Michael Jackson (80 page)

‘Oh, and one more thing,’ Evan said, pointing to the singer. ‘I’m going to ruin you,’ he said. ‘You’re going down, Michael.
You are going
down
.’

Finally, Michael and Anthony were alone. ‘Oh, my God,’ Michael said after a few moments. He now looked drained and pale, as
if in shock. He rose from his chair and gazed out the window. ‘Oh, my God,’ he said, again, tears now streaming down his face.
‘Oh, my God.’

The ‘smoking gun’ letter by Beverly Hills psychiatrist Dr Mathis Abrams, which Evan Chandler had produced at the meeting with
Michael Jackson, was solicited by Evan’s attorney, Barry Rothman. As it happened, Rothman had sought an expert’s opinion in
order to establish what may have transpired between Michael and his client’s son Jordie. During a telephone conversation with
Dr Abrams, Rothman explained the evidence he thought he had against Michael, presenting the scenario as a purely hypothetical
situation. Though Abrams didn’t even meet with Evan, Jordie or Michael, his opinion of what had transpired would be devastating.
After the telephone conversation with Barry Rothman Dr Abrams wrote the letter (dated 15 July 1993) in which he observed that,
at least based on what the lawyer had described, it sounded as if something sexual had transpired between the parties. He
also noted that if the incidents had occurred as explained by the lawyer, he would have no choice but to report the matter
to the Los Angeles County Department of Children’s Services.

After his father’s show-down with Michael, Jordie was more depressed than ever before in his young life. The thought that
he might now have to testify against Michael was more than he could bear. Before he went to bed, he drew what looked like
suicide art: a stick figure jumping off the roof of a five-storey building, and then landing in a bloody heap on the ground.

The next morning, when Evan went into Jordie’s room to say goodbye to him before going to work, he found the chilling drawing
on the floor. Jordie was still asleep. Evan wrote on the top of the paper: Don’t Let This Happen, underlining each word. He
then put the drawing back where he found it. Turning to leave he changed his mind and decided to take the drawing. It would
become evidence of Jordie’s state of mind.

The next evening Evan and Barry Rothman met with Anthony Pellicano. ‘They put their cards on the table,’ recalled Anthony.
‘Twenty million. That’s what they wanted.’

In fact, Evan wanted the total sum of twenty million dollars to be deposited in an interest-bearing account. Five million
would then be paid out to Jordie in four instalments over a four-year period. ‘Maybe that amount of money will teach Michael
Jackson not to abuse any more children,’ Evan explained to Anthony. It’ll pay for Jordie’s education, for psychiatric evaluation.
Some will be donated for child abuse foundations. I’ll be able to retire and spend more time with my son and help him through
this time. If not, then fine. We’ll have a trial and see how that goes.’

Though Anthony felt sure Michael wouldn’t consider paying a single dime to the Chandlers, he was duty bound to pass the offer
on to his client.

Evan had already hand-written a letter to his attorney, Barry Rothman (dated 5 August), outlining his intention if Michael
decided not to pay the twenty million. In the missive, he explained that one of the reasons he had hoped to avoid a trial
was because he realized the devastating impact it would have on Michael’s career. ‘I believed that Michael was a kind, sensitive,
compassionate person who made a mistake in judgement born out of an honest love for Jordie,’ he wrote. ‘I now know I was wrong.’

Evan then recounted his version of the events that took place at the meeting with Jordie, Michael and Anthony Pellicano. He
wrote that Jordie had acknowledged that he [Evan] had evidence that Michael had sexually assaulted him. (Anthony Pellicano,
however, says that Jordie never said anything at that meeting about Michael having molested him.) ‘Michael responded with
a cold, mocking smile that you often see on the face of criminals who proclaim their innocence even in the face of irrefutable
proof of their guilt,’ Evan wrote. ‘It was a chilling sight. He showed no sign of remorse for his actions and he was completely
indifferent to Jordie’s suffering.’

Evan then opined that if Michael were to see a psychiatrist, it would surely be determined that he is a paedophile. Therefore,
Evan wrote, he had no sympathy for Michael whatsoever, and no interest in protecting him from prosecution. In fact, he wrote,
he now believed that Michael should be jailed to prevent him from sexually assaulting other minors. He added that he believed
that Michael’s incarceration would be the inevitable result of any investigation by the District Attorney, and that if Jordie
would need to be called as a witness, he would eagerly testify against Michael. Jordie would only have to tell the truth,
Evan wrote, perhaps not taking into consideration the emotional ordeal such gut-wrenching testimony might exact on his son.

‘I would like you to continue to negotiate with Mr Pellicano,’ Evan concluded, ‘but if those negotiations are not successful
then as your client I am instructing you to file a complaint against Michael Jackson for the sexual assault against my son.’
In a postscript, he wrote of the drawing he had found in Jordie’s bedroom. ‘I thought you should see it,’ he wrote. ‘I’m very
frightened. One way or the other, please get this over with as quickly as possible.’ He enclosed a copy of Jordie’s drawing.

When Anthony presented Evan’s offer to Michael, the reply was swift: ‘No way,’ he said. ‘We have a love that’s pure and eternally
innocent. I’m not gonna ruin it by paying that man money. No way in hell.’

On 13 August, Anthony offered Evan a counter-offer, with Michael’s approval: three film scripts over a three-year-period,
each valued at $350,000, in a million-dollar-plus deal that would have attached to it the promise that a major studio would
review any script Evan and Jordie may write as a follow up to their Mel Brooks movie. Not only did it sound speculative to
Evan and Barry Rothman, it was also a small amount of money considering their original multimillion-dollar demand. ‘You guys
aren’t even in the ball park,’ Evan told Anthony. ‘Pass.’ Then, oddly, Evan asked Anthony if Jordie could take possession
of the computer Michael had purchased for him, and which he had set up at his Los Angeles hide-out. Anthony couldn’t believe
Evan’s gall. Michael had never bought that computer for Jordie, he answered quickly (though it seems doubtful Anthony even
knew what Evan was talking about) and Jordie. would never see it again, ‘so forget about it.’ Evan stormed out of the office.

The next day, Barry Rothman proposed a counter-offer to Anthony Pellicano: a deal for three screenplays that would amount
to about fifteen million dollars. Through Anthony, Michael declined the counter-offer. Then, inexplicably, Anthony came back
with another offer so low he didn’t even expect Evan to take it: $350,000 for
one
film deal, to be paid directly out of Michael’s pocket. He had gone from an offer of three movies down to one… not the best
of negotiating tactics, one might argue. Of course, Evan turned it down. He now felt that the discussions were being conducted
in bad faith, and that there was little point in continuing them.

With all battles now seemingly lost, the war was about to begin.

On 16 August 1993, after negotiations broke down between Evan Chandler and Anthony Pellicano, Michael Freeman (June’s attorney)
alerted everyone that he was going to petition the court to demand that Evan return Jordie to his mother. June didn’t know
what to make of the discussions between Evan and Anthony Pellicano. If Evan was certain Michael Jackson had molested Jordie,
why was he trying to extract twenty million dollars from him instead of reporting him to the proper authorities? She began
to question Evan’s motives; she wanted her son back. A court date was then set to determine who would have custody of Jordie.

However, Evan did not want to return Jordie to June, no matter how a judge might rule. He felt sure that she would simply
hand him right over to Michael Jackson. They would live happily ever after at Neverland, he feared, and he would never see
his son again.

Not knowing what course of action to take, and feeling pressured to do something, Evan made an appointment for Jordie with
Dr Mathis Abrams, the psychiatrist who provided the letter in which he speculated that, based on the hypothetical case proposed
by the attorney, sexual abuse had occurred. He told the doctor that the case wasn’t imaginary, after all, and that it actually
involved his own son and Michael Jackson. Evan realized that once Abrams met with Jordie, the real drama would most certainly
begin. After all, the doctor would be required to file a report with the authorities, which would be the end of any confidentiality
where the matter of Jordie and Michael was concerned. However, as he later would tell it, Evan felt pressured to protect his
son, and if it meant sacrificing Michael Jackson then that was a small price to pay, especially since negotiations with him
had ended so badly.

At the hearing, on 17 August 1993, Evan’s attorney agreed that Jordie would be returned to June by seven o’clock that night.
In fact he was stalling for time – he had no intention of returning Jordie to his ex-wife. At the very hour of the hearing,
Jordie was meeting with the psychiatrist.

During a gruelling, three-hour session with the doctor, Jordie told of many incidents of masturbation and oral sex with Michael
Jackson. In fact, he claimed, he and Michael had been having sex for months.

Just as expected, the psychiatrist reported everything Jordie said direcdy to the Department of Children’s Services. Within
hours, the youngster was interviewed by a caseworker with the Los Angeles County Department of Children’s Services and an
officer with the Los Angeles Police Department.

The caseworker’s eleven-page, hand-written report began with a description of how Evan and Michael met, when Michael’s car
broke down. Jordie said that he and Michael became friends and that Michael would telephone him almost every day for ‘long
conversations about video games’. The conversations continued, he said, even when Michael was on tour. In February (1993)
and in succeeding weeks, Michael began seeing more of him and his mother, June. He bought toys for Jordie and took him, June
and his half-sister, Lily, to Las Vegas. There, Jordie recalled, they watched
The Exorcist
. The film frightened Jordie, he said, and that night he slept in the same bed as Michael – a pattern, he said, that was repeated
several times, including during visits to Neverland. During those initial encounters, however, sexual abuse was not alleged.
According to the report, at first Michael would merely ‘cuddle and kiss him [Jordie] on the cheek’. However, on one occasion
at the ranch while June slept in guest quarters and Michael and Jordie shared the same bed, the pop singer began to ‘rub up
against me’.

‘Over time,’ claimed Jordie in the report, ‘Michael graduated to kissing me on the mouth. One time, he was kissing me and
he put his tongue in my mouth. I said, “Don’t do that”. He started crying. I guess he tried to make me feel guilty.’ The report
then alleged that Michael told the boy their relationship was ‘meant to be’ and was ‘in the cosmos’.

According to the report, Michael’s relationship with Jordie became sexual when he took the family to Monaco, and then continued
to be sexual from that time, onward. The details Jordie provided were graphic.

Jordie also claimed that Michael had threatened that if he ever told anyone what had transpired between them, they would both
be in trouble and he [Jordan] would be sent to Juvenile Hall, a young offenders’ institution. ‘Minor also said Mr Jackson
told him about other boys he had done this with,’ wrote the investigator, ‘but did not go as far with them. Minor said Mr
Jackson tried to make him hate his mother and father, so that he could only go with Mr Jackson.’ The report ended with Jordie’s
wish to remain in his father’s custody, and his belief that his mother liked the ‘glitzy life’ that surrounded Michael.