Session Forty-Nine - Screening of a Film Featuring Michael

At the beginning of today’s session, a film that had been recorded two years ago during the production of the second part of the documentary “Living with Michael Jackson” was shown. After that, the possibility emerged that perhaps Michael’s statements in this film—about his pure love for children—were the complete defense he would present in court.

Showing this film is an interesting tactic that does not allow the prosecutor to put questions to Michael.

In this film, Michael says that before he could harm a child, he would cut his own wrist.

In the film, members of the jury were seen praising Michael—Martin Bashir, the controversial documentary producer of “Living with Michael Jackson”—as he told him:

“Your relationship with your children is amazing. It almost made me cry.”

Michael responds:

“I’m crazy about them. I look into their eyes every day and tell them, ‘I love you.’”

In the film, Michael calls his children a divine gift.

Michael also describes the difficult period of his childhood and says he loves children for their innocence and that he never harms them.

“Children don’t betray me or trick me. Adults have disappointed me.”

In the film, he says:

“I’m not crazy. I’m very smart. A crazy person can’t get this far.”

These segments were filmed by Hamid Molaehi, Michael’s special cameraman, while Martin Bashir’s team was busy recording their own documentary about Michael.

Contrary to these claims, in the documentary “Living with Michael Jackson,” Martin Bashir expresses concern about Michael’s relationship with his children.

In a scene from this controversial documentary, Michael appears alongside his then-complainant, holding hands. Michael claims that he has been allowed to sleep in his room, and he describes it as completely innocent and pure. The television broadcast of this documentary raises concerns for some child-rights organizations, which results in police storming into Norlend.

It is still not definitively clear whether Michael will also say these statements from the witness stand or not.

After the film was shown, the defense attorney, Carlos Velasco, was called to the witness stand in place of the Norlend gardener’s son.

Velasco was asked about the son of one of Norlend’s servants—who had testified in court that he had been sexually abused by Michael.

Velasco said that he met that boy every year on Family Day in Norlend. He added that they had also been friends during high school.

The defense attorney, Robert Sanger, asked him:

“Did you ever hear or see anything that would give you the feeling that he was sexually abused by Michael Jackson?”

Velasco said “Never.”

Prosecutor Auchincloss also asked him whether, during that time, he had ever slept in Michael’s bed. Velasco’s answer was negative.

David LeGrand, one of Michael Jackson’s former attorneys, was also called to the witness stand.

During his testimony, he portrayed Michael as a man without deceit—who had become the victim of his employees’ opportunistic exploitation and had been taken in by Martin Bashir’s deception.

He said that Michael wrongly believed he could take control, to some extent, of the production of “Living with Michael Jackson.” He also said that Michael made a big mistake by signing ambiguous contracts with Martin Bashir. LeGrand continued that neither Michael nor any of his employees had the opportunity to review the documentary film and its editing.

He testified that he did not trust the men Michael had hired who worked in Norlend, and he knew they were only acting in their own interests.

“I became suspicious of all of them. It seemed like everyone wanted to profit from Michael in some way.”

LeGrand appeared on the stand to testify in support of the attorneys’ claim that Michael had become the victim of a conspiracy by his employees. These employees are the same individuals whom the prosecution accused of being involved in a conspiracy against the complainant’s family and of having them imprisoned in Norlend on Michael’s personal orders.

LeGrand said that Michael had decided to make Konitzer and Wiesner responsible for his affairs, and instead fired the employees who had worked for him for years.

He said he realized that these two people used—toward their own interests—the nearly one million dollars that had been provided to them to handle Norlend’s affairs.

LeGrand added that two weeks after writing a letter to Konitzer and asking for an explanation regarding the $965,000 given to him, he was fired from his position.

He also said that he had met at least once the mother of the then-complainant in Norlend, and it seemed she was completely happy to be there. He continued that his children also ran around in Michael’s home and had a good time.

He added that he had identified the complainant’s family as troublesome and had told Michael’s adviser, Marc Schaffel, to keep them away from Michael.

He also said that the family was not imprisoned in Norlend.

Gordon Auchincloss, the prosecutor’s representative, focused during his questioning on the negative points of the documentary “Living with Michael Jackson,” and claimed that Michael Jackson was worried about how he would respond to these negative points after the documentary aired.

LeGrand replied that Michael was worried—but not about things that occupied other people’s minds.

“It didn’t seem like his mind was very preoccupied with not showing his children’s faces in this film, and also with signing a contract with Martin Bashir giving him the right to view and edit this film before it was released.”

When asked whether Michael was worried that this documentary would not have a positive aspect, LeGrand answered that:

“Mr. Jackson didn’t use the word ‘positive.’ He was referring to truth and honesty.”

At the end of today’s session, the defense attorneys announced that they intended to call one of the witnesses who was supposed to be summoned by the prosecution to testify against Michael. This person was Vincent Amen, one of Jackson’s employees. According to the defense attorneys, after the prosecution realized that his testimony conflicted with the complainant’s family’s claims, they removed him from their witness list.

Amen is one of the five Michael employees whom the prosecution has accused of being involved in a conspiracy against the complainant’s family. These five people are currently not under legal pursuit.

In a counteraction, the prosecution objected to the testimony of another Jackson employee regarding his sexual relationship with the complainant’s sister, who was 16 years old at the time. The prosecution claimed that this matter had nothing to do with Michael Jackson’s case.

LeGrand also said that the complainant’s mother had rejected a $25,000 offer from Jackson’s employees to sign a complaint against Martin Bashir, the producer of the documentary “Living with Michael Jackson.”

At the end, LeGrand stated that when the charges were brought in 2003, Michael was dealing with financial problems.

Source: Canadian Press / NBC / AP / CNN