Jacko, His Rise and Fall: The Social and Sexual History of Michael Jackson (85 page)

His statement was met with skepticism in the press, and voice stress
experts denounced the tape as "a pack of Jackson lies."

"The stress in his voice clearly goes off the chart," claimed Dr. Martin
Markowitz from his offices in Atlanta.

Too many persons witnessed Michael posing nude to keep their mouths
shut. An assistant in the photo lab where the films were processed claimed,
"It's of normal size. There is very little pubic hair. It's light brown, not jet
black. His penis is white but with a brown blotch or two. There are pink and
brown patches on his testicles, which are not large."

Bob Jones later claimed, "The boy turned out to have an unerring eye for
accuracy."

On the dawn of a civil trial, life wasn't going smoothly for the Chandlers either. Threats arrived daily, including a dead rat in a box. Evan Chandler's
dental office was ransacked and subjected to bomb threats. After death threats
came in for the Chandler attorney, Larry Feldman, a security force from the
U.S. Justice Department was assigned to protect him.

After violent arguments from both parties, a settlement was agreed upon
with the Chandlers, a sum so high it would have devastated the fortunes of
most rich people.

According to the agreement, Michael pledged to place $15,331,250 to be
held in trust by the minor's attorneys, plus another $2 million as an extra signing bonus. Both June and Evan were to receive an additional $1.5 million
each, up front. There was more. Larry Feldman and his legal team were to be
paid an extra $10 million. In all, financial advisers estimated that Michael's
total cost from the case, including his own legal fees and lost revenues from
Dangerous, amounted to more than $100 million, maybe a lot more.

Based on prevailing interest rates and if the funds in the trust were invested wisely, Jordie could make "multiple millions of dollars more as long as he
and his parents and his attorneys kept their mouths shut," according to reporter
Diane Dimond.

The final agreement was signed on January 25, 1994.

Both Larry Feldman, representing Jordie, and Cochran, representing
Michael, spoke to the press. Feldman, referring to Jordie as "the boy," claimed
that he "is very happy with the resolution of this matter." Still maintaining
Michael's innocence, in spite of the huge pay-off, Cochran claimed, "The time
has come for Michael Jackson to get on with his life." Privately he told colleagues that he detested child molesters and "despised" working on the case.
He also told associates that "I feel Michael was completely in the wrong. The
way he was carrying on, he was headed for big trouble." Cochran accurately
predicted that there would be additional "Jordie Chandler cases in the future
if Michael didn't reform. Personally, the way he was cavorting with those
Cascio brothers, even as child molestation charges against him raged, I don't
think he's learned his lesson ... even now!"

Michael waited months for the media circus to die down before speaking
out about the settlement:

I asked my lawyer if he could guarantee me that justice would prevail. He said
that he could not guarantee what a judge or jury would do. So I said that I
have got to do something to get out of this nightmare ... all these people were
coming forward to get paid on these tabloid TV shows. And its lies, lies, lies.
So I got together with my advisors and they advised me in an unanimous decision to resolve the case. It could go on for seven years.

Although prosecutors in Santa Barbara didn't want
Michael to escape from their clutches, their criminal
investigation into Michael's alleged child molestation
began to wind down.

Janet Reno

When word reached the prosecutors that the
Chandlers were "making a deal" with Michael, they
knew their criminal case against him was collapsing. At
the time of the Chandler case, California law stated that
a child could not be made to testify to confirm molestation charges. "Without Jordie, we've got no real case to
present to a jury," a police officer said, "and then there's
the question of Jackson's fame. What if everybody on the jury loved
Thriller?"

Feldman denied that there had ever been a private understanding that
Jordie would not testify in the event that criminal charges against Michael
would be filed anytime in the future. But despite those denials, prosecutors
suspected that an agreement had been established between Michael and
Jordie's father. "Because Jordie has removed himself from the picture, our
case has been shot full of holes," a staff member of the district attorney's
office, who refused to allow his name to be printed, told a reporter in Los
Angeles

Appearing on Nightline, a New York attorney, Raoul Felder, told America
that "If people believe that Michael Jackson paid millions of dollars and didn't get a promise that the boy wouldn't testify, then they also believe in the
tooth fairy. The settlement sends a terrible message. That statue on the courthouse should hang its head in shame that this could happen. If you're rich, you
can buy justice-pure and simple."

Allegedly, Michael threatened a lawsuit, but most lawyers agreed that
Felder was allowed to speak his mind under fair comment and criticism of a
very public event.

The matter even went to the White House, where Bill and Hillary Clinton
were now in residence. Within the very recent past, they had warmly welcomed Michael to Washington and considered him a friend. Attorney General
Janet Reno met privately with both Bill and Hillary, reviewing the evidence
that Michael had transported Jordie across state lines (Nevada and Florida, for
example) and had even taken him abroad to such countries as Monaco and
France. It was alleged that President Clinton was reluctant to intervene in a
high-profile case against a black person, particularly in the wake of the 1992
L.A. riots over the arrest of Rodney King. "Leave it to those guys in Santa
Barbara," Clinton told Reno. "We're not getting involved with this one. I have
enough problems as it is without alienating the black community."

Michael was never forced to go into court. Neither was Jordie. In January
of 1994, LAPD prosecutors announced that they were not moving forward
with the case because of lack of evidence. They also announced, on January
24, that there wasn't enough evidence to charge Evan Chandler with extortion.
Jordie dropped the charges against Michael.

Right at this time, Reuters News Service dropped a bombshell. A bulletin
went out that the photographs of Michael's genitalia did not match Jordie's
description of them. This was in total contradiction to other reports, including
those made by police investigators who had minutely examined photographs
of Michael's private parts.

"Money talks," said a police investigator who didn't want to be named.
"Or, should I say, money silences. Millions can silence even the most talkative witness."

Terry White, once the Santa Clara, California, District Attorney, in his
review of the evidence, claimed that there was "more than enough evidence"
to indict Michael and probably convict him on charges of child molestation.

"Although it is hard to put a price on the emotional suffering of child
abuse victims," one reporter wrote, "at least the young boy will not have to
work another day of his life, and can live in the lap of luxury that he'd enjoyed
as a twelve-year-old at Neverland."

Years later, Maureen Orth, writing in Vanity Fair, had a different spin.
"Jordie Chandler's life has been completely broken by his association with
Michael Jackson. He went to college, he manages his own money. He's a very
attractive, bright kid but I don't think he really is able to have a normal life.
He can't go anywhere without being identified as the Michael Jackson boy.
People want to know all about Michael and how much money did Jordie get."

Many celeb friends, such as Elton John, wondered in public why Michael
settled out of court if he were indeed not guilty. But the ever-steadfast
Elizabeth Taylor, in a press release, stood by him. "As one of Michael's closest friends, who is convinced of his innocence, I agonized over the daily avalanche of lies, innuendos, and slurs, none of which Michael deserved.
Michael's love of children is one of the purest things I have ever seen; it shines
like an extra sun. In spite of the media's distorted lens, I was repeatedly
touched by the faith that so many of Michael's friends and fans had in his
complete innocence."

In the closing weeks of World War II, some Neapolitan women painted
lipstick on the mouths of their young teenage sons and offered them for sale
to U.S. servicemen for purposes of sodomy. "If that sounds amazing," said
Lieutenant Jerry Grayson, "maybe you don't know what hunger tastes like in
your gut."

After word leaked out to the world that Michael had paid millions to Jordie, dozens of women from around the world sent letters to Michael,
including nude pictures of their young sons, offering their offspring "as a companion." Some of the letters were so explicit that authorities considered filing
charges against the mothers.

Michael had been warned that prosecutors in California "were still watching him like Big Brother."

"But his habits didn't change," Bob Jones said. "He still paraded around
the globe with little boys. These little boys were costing the King millions
upon millions."

James Hahn, who was a city attorney (later mayor) of Los Angeles, privately said that "Michael Jackson had better be very, very careful because
authorities are watching him."

Publicity about the Jordie Chandler case died down except for a scandalous book in 1995, but it forever tarnished Michael's image, in spite of the
settlement or because of it.

Jordie was back in the news again in 2005 when Michael actually did go
on trial, this time in a criminal case alleging child molestation of another
young boy.

At the time of that trial, Jordie refused to testify against Michael. It was
learned that he hadn't seen his mother, June, for the past eleven years.

Jordie, at the age of 26, was back in the news again in 2006 when he
charged his father, Evan, with "life threatening physical abuse."

The former dentist was charged with striking Jordie on the head from
behind with a 12 '/2 pound dumbbell. His father was also charged with "spraying my eyes with Mace and trying to choke me." The alleged incidents
occurred in August of 2005, just two months after Michael's acquittal in
another kiddie sex case. At the time of the alleged assault, Jordie was said to
be living with his father "somewhere in New Jersey."

Jordie's uncle, Raymond Chandler, who practices law in Santa Barbara,
wrote a shocking book, All That Glitters: The Crime and the Cover-Up, published in 2004. He was not bound by the confidentiality agreement signed by
Michael and Evan Chandler on behalf of his son.

In this book, Raymond Chandler had this conclusion:

The difference between Michael Jackson and any ordinary pedophile is
one of degree, not kind. Using his stardom and fantasy world he created at
Neverland, Michael could entice a child in a way that no other pedophile
could hope to match. But beneath the facade of fame and fortune lies a child
molester no different from the one down the street. "Come to my house, I'll
give you candy. " Its as old as the hills.

"Just think, nobody ever thought this would last. "

--Michael Jackson, 1994
On his marriage to Lisa Marie Presley

"In an insult to transvestite men everywhere-who can look
pretty damn good in a dress and makeup and can project
alluring female charm-when Mike does this, he doesn't even
have the decency to stop grabbing his crotch every 1.0045
seconds and allowing that image for us. "

--www.anomalies-unlimited.com

"All of Hollywood has plastic surgery! I don't know why the
press points me out. It's just my nose, you know. "

--Michael Jackson

"I've seen this. I've seen it a lot. I have seen him with children. They don't let him go to the bathroom without running
in. They won't let him out of their sight. They even go to bed
with him.""

--Lisa Marie Presley, explaining
Michael's relationship with children

"He's not gay, I really feel certain of that. Many times, a goodlooking girl would walk by and Mike would whisper, 'Hey, what
do you think of her? She's somethin' else, isn't she?' His
brothers are much more open in the way they pursue women,
but Michael's discreet. He's a gentleman. "

--Tim Whitehead (Michael's First Cousin)

"Michael continues to be completely fucking insane ill flipped
crazy out of his gourd lost his shit incomprehensible what the
fuck got in that boy do you even remember back when he
used to be cute and talented and oh my god. "

--www.AnilDash.com

After lengthy delays and postponements, the taping of the Jackson Family
Honors took place on February 19, 1994 in Las Vegas. The setting was the
luxurious MGM Grand Garden before a crowd of 15,000, some of whom had
to be virtually pulled in off the street to fill the seats.