AEG Trial Session 47: Taj Jackson Testifies and Performs Michael’s Children’s Scripts Directed at Their Father

In today’s session, the judge decided to allow the display of handwritten notes from Michael’s children, despite his initial order. The judge had previously said he doubted the authenticity of these notes, but the Jacksons’ attorney, Deborah Cheng, was able to successfully convince him that, under a single legal provision, if the notes express a feeling or an emotional or physical reaction, they can be presented as evidence in court.

Next, Taj Jackson returned to the stand and said that Michael was like a father to him and his two other brothers.

“Some people thought we were his sons until he had children of his own. He was definitely our teacher. Everything we did in life was aligned with what he did.” Taj said he had kept many of his uncles’ notes as keepsakes.

Michael had written in a note: “Taj, I love you and I’m proud of you. Please practice.”

Taj said his uncle had written this note on special Neverland paper, and the Neverland logo is visible at the bottom of the page.

“He wrote many notes like this for me. This note was probably because our mother told him we don’t practice enough.”

Taj was the pianist in the group. Michael bought him his first piano.

Deborah Cheng displayed a photo of Michael at the ceremony where he received his Hollywood Walk of Fame star. Taj and T.J. were there beside him.

Taj then talked about his memories of Michael and his teachings.

“He was perfectionist in his work. He studied and studied and studied, and he told us to read about the top ten singers.”

“It would have been foolish not to ask him to give you advice.”

Taj explained that they could ask for whatever they wanted, and they did.

He said he started music at age twelve, but he hadn’t formed the group, T.R.E.A.T.Y., until he was nineteen. Michael was their music teacher.

“He picked many of our songs. Some of them we didn’t like very much, and he would tell us why they were important.”

I Need You was one of those songs, and Michael sang along on it. At first, the younger brothers weren’t as enthusiastic about the song as Michael was.

“The demo sounded so out of date—we couldn’t hear what he was hearing.”

Michael was right; after the song was released, it brought major success for the boys of T.R.E.A.T.Y. Cheng showed part of the video for the song. Michael did not appear in the video, and only his voice was heard at the end.

I Need You video on YouTube

After finishing work on his own song, Michael had gone to the T.R.E.A.T.Y. studio downstairs. Michael’s voice was tired from recording a rock song that same day, but he recorded his own part in the song in just a single take.

“What’s most astonishing is that he recorded his voice in one take—there wasn’t a second attempt. The entire voice you hear in this song was recorded in one take.”

Referring to the song, Taj said: “We always tried to do what our uncle did.”

Michael had his own music publishing and trademark company, MJJ. He was worried that if he put T.R.E.A.T.Y. under his own brand and something went wrong, his nephews would blame him.

Michael taught them what would make music reach its peak. He played She Drives Me Crazy by Fine Young Cannibals for Taj and his brothers, and taught them how to listen to music. Michael taught them how to listen to a song again and again, and each time to hear the different instruments. Taj joked, laughing: “I don’t want to reveal all the secrets.”

He added that Michael followed the careers of emerging artists and wanted to work with new people. He mentioned his own song with Eykon as an example.

Michael told Taj that they should keep going down his path, and when he retired, they should carry the torch.

Taj referred to their shared love—his uncle’s love—for music and film. They watched movies in different ways: first without sound, and then with sound. Taj said he didn’t have film-making literacy, and the process was a bit scary for him, because becoming a filmmaker required a lot of learning.

Taj said Michael had carried out the idea of turning into a robot in the movie “Moonwalker” as an honor for them, because they loved the Transformers cartoons.

“He was always studying and learning about directing. He knew everything and taught us.”

Michael hired a professor from USC to teach him directing, and Michael’s kids also learned from the professor. Michael loved the story of the Egyptian pharaoh “Tutankhamun,” and he loved Egypt and Egyptian culture. He wanted to make a film about Tut and Chicago 7 and create a new version of the trailer.

The last time Taj saw him was at the May 14, 2009 wedding anniversary ceremony of Katherine and Joe Jackson. Michael told Taj: “After this tour, we’re going to make a movie.” Prince, Michael’s eldest son, also wanted to make a film with them.

Katherine Kahan, the attorney for the company, asked whether M.J. wanted to work with Kenny Ortega to make the three-dimensional trailer. Taj said he was sure he would, and he even wanted to work with bigger names like Peter Jackson.

“I’m sure more powerful people would have been involved. Not just us.”

Michael wanted Taj to learn about 3D movies because he loved technology and wanted to use it to do innovative things. Michael wanted Taj to become skilled at this. Captain E.O.—a film starring Michael, directed by Francis Ford Coppola and shown at Disneyland in the 1980s—was among the first 3D movies in cinema. In this sci-fi film, Michael’s songs were also performed. Taj recalled being present at the filming scene for this movie, but said he wished he had paid more attention, because George Lucas and Ford Coppola were involved and he could have learned from them.

Taj spent a lot of time, sometimes weeks, staying at Neverland. He said he had spent a year at Neverland and most of his time was with his Uncle Michael. Michael liked to conduct his business meetings by phone. He would put the phone on speaker so Taj could also hear and learn. Michael conducted nearly a hundred business meetings with perhaps twenty different people by phone.

Michael was very emotional. He kept many items as keepsakes. For example, when Taj was three years old, he went toward a window at Neverland, broke it, and went through it. Michael had kept the blanket that day that had been wrapped around Taj, and, for example, his sister Janet’s school report card.

Taj said that at Neverland he saw Michael writing inspiring notes for himself. Taj learned from Michael, and now he writes notes like that for himself. Michael wrote down his ideas and wishes on whatever was available. Taj said Michael believed: “If you think about something and believe in it, you will achieve it.”

Deborah Cheng displayed a photo of a mirror with Michael’s handwritten note on it. Michael had written elsewhere: “Love, never violence.”

Taj has seen hundreds of notes from his uncle, both at Neverland and after his death at Carolwood. He confirmed the authenticity of many of these notes in court, although these notes were not shown to the jury, and the company’s attorney opposes this.

In one of the notes, Michael wrote: “Now my hand can’t reach my money; it has nothing to do with my house.” He underlined the note twice as emphasis.

Taj explained Michael’s method of writing his notes and divided them into three categories: 1) inspiring notes (the law of attraction) 2) keepsakes 3) lists of tasks, meetings, or other people’s duties.

Cheng then presented notes from Michael’s daughter and son.

Taj said he recognized Paris’s handwriting because he had seen her school assignments.

Paris’s note to Michael was full of love:

“My dear daddy, I love you so much. And I’m so happy that tonight I hugged you to say good night. Sleep well. I love you and good night. See you tomorrow. (kiss and hug sign) Good night and with lots of love, Paris Jackson.”

The note Michael wrote in Blanket’s voice:

“Blanket’s words, my son, six years old. What’s your favorite thing to say, daddy? Mine is H for God, and B for daddy.”

Kahan asked Taj about his uncle’s use of medication.

Naje (Naja) said that, compared to other family members, he spent the most time with Michael. On all tours—Triumph, Victory, Bad, Dangerous, and History—he was with him. He stayed with Michael in the hotel room, but he had never seen Michael take any medication or be under the influence of drugs.

Taj said he saw his uncle several times from late 2008 to mid-2009. Michael lived in Las Vegas in 2008, and Taj saw him regularly. During this period

“He was definitely healthy and happy.”

In 2008, Taj heard from news or relatives that Michael was working on a new album.

“He was constantly writing music and recording. I don’t think he ever stopped working. He was doing many things at the same time.”

Before moving to Carolwood in December 2008, Michael lived at the Bel-Air Hotel in Los Angeles, and Taj met him twice during that time—once at the hotel. Taj did not know that Michael had moved to Carolwood. He never went there until after Michael’s death. He said that when Michael was trying to stop the April 2009 auction of his property, he had spoken with him. Taj recalled that his uncle was talking on the phone with someone about stopping the auction.

Taj doesn’t think Michael intended to return to Neverland:

“That place had been violated by its purity. He didn’t have the same feeling anymore.”

When Taj and his brothers learned that M.J. was going on tour, they stayed away so they wouldn’t be a nuisance, because they knew it would disrupt his focus. Taj had planned to go to London with his uncle for the tour.

Michael had assigned Taj the responsibility of taking care of his storage units. Taj said his uncle wanted the storage units to be deeded in Taj’s name so they would be safe from auction and harm. Taj and his brothers had lost many items that had been kept in the Jackson family’s storage units—items belonging to their mother—during the auction. A company had sued the Jacksons for failing to carry out certain ceremonies. The Jacksons lost in court, and the storage units were seized from them as damages, and Taj and his brothers became victims of this situation because their mother’s keepsakes were part of the items inside the storage units. This was very painful for them.

Taj talked about the three storage units of Michael that were in his possession. The largest unit contained Neverland items: furniture, artwork, gaming devices, and more. The other two units were full of personal keepsakes for his children. One of them, measuring (9×11 meters), was in Las Vegas, and the other—four times larger—was located in Bolton, California.

Kahan asked why Michael wanted the storage units to be in Taj’s name.

“He trusted only a few people. He knew he had been betrayed his whole life, and that he could trust me, and that if something happened to him, I would do the right thing.”

Michael had told Taj: “Everyone makes money off me. I want to take care of my family.”

Taj reluctantly agreed that Michael would pay him for overseeing his storage units. Taj didn’t want to accept it, but Michael insisted.

After Michael’s death, Taj went to Carolwood to collect his uncle’s belongings so they would be preserved for his children, because they might be sold on eBay for hundreds of thousands of dollars.

He didn’t remember the time he left for the house. When he arrived, Ruby (aunt) and her daughter Jannet (aunt), Katherine (grandmother), and perhaps Trent (his father’s cousin) and one of his brothers were there. He didn’t remember visiting Latoya (aunt).

“This is the day I’d rather erase from my memory.”

Kahan asked whether the house was a mess. Taj said: “The house was normal; it wasn’t messy.” He explained that he wasn’t trying to defend anyone, but he understood his uncle, because:

“When you travel a lot, you put your things in suitcases.” He continued with a laugh: “That’s how my place is too.”

To collect the items, Taj went to Michael’s bedroom, closet, and bathroom on the second floor. A cardboard box was delivered to him in Michael’s bedroom; he didn’t know by whom. Taj said 95% of the items were inside the box, but he also added some things of his own. In the end, he removed a box containing Michael’s notes and documents from the house.

Taj said being in that room was extremely painful for him, and he wanted to leave that place as quickly as possible. Taj took the box to his own home and kept it inside a closet “like Janet,” out of sight of everyone else.

Taj said he delivered that box earlier this year to Sandra Ribera, Katherine Jackson’s attorney. He had skimmed some of the documents inside the box in the summer of 2009.

Kahan then asked about the two Mac computer hard drives that had been taken from Michael’s home. Jeffrey Phillips, Latoya’s business partner, gave two hard drives to Taj at the home of Hyunharst, Encino. One of them contained music files that Michael had been working on, and it was delivered to the foundation. Taj said he knew the foundation was looking for new songs that M.J. was busy working on. The foundation was looking for four computer hard drives.

The other was used by the guards at Carolwood and Michael’s assistant, Amir Williams, and it had a password. Taj had asked Williams for the password, but it didn’t work. The foundation didn’t want this computer because Williams had said there were no music files on it. This computer was placed in Hyunharst.

Taj didn’t remember the dates and didn’t know whether the monitor screen had also been given to him or not.

He also said he still works with Michael’s foundation.

He also talked about his relationship with Michael’s children. He said that since their father’s death, he had been by their side. The last T.R.E.A.T.Y. album came out in 2003; they were still busy making music, but after Michael’s death, they stopped all work so they could be with the kids.

“We became one unit.”

Even while Michael was alive, he sometimes asked Taj to look after his children.

Kahan: “Was Debbie Ro (Michael’s former wife and the mother of Prince and Paris) involved in the children’s affairs?”

Taj: “Yes, as far as I know, she started a relationship with Paris.”

Kahan: “Is she their biological mother?”

Taj: “Yes.”

Jackson’s attorney objected to this question, and the judge said they shouldn’t ask anything about the children’s parents’ relationship. They could only address Michael’s emotional relationship with his children.

Taj said he made the Code Z clip after Michael’s death as a tribute to his uncle and his love for filmmaking. In reality, the clip was a teaser for a film about the invasion of the dead into a city (inspired by Michael Jackson’s short film, Trailer). Taj said this film had not yet been made.

Code Z teaser

Kahan then moved on to Taj’s Twitter and what he had written about “Grease.” He asked whether Grease Rumba, Michael’s children’s nanny, was a trustworthy person. The answer was yes.

Kahan then showed a tweet from Taj in which he asked fans not to trust Roger Friedman’s news because he has a grudge against the Jacksons and, like Grease, Diamond, and Bashir, is among the people he finds disgusting.

After reading this tweet, which had been written in December 2011, Taj said:

“That Grease is different from the other one. That’s Nancy Grease.”

Laughter filled the courtroom.

Taj’s testimony ended, and then Arthur Erck, an official accountant since 1978 who testifies as an expert for the Jacksons in this case, took the stand. He handles the stars’ finances, especially in the area of music, and he also has 10 clients in the sports of rugby and baseball.

The Jackson family asked him to estimate the financial damages caused by Michael’s death for presentation in court. These damages stem from the failure to realize plans such as the tour, the sale of items, guarantees and promotions, royalties, and a show that Michael wanted to stage in Las Vegas based on the story of Neverland.

Source: eMJey.com / AP & ABC7