Michael Jackson's attorney angrily vowed to "land like a tonne of bricks" on anyone who besmirches his client's reputation and charged that molestation allegations against the entertainer were motivated by money.
"If anybody doesn't think based upon what's happened so far that the true motivation of these charges and these allegations is anything but money and the seeking of money, then they're living in their own Neverland," Mark Geragos said, referring to Jackson's storybook playland near Santa Barbara.
Geragos called the news conference following revelations that he and Jackson were secretly videotaped while flying on a private jet to Santa Barbara last week for Jackson's surrender. Geragos did not take any questions, but promised a vigorous defense.
"Michael Jackson is not going to be slammed," he said.
The news conference came as doubts about the credibility of Jackson's accuser and his family began to emerge.
The family of the child has already been involved in two previous cases that involved abuse allegations -- a lawsuit in which the family said they were battered by mall security guards, and a divorce fight in which the father pleaded no contest to spousal abuse and child cruelty.
In November 2001, J.C. Penney Co paid the boy's family US$137,500 to settle a lawsuit alleging security guards beat the boy, his mother and his brother in a parking lot after the boy left the store carrying clothes that hadn't been paid for, court records show.
The mother also contended that she was sexually assaulted by one of the guards during the 1998 confrontation.
A month before the settlement, the boy's mother had filed for divorce, beginning a bitter fight that would include criminal charges of abuse. The father's attorney, Russell Halpern, said the mother had lied about the abuse and had a "Svengali-like" ability to make her children repeat her lies.
Halpern said the father once showed him a script his wife had allegedly written for their children to use when they were questioned in a civil deposition.
"She wrote out all their testimony. I actually saw the script," Halpern said. "I remember my client showing me, bringing the paperwork to me."
The Associated Press does not identify alleged victims of sexual abuse. The child's mother has an unlisted number and could not be located for comment. J.C. Penney lawyers did not immediately return a call seeking comment.
The family's past legal cases could be critical in the current molestation case, if Geragos can show the mother or the accuser lacks credibility, said Leonard Levine, a defense attorney who specializes in sexual assault cases.
"It sounds like music to a defense attorney's ears -- that there have been other cases where they have sued and there is at least an argument that the allegations are similar to the ones here," Levine said, referring to the claims of physical abuse.
"Once you can get evidence in that there's previous evidence that either the child or the parents have fabricated evidence or testimony, you're 90 percent to an acquittal," Levine added.
Jackson was released on US$3 million bail after his surrender Thursday and immediately returned to Las Vegas, where he had been filming a video. Santa Barbara County authorities said on Tuesday they now expect to file formal charges sometime in mid-December rather than soon after Thanksgiving.
Jackson's spokesman, Stuart Backerman, declined comment about the past lawsuits involving the accuser's family.
In a lawsuit filed on Tuesday against Santa Monica-based XtraJet, Geragos claimed that the charter company covertly installed two cameras in the cabin of the plane used by Jackson last week.
Jackson's attorneys won a temporary restraining order against XtraJet, barring any release of the tapes.
The cameras "were recording attorney-client conversations and then somebody had the unmitigated gall to shop those tapes around to media outlets in order to sell them to the highest bidder," he said.
Separately, FBI spokesman Matthew McLaughlin said agents went to the headquarters of XtraJet. "We're currently assessing if a federal violation has occurred," McLaughlin said.
The tapes' existence came to light when representatives of XtraJet showed it to several news organizations, saying they had found two videotapes aboard one of their jets and wanted to know whether it was legal to distribute or sell them.
Geragos said he contacted XtraJet and was referred to an attorney who told him Tuesday: "We had a lottery ticket and we thought we were going to do something with it."
"This is not the lottery," Geragos said. "This is this man's life. This is his family's life. These are scurrilous accusations."
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in