Year 2004
Brian Oxman said about this: ”Michael told me that he doesn’t want to stay away from Neverland... He told me ”This is where my children were born. This is where I want them to grow up“ ... He wants to go back home.“
On April 30, Thomas Mesereau, in his first official statement, said: ”This case is not for making lawyers famous or for anyone else. This case is only for one thing. Respect, truth, merit, charitable activities, the innocence and complete exoneration of an extraordinary human being named Michael Jackson.“
That day, Michael, in his second appearance in court, again pleaded not guilty.
In court, Judge Melville announced that another count had been added to the allegations against Michael. The judge said that prosecutor Tom Sneddon had charged Michael with imprisoning the complainant and his family in Neverland, in addition to the seven counts of sexual abuse and the two counts of feeding alcoholic beverages that had been announced earlier.
Michael shook his head and considered himself cleared of these accusations.
The prosecutor had alleged that these crimes took place from the beginning of February 2003 until March 31 of that year in Neverland by Michael Jackson against the complainant, who was thirteen years old at the time.
The complainant and his brother were identified in the court files by the aliases ”John Doe“ and ”James Doe“. The prosecutor claimed that the complainant’s brother had witnessed some of these crimes.
The complainant was the same boy who appeared alongside Michael in the controversial documentary ”Living with Michael Jackson“. In that documentary, Michael stated that he had allowed this thirteen-year-old boy and his twelve-year-old brother to sleep one night in his bed. But he also pointed out that he himself had slept in a sleeping bag on the floor.
As the evidence suggested, in fact the documentary ”Living with Michael Jackson“ was the starting point for everything.
Several of Michael’s employees, with names including Vincent Ammen, Frank Tyson, Dave Weizner, Ron Conitzer, and Mark Schaffel, were also accused of complicity with Michael in imprisoning the complainant’s family in Neverland.
On June 28, the Jacksons’ Best of album was released.
On the first day of July, Marlon Brando died at the U.C.L.A. hospital due to a respiratory illness, at the age of eighty. The ashes of this legendary actor were scattered in Tahiti and Death Valley, his favorite areas.
A memorial service for Brando was held at the Hollywood producer’s home, and celebrities such as Jack Nicholson, Warren Beatty, and Sean Penn were present.
In the last months of his life, Brando had lost more than eighty and five pounds in weight and needed a portable oxygen source for breathing, but he tried to appear healthy in public places.
Marlon Brando was one of Michael’s close friends; he played a role in the video «You Rock My world» and also appeared on stage as an honorary guest at the celebration of Michael’s 30th anniversary as a solo artist.
Miko Brando, Marlon Brando’s son, has also had a friendship relationship with Michael for years and works on Michael’s program-planning team.
He said about Michael’s relationship with his father: ”My father had a great affection for Michael Jackson. He met Michael for the first time in the 1980s, and the last time he went out for a trip, Michael accompanied him.“
In a poll conducted on July 8 by ”ESPN“, Michael Jackson was selected as the musical symbol of pop.
On July 27, Michael traveled to Houston, Texas, for business matters. During his stay in the city, Michael visited a store in the city to buy toys.
Michael’s presence in this store caused an incredible commotion among the crowd. When one fan approached Michael, he knelt in front of him and kissed his shoes.
On July 27, Michael Jackson’s defense lawyers appeared in court to review proposals regarding the trial of Michael’s charges. On July 13, twenty-two pages of proposal forms submitted by Michael’s defense lawyers and signed by Steve Cochran were presented to the court, in which the reasons were explained for why the trial should be postponed for four months. In these forms, the allegations against Jackson were described as an attempt to destroy an important and famous person. With the defense lawyers’ efforts to reject the punishment request prepared by members of the jury, Judge Rodney Melville postponed the trial date—originally set for September—to January 31, 2005.
During the hearing session, Glenn Akincles, the representative of the Santa Barbara district attorney’s office, said regarding the pursuit of the case: ”In the documentary Living with Michael Jackson that aired in February 2003, the complainant is speaking under the influence of Michael Jackson.“
He said that Neverland was designed to lure and attract children in this way. He also claimed that the complainant’s family had been kidnapped and kept in Neverland against their will.
The prosecutor’s representative’s remarks enraged Thomas Mesereau, Michael’s defense attorney. He considered the prosecutor’s representative’s statements—interpreting the stay in Neverland as kidnapping—to be meaningless and illogical, and claimed that the prosecutor’s representative had little evidence to prove these accusations.
The prosecutor’s representative also alleged that after the documentary ”Living with Michael Jackson“ aired, Michael and his accomplices had forced the complainant and his family to spend their vacation at luxurious residences.
Mesereau completely denied these claims and said that the belief that the complainant’s family had been imprisoned in Neverland and then forced to go to Florida by private jets in order to spend their vacation with celebrities such as Chris Tucker is fundamentally illogical and would be rejected by the jury.
In this session, Thomas Mesereau also announced that the complainant’s mother had had a fourth child.
On July 30, in a public poll by the English network W.H.1, the song «Billie Jean» was selected as the best song of all time with the highest number of votes.
«Billie Jean», Michael Jackson’s very successful 1982 song, topped the network’s best list. More than twenty thousand people took part in this vote, and almost half of them voted for the song «Billie Jean». Four of Michael Jackson’s songs were among the top one hundred songs, and three of them, in the following order, were among the top forty songs:
«Billie Jean» in first place, «Earth Song» in twenty-second place, and «Black Or White» in thirty-first place.
On the fourth day of August, the German network M.T.V. celebrated its 23rd anniversary by airing the biggest video of all time, namely «Thriller».
Six of Michael’s music videos were nominated for this honor, and in the end, among them, «Thriller» from 1983 was selected as the biggest video of all time.
On the morning of August 15, Michael, along with his lawyer Thomas Mesereau, his brother Randy, and his comedian friend Steve Harvey, attended a church prayer ceremony at Harvard Boulevard Church in Los Angeles. Michael’s fans and leaders of some groups showed their support for Michael at this ceremony. After the prayer ceremony, Michael went toward the school of this church to answer questions from the thirty students of this school.
The students had gathered in one of the rooms of this school. Michael, along with his lawyer Thomas Mesereau, his brother Randy, and also Steve Harvey, entered the room and sat on a chair in front of the children. Thomas Mesereau, Steve Harvey, and Randy also stood around him.
Randy introduced Michael and himself to the children and asked them whether they knew why Michael was there today. He answered immediately: ”He’s here to see you.“ He then told the children that they could ask Michael any questions they wanted.
A little girl asked Michael whether she could come to Neverland. Michael replied: ”Whenever you come, we’ll welcome you.“
Hearing this, the children shouted and cheered. They were all happy to meet Michael and talk with him. Michael also seemed very happy and at ease.
As more questions were raised by the children, the reporters were asked to leave the room. The children asked Michael various questions such as what your favorite song is, and how do you dance.
Although news of Michael’s presence at the church was not widely covered by the media, many reporters from different networks had gathered on-site to get the story. Ms. Raymond Bean, Michael’s spokesperson, guided the media members to a location where they could wait for Michael’s entourage team to leave the school. A little later, Thomas Mesereau and Steve Harvey left the school and met with the media members. The first question was asked of Thomas Mesereau. In response to a reporter’s question about why Michael came to the church, he said: ”Michael is a man of faith and he has always been interested in attending church.“
Next questions were asked of Steve Harvey. In response to reporters’ questions, he said that Michael is his close friend and that he believes in his innocence.
Steve Harvey spoke very bluntly and openly about the media. He said that Michael’s fame, success, and wealth were the reasons for creating such accusations against him.
One reporter tried to trap Steve Harvey by asking: ”Why did a private news story about Michael’s visit to the church leak to the news media?“ Harvey blamed that reporter for the question, looked around calmly, and said that if it were a private visit, you wouldn’t be here right now. Harvey took advantage of the opportunity and considered this question an example of the media’s incorrect release of information, in order to align it with their own goals.
A little after the press conference ended, Michael and his brother left the school and headed toward their car. On the way, Michael stopped several times to sign autographs and take photos. More fans were waiting outside the grounds for Michael and waved at and shouted as his car passed by. Fans, old and young, ran after Michael’s limousine.
On August 16, Michael appeared at the hearing session of the prosecution’s defense arguments, which accused private investigator Bradley Miller of an illegal search of his office.
In his third appearance in court, the King of Pop entered the courthouse grounds in a double-decker bus, accompanied by his parents, his brothers, Jackie, Jermaine, Randy, and his sisters Janet and Latoya. All his brothers and sisters were dressed uniformly in white. Michael wore a gold armband on his white outfit and silver glasses on his eyes.
Inside the courtroom, Michael watched his defense attorney Thomas Mesereau question the prosecutor in the case, Thomas Sneddon. Mesereau stated that the police entry into the office of private investigator Bradley Miller—which had taken place last November—was illegal. They discussed the issue of whether evidence stolen from Bradley Miller’s office, which had been working for Mark Geragos, Michael’s former defense attorney, constitutes an insult to the rules related to confidentiality between a lawyer and his client.
Sneddon denied knowing about Miller’s cooperation with Geragos, while it was he who had taken the referral letters from Geragos to Miller into a search of Miller’s office, which was illegal.
Mesereau asked Sneddon in disbelief: ”So you never found any connection between Geragos and Miller? It never occurred to you that Mr. Miller might work as a private investigator for Mr. Geragos?“
Sneddon confirmed and said that the reason for searching Miller’s office was to clarify his role in the allegations raised against Michael Jackson.
The conversation between Mesereau and Sneddon escalated, and Judge Melville was forced to reprimand both of them. He told Mesereau to drop his sarcastic tone and warned Sneddon to be respectful in response to each of the questions raised by Mesereau.
In the same month, a film titled ”Man In The Mirror“ was shown in theaters in the United States, and apparently its goal was to depict the life of Michael Jackson. But the characters in this story and their roles had the slightest resemblance to the reality of Michael’s life.
On August 10, Michael had drafted a statement that Judge Melville approved for release on August 16. The statement read as follows:
”I and my family have devoted our lives to spreading unity and peace in the world through our music. ”Man In The Mirror“ is a film that has recently been made based on the story of my life without permission, and in no way does it reflect the reality of our family. It is regrettable that over the years, we have been the target of completely inaccurate descriptions. We have been under the gaze of people. We have been portrayed badly and have been hurt. I personally have suffered from being called ”Wacko Jacko“ and from many harmful lies, in addition to the news that I had fathered quadruplets. This situation is unbearable and must be stopped. The description people give about us is not the truth of who we are or what we do. We are a family full of love. My success on stage depends on the love and support of my family outside the stage. My brothers and I are, first and foremost, ”brothers“. We started our work together and we will always be together. All I can wish for is that one day my family will receive the same love and respect that they have shown to others throughout their lives.“
On August 21, the M.T.V. website asked its visitors to vote for the best M.T.V. performance. Michael’s name was on the list for two performances: the surprising 2001 performance with the group *NSYNC and the 1995 performance.
On September 17, Michael attended the fourth hearing session. This time too, the Jackson family wore matching white outfits.
In this session, which was held to decide on evidence stolen from Bradley Miller’s office, the private investigator’s defense attorney Mark Geragos was present. The complainant’s mother took the witness stand and testified that she could not remember whether she knew about Miller’s and Mark Geragos’s cooperation, but she had thought that Miller worked for Michael.
The defense lawyers tried to prove that the complainant’s mother and the prosecutor knew about this. Thomas Mesereau spoke about pages that showed Bradley Miller had personally informed the complainant’s mother about working for Mark Geragos.
When Thomas Mesereau repeatedly asked the complainant’s mother whether these pages were false, she said: “I’m not saying she didn’t say something like that. I’m only saying I can’t remember.“
When the complainant’s mother claimed that she did not understand the meaning of some of the questions being asked of her, Thomas Mesereau became very angry.
During the court session, Michael had his eyes fixed on the complainant’s mother. But the complainant’s mother did not give him even the slightest glance.
On September 23 and 24, eighteen students from different universities in the United States held a session to discuss the life of Michael Jackson and the impact he left behind.
St. Clark Sieberman, a professor who teaches race and gender, said about Michael: ”In many ways, he is the most transformative Black male artist of the twentieth century. He has grown up in front of our eyes. Therefore, he is a valuable asset for us.“
He also announced that he was writing a book about Michael.
In this session, there was no discussion of the allegations against Michael Jackson, but the way they were covered by the media was debated. The students discussed people’s misconceptions and stereotypes about Michael and the widespread reflection of Michael’s allegations in the media.
One of Harvard University’s graduates pointed out that Michael most often addresses racial issues in his music. In this regard, he referred to the video for the song «Beat It» and said that Michael reminds people of social dilemmas in his songs.
Megan Burns, who was on the verge of attaining a professorship degree in the field of arts, also said that she sees Michael Jackson as a ”self-made artistic work“. She continued: ”He has participated in national discussions about race and gender. And this is a very valuable topic for all of us to exchange ideas about.“