November 28, 2003 – Statement by Stuart Backerman

2:12 a.m. - While no official confirmation has yet been made regarding the reason for the presence of legal officers and police at Michael Jackson’s private residence, Stuart Backerman Michael’s official spokesperson said in a statement that “we still can’t offer an opinion about these investigative activities because we still don’t know what their reason is.” He noted that Michael has been in Las Vegas for the past two and a half weeks filming the music video for One More Chance . According to him, Michael himself said, “I’ve seen lawyers who aren’t my representatives, and I’ve seen spokespersons who speak on my behalf even though they don’t know me. It seems that as soon as these people see that a project, an album, or a video is about to be released, they show up with terrible accusations.” Backerman adds, attacking “the bad-intentioned pack of media hounds that talk about this and other matters on behalf of Michael,” saying, “A display of fraudsters who call themselves ‘insiders’ started sending out signals the moment they heard that a search in Neverland was beginning, and they began to engage in deception, making guesses and fabricating information about investigations that they likely don’t even have news about.” He emphasized that Jackson “fully cooperates with the officials in any investigations, even if they are biased, even though he isn’t at home.”