broadcasting from the football sidelines lately. I haven’t heard of any new movies or television shows coming out with Robert Blake.
Whether he did it or not, Jackson’s career is probably over, and at the very least it will never return to the glory of the Thriller years. Perhaps he could resurrect the song Beat It, and make the video that of him beating the legal system.
No one wants to be defeated
Showin’ how funky and strong is your fight
It doesn’t matter who’s wrong or right
Just beat it, beat it
