Jacko, His Rise and Fall: The Social and Sexual History of Michael Jackson (105 page)

In the months preceding the trial, as prosecutors worked day and night trying to secure young boys to testify that Michael had molested them during visits to Neverland, it was a 45-year-old man who leaked the news of a sexual
relationship with Michael.

Scott Thorson had been the former lover of Liberace. He announced to the
press that he'd also had an affair with Michael shortly before he split with the
flamboyant piano player in the early 80s. The staff at the National Enquirer
reported that Thorson had passed a polygraph test and was ready to testify in
the singer's child molestation case. The former male model claimed that he could prove
useful to prosecutors if Michael's attorneys
claimed that he was thoroughly straight and
had no interest in boys.

Judge Rodney Melville

According to Thorson, he said that he'd
met Michael in 1979 in Las Vegas, but that
the two didn't have their first sexual
encounter until a while later in an apartment
in London. In his testimony, he charged that
he was trying on some new clothes when
"Michael motioned me over to the bed where
he was lounging." Thorson said that they also
had another sexual tryst the following evening after a dinner party.

"Michael felt comfortable enough to make the first move on me, and I didn't resist," Thorson claimed. "Michael begged me to leave Liberace, but I had
to say no."

An attorney for Michael, Steve Cochran, claimed that Thorson's account
is "total trash."

Thorson was evicted in 1982 from Liberace's home in Los Angeles after
he became addicted to painkillers and other drugs. The former model later
sued Liberace for palimony.

No sooner had headlines about Liberace's former lover faded than new
headlines blared on April 22, 2004: GRAND JURY INDICTS JACKSON.
There was no immediate official confirmation. The grand jury had spent three
weeks hearing from witnesses.

Four days later, it was revealed that Michael had decided to replace his
legal team. One of Michael's lawyers, Benjamin Brafman, a New York criminal defense lawyer, said that "serious conflicts had been brewing for weeks"
among Michael's legal team, the members of which had also conflicted with
Jackson family members. "Mark Geragos and I are stepping down-or, as the
Jackson camp suggests, being replaced," said Braftnan.

Still representing Scott Peterson for allegedly killing his pregnant wife,
Laci, in late 2002, Geragos also claimed that "I will no longer represent Mr.
Jackson."

A new defense team would be led by white-maned Thomas Mesereau Jr.,
a Los Angeles lawyer whose best-known recent client had been the actor
Robert Blake, who had been charged with murdering his wife, Bonny Lee
Bakley, three years previously. A 53-year-old, 6-foot-3-inch bruiser, Mesereau
had boxed and played football at
Harvard, and had also represented
Mike Tyson during a 2001
California rape investigation.

Liberace with Scott Thorson

Assuming control of
Michael's defense, Mesereau flew to
Orlando to meet privately with
Michael, who at the time was visiting Disney World with his three
children.

On April 30, 2004, in Santa
Maria, Michael arrived in an SUV to
greet a diminished crowd of only
150 fans. Facing new charges, he
entered the courtyard flanked by his new lawyer. Gone were the Nation of Islam bodyguards, who had been supplanted by a small cadre of security guards.

He pleaded "Not Guilty!" to all 10 felony charges.

Count one was for conspiracy involving abduction, false imprisonment,
and extortion, alleged to have occurred between February 1 and March 31,
2003. Counts two to five charged lewd acts upon a child under the age of 14.
Counts four and five also alleged that a third person, "James Doe," witnessed
the acts. This was an obvious reference to Gavin's younger brother, Star.
Count six cited an "attempt to commit a lewd act upon a child under the age
of 14," and counts 7 to 10 charged Michael with "administering an intoxicating agent" to Gavin to assist in the commission of child molestation.

Mesereau, in a brief statement, told reporters that the case was about "the
innocence and the complete vindication of a wonderful human being named
Michael Jackson." Before driving away in his SUV, Michael waved and
flashed a peace sign.

In May of 2004, Michael's defense team sought for the reduction of his $3
million bail, claiming it was excessive and that it violated Santa Barbara
County standards for bail. The prosecutor objected, arguing that the star might
choose to live the rest of his life as "a wealthy absconder" rather than face a
life term in a California prison. It was pointed out that Michael was known
and "adored" in many countries in the Middle East and Africa, countries that
had no extradition treaties with the United States. In June of 2004, Judge
Melville refused to lower Michael's $3 million bail.

During this time, some reporters inaugurated a policy of posting daily bulletins about the Michael Jackson case. In lieu of hard news, rumors were printed, none more bizarre than stories circulating that Michael was dead.

These rumors grew and grew until Raymone Bain, Michael's new spokeswoman, was forced to declare, "My client is not dead. Michael Jackson is
doing just fine." Bain wrote a "Michael Jackson Is Not Dead" press release.
"I had been up since 3 in the morning getting phone calls from reporters all
over the world! The rumors were rampant! It's my job to correct the record."

A Hollywood publicist told the New York Daily News, "When you have a
client who is clearly three sandwiches short of a picnic, you need to protect
him with grace and dignity. And a press release that announces to the world
that your client is not dead certainly reinforces the notion that he's a total nut
bar."

The sudden appearance of Bain as a spokesperson raised the question of
"Whatever happened to Bob Jones?" Michael's long-time publicist. After 17
years of brilliant service, Jones had been dismissed by Michael. Two bodyguards showed up at Jones's residence to retrieve Jackson memorabilia. "He
never betrayed Jackson," one source claimed, "although he easily could have, as he was the keeper of many secrets."

Jones was said to be "dismayed and shocked" at Michael's abrupt firing
of him. Since Jones never signed a confidentiality agreement with MJJ
Productions, that left him free to write a memoir of what it was like representing Michael.

One by one, most of the Hollywood elite during the summer of 2004
began to avoid Michael, not accepting his calls and not returning his urgent
messages.

In the past, Michael had succeeded in getting a superstar like Madonna to
go out on a "date" with him for publicity purposes. But in July of 2004, he
struck out with another superstar, Nicole Kidman, 37. He called her and asked
if she'd be his date at the upcoming MTV Awards, but the former wife of Tom
Cruise politely declined.

"I had never even met him," Kidman told the press. "It was a little strange.
I did decline but, hey, the way my love life is going I took it as a great compliment. I keep thinking of those photographs of Michael in a shocking wig at
Disneyland looking ridiculous. So call me crazy, but it just didn't tempt me to
want to accept." Some Hollywood wag facetiously suggested that Michael
would have had better luck if he'd called Tom Cruise instead.

In August of 2004, the state attorney general's office concluded that
Michael had not been "manhandled" by the sheriff's deputies who took him
into custody. The findings were contained in a three-page letter which Martin
A. Ryan, chief of the attorney general's California Bureau of Investigation,
sent to Santa Barbara County sheriff Jim Anderson. Ryan's office had
assigned a dozen people to investigate Michael's charges, and collectively,
they spent more than 2,500 hours looking into them. A spokesperson in Ryan's
office, who refused to be named, claimed, "It's
pure and simple. Michael Jackson lied. He was
treated with dignity and respect, something not
always accorded to child molesters, especially
when they go to prison, where they are often
attacked by fellow inmates."

Nicole Kidman

On August 16, 2004, Michael, dressed completely in white and accompanied by La Toya,
Janet, Randy, Jackie, and Jermaine, watched prosecutor Tom Sneddon get grilled. During court proceedings, the district attorney lost his temper twice
and was consequently rebuked twice by the judge.
Watching it all, Michael giggled both times.

Michael was not required to attend the
grilling, but apparently wanted to see his nemesis questioned. Michael believed that Sneddon nurtured "a vendetta against me."

As Michael emerged from his double-decker bus, he was greeted by
cheering fans. He read a sign: IF MICHAEL JACKSON IS PETER PAN,
THEN TOM SNEDDON IS CAPTAIN HOOK.

In a series of legal maneuvers, Mesereau was trying to get evidence that
had been previously accumulated by private eye Bradley Miller tossed out of
court. Mesereau claimed that in November of 2003, Sneddon had violated
lawyer/client privilege when his men smashed their way into Miller's office,
confiscating computers, documents, and papers pertaining to Michael. At the
time, Miller had been a private investigator working for Geragos, who was
Michael's original lawyer in the case.

During his 31/2 hours on the witness stand, Sneddon clung to his claims
that he was unaware of a professional relationship between Michael's former
lawyer, Geragos, and the private dick, Miller.

During his interrogation on the stand, it was learned that Sneddon, in his
search for damaging evidence on Michael, had also videotaped testimony
from Janet Arvizo. Her testimony was recorded in the summer of 2003 in the
wake of the disastrous fallout from the Bashir TV documentary. In front of
investigators from the sheriff's department, Janet claimed that "Michael's
henchmen" had pressured her family to relocate to a new home in Brazil, all
at Michael's expense "because there was people that were gonna kill the children and me-um, mostly my children." On public TV in September of 2004,
Janet appeared again to make more claims, asserting that she and her children
"were chosen by God" to take on Michael. In a police video obtained by The
Insider, Janet was shown telling people that "God knew that we weren't gonna
fall for any of their money. That it was gonna be justice more than anything."

Even before the trial began, Michael had become the butt of jokes-in
magazines, on talk radio, on television, and definitely in newspaper cartoons.
He rarely responded to attacks. But in October of 2004, derision by a fellow
performer made the pop star "hip-hoppin mad." In response, he issued a public attack, slamming Eminem's new music video, the controversial "Just Lose
It."

In the music video, Eminem mocks Michael about the child sexual abuse
allegations he was facing. In one scene Eminem is dressed up like Michael,
sitting on a bed with little boys jumping up in the background. The lyrics say,
"Come here little kiddie, on my lap. Guess who's back with a brand new rap?
And I don't mean rap, as in the case of child molestation." Other scenes in the
video mock Michael's nasal plastic surgery and hair-burning incident during
the filming of the Pepsi commercial.