A Blueprint for the (Laughable)Case Against Jackson?

Source: Roger Friedman
My sources tell me that Santa Barbara District Attorney Tom Sneddon used his 1993 case against Michael Jackson as a blueprint for the current one.

In fact, in legal papers summarized on TheSmokingGun.com, it appears that some of the actual wording from the '93 case worked its way into the latest one.

Sneddon, my sources say, based most of his first complaint against Jackson last winter on the '93 case, using it as a comparison and a foundation until he could dig up more current evidence. Interestingly, testimony ascribed to the mother of the boy — we'll call her Janet X — in the new case sounds like exact same complaints from the parents in the '93 case.

According to The Smoking Gun: "The boy's mother said that, during 2001, she complained to Jackson about the length of his telephone chats with her son — and that Jackson was upset with her criticism. Asked by investigators about her recollections of those calls, she said that her son mentioned things that struck her as 'peculiar.' For instance, Jackson's favorite color was the same as her son's favorite color. And 'whatever [her son] liked, Michael liked as well.'"

Jackson's defense attorneys may be able to dredge up almost the exact wording from articles and books about the boy in the 1993 case and his parents' fears. They could point out that Janet X and her military boyfriend, now her husband, could have studied those stories and statements by the parents of the first boy.

Similar anecdotes, for example, can be found in "All That Glitters," the self-published book by the first boy's uncle Ray Chandler. Stories that are themselves re-lived from previous incarnations.

The Smoking Gun people have done an incredible job of piecing together affidavits, warrants and testimony previously unavailable or redacted in the latest case. But even their writers seem incredulous about some things offered by Jackson's teen accuser and his brother, who is a year younger. For example, the brothers claimed to officials the reason why they couldn't pinpoint any dates or times was because "there are no clocks or calendars at Neverland. It's a like a sealed Las Vegas casino."

In fact, The Smoking Gun writers point out that there's a huge outdoor clock right in the middle of the estate. My own sources laughed when I read them this part of the boys' accusations.

"There are clocks everywhere, everyone has watches and there are calendars in the offices. There's a big clock in the kitchen" where the accusing boy and his brother gave their famous TV interview to Martin Bashir, a source said.

This entire latest "scoop" drawn from so-far-unseen material is indeed not very revealing. Most of it has been "scooped" a long time ago, either in this column or sometimes in the tabloids. What does seem odd is that the grand jury, presented with no opposing evidence from the defense, believed everything it heard without questioning. In one instance, they were told that Jackson showed the boys a laptop computer and immediately went to a pornographic Web site.

"It was the kids who went to the websites. Michael was busy elsewhere. The kids knew exactly where to go," my source, who was there, said.

One thing the documents do confirm: Jackson had no contact with the family in 2001. The stated reason was because the boy was having treatments for cancer, which was already in remission. But my sources remind us that in 2001 Jackson was busy making and releasing his Invincible album, preparing and executing his 30th Anniversary solo shows at Madison Square Garden and his subsequent debacle of a charity single, "What More Can I Give?"

If the family was so important to Jackson and he was busy cultivating the oldest one as a victim, why weren't they invited to New York for the concerts and all the surrounding hoopla?

Indeed, during 2001, the family was busy being entertained by Chris Rock and Brett Ratner on the set of "Rush Hour 2," and later in the year, accepting gifts and charity from the Los Angeles Police Department — all of which was first chronicled in this column.

There are more glaring inconsistencies in the papers examined by The Smoking Gun, and I suppose it will take spin doctors on both sides to explain them to us. For example, why didn't Janet X stop Jackson when she saw him licking the top of her head's son on an airplane. Why didn't she berate him or mention it again?

Or, how is it that the younger boy, who seems to be the eyewitness and mouthpiece for the family, gained the nickname of "Blowhole"? The answer, say my sources, who have photographic evidence, is not sexual. It's because the kid was so fat they compared him to a blowfish.

There's more, but much more, and that's what's going to prove interesting as the case moves ahead now to trial: whether this is all the material the prosecution has, and if it can hold up to scrutiny in court.