S1: Episode 3. The Chandler Allegations Part 2--The Settlement
- dueprocess4all
- Oct 25, 2022
- 13 min read
Updated: Aug 12, 2023
In part 2 of the Chandler allegations, you’ll hear about the media frenzy after Jordan's allegation becomes public. Journalist Victor Gutierrez is interviewed by police and potentially biases them against Jackson at the outset of their investigation. District Attorney Tom Sneddon and police are convinced of Michael’s guilt before any real investigation begins and this conviction affects their police interviews. The Chandlers and their lawyers take thoughtfully planned out steps to pressure Jackson into settling the civil lawsuit that's filed in September 1993. The episode concludes by covering Jackson’s settlement with the Chandlers.
In later court documents, Ray Chandler reveals that he moved in with Evan to start working on his book in August 1993, when the Chandler allegations went public. Because the majority of the book is from Evan's perspective and because it's written dramatically with lots of dialogue, many, including myself, suspect it is largely ghostwritten by Evan.
Here are those court documents
Hughes is the paralegal working for Chandler's lawyer, Barry Rothman, during the time of the Chandler scandal. She reports seeing Jordan Chandler alone in Rothman's office for hours before he ever went to the authorities.
PBS special about how the unprecedented public interest in the Chandler story trumped the journalist’s duty to fact-check. Some quotes from the documentary: "It was the biggest story of my career. And I'm ashamed of it." Also, "We'll take a shred of evidence and try and turn it into a story."
In this article, journalist Howard Rosenburg criticizes how the line between respected media outlets and the tabloids was dissolved because of the Michael Jackson story. Here's some excerpts from the article:
"If there ever was much of a line separating many so-called legitimate news organizations from the yellowest of tabloids in the 1990s, the Michael Jackson Media Caper is the howitzer that’s blasting it into oblivion. All across the globe, Inquiring Minds are having a heyday.
The defining volley arguably came Wednesday when “CBS News This Morning” anchor Paula Zahn was called upon to seek the real scoop about the ALLEGED scandal from Diane Dimond, star reporter of dubious distinction for the syndicated Hard Copy. That’s right, the CBS News source list is now headed by one of the most aggressively shoddy and dishonest programs on the air.
Zahn to Dimond: 'Was there any suggestion that other children were involved?' And later: 'We heard some stories that some photos were involved, too. Have you heard anything about that?' Dimond said she “was workin’ on that angle,” but it appeared that Zahn and CBS News executives would have to be patient and watch Hard Copy themselves to find out just what she had up her sleeve.
Rehashing the granite-inscribed allegations about Jackson and a 13-year-old youth would serve no good purpose here, but suffice to say that CBS News gave Dimond the V.I.P. treatment, in effect legitimizing Hard Copy while undermining its own credibility."
These are their guidelines for best practice when interviewing potential child sex abuse victims.
Here are some excerpts:
"Although investigators have the statement of a 13-year-old who says he was molested by Jackson over a period of months, sources say their probe has been hampered by a shortage of physical or medical evidence linking Jackson to sexual molestation. Videotapes seized during the Aug. 21 searches of two homes belonging to Jackson did not produce evidence that would support a criminal filing against the entertainer, says a well-placed police source."
"Film industry sources have said that the boy’s father sought a $20-million movie production and financing deal with Jackson."
"Meanwhile, authorities continued to reel under the crush of publicity that has accompanied the Jackson investigation. Unauthorized news leaks have bedeviled investigators probing the case since it broke early this week, and their task at controlling information has been made even harder by the willingness of some media outlets to pay for information."
Excerpts:
"Videotapes seized from homes belonging to Michael Jackson do not incriminate the entertainer, and the lack of physical evidence of alleged sexual molestation has left investigators “scrambling” to get statements from other potential victims, a high-ranking police source said Thursday."
“There’s no medical evidence, no taped evidence,” the source said. “The search warrant didn’t result in anything that would support a criminal filing.”
"The criminal investigation of Jackson grew out of the battle between the former husband and wife. Despite reports that police are investigating other possible victims, most public attention has focused on the 13-year-old boy and his estranged parents. Copies of the boy’s interview by police and social workers were obtained by The Times, and they include detailed, graphic descriptions of alleged sexual advances by Jackson.
They also include a passage describing what the boy said was a meeting between him, his father, Jackson and lawyers for the entertainer in which the boy’s father tried to settle the case without going to court. Other sources said the boy’s father tried to cut a $20-million deal with Jackson, and a private investigator has said the case has grown out of an extortion attempt."
News coverage describes the lack of evidence from raids, and also quotes employees (8:50) inside Neverland describing an open and innocent environment.
Interview with Victor Guitierrez where he makes clear his pro-pedophilia positions:
Article by Robert Sandall – Michael Jackson Was My Lover (British GQ Magazine, September 2006) Gutierrez says he went undercover with the LAPD to attend the NAMBLA conference.
(if this link doesn't take you to the article directly, you can search for the name "Victor Gutierrez" on this news site, and you will then see the "Es war Liebe!" article pop up.)
This article is in German. Gutierrez asserts in the article that Chandler and Jackson were a "couple," "had sex," and were "intimate". Gutierrez claims that he was "supposed to report" on a NAMBLA conference in 1986, and when at the conference, he heard about using Michael Jackson as a poster boy for pedophilia to improve social acceptance. Gutierrez says he quits his job and runs out of money while chasing the Jackson story. He talks about connecting with Jackson employees. He also says in the article, "Michael Jackson and Jordie Chandler were happy in the five months of their relationship. It was love." Gutierrez claims he's "not allowed" to say how he got Jordan Chandler's diary. There was never a diary entered into evidence in the Chandler case, and Gutierrez is the only one to ever claim seeing it. The Chandlers never claim that Jordan wrote a diary. Gutierrez is quoted in the article: “In a hundred years, such relationships may be socially recognized,” . Gutierrez says the story reminds him of Oscar Wilde and his young lover Bosi.
This article makes it clear that Gutierrez himself is promoting pro-pedophilia themes.
History of Die Tageszeitung:
Jan Fleischhauer and Wiebke Hollersen –The Sexual Revolution and Children, How the Left Took Things Too Far (Der Spiegel, July 2, 2010)
The reports are by an undercover agent.
Hamer explains how he requested an invitation to NAMBLA’s 2002 conference but was denied because he had not been a member for a long enough period of time. This evidence goes against Gutierrez claiming he can just attend a meeting as a reporter.:
Open Source version of book (Gutierrez thanks NAMBLA on p.214)
Testimony by Ralph Chacon and Adrian McManus
This testimony includes their confirmation that they talked to Victor Gutierrez before going to the tabloids with their stories of witnessing molestation:
Abdool was friends with Chacon and was part of the Neverland 5 lawsuit against Jackson. He also testifies that he spoke with Victor Guterriez before selling tabloid stories
Ray calls Victor Gutierrez a "sleazebag"in his media interview, and doesn't endorse Gutierrez's book:
"One of those interviewed was Victor Gutierrez, a Southern California free-lance journalist who has been working on a book about Jackson for several years. Gutierrez spoke to LAPD officers for two hours Thursday and was interviewed again Friday.He would not disclose what transpired during those sessions, but he told The Times that he has interviewed for his book some of the same youngsters being sought for questioning by the LAPD."
"Suddenly, no one would touch him."
The Chandlers file a $30 million dollar lawsuit
This story is most logically fed by Evan Chandler. This same scene is in Evan Chandler's book, even though June chandler in her testimony refutes that she observed anything inappropriate in the limo.
The Chandlers' lawyer, Larry Feldman, gives a copy of Jordan's declaration to the Associated Press and then files it under seal. This aligns with Evan's strategy to get the story out as big as he could. It also contradicts his later excuse of "not wanting the publicity" when defending their choice to not participate in the criminal case to put Jackson in jail.
In Ray Chandler’s book, All That Glitters, Hard Copy reporter Diane Dimond is identified as Evan Chandler’s “closest ally”. [page 194].
Dr. Katz was hired by Chandler lawyer Larry Feldman to review the psychiatrist interview by Dr. Gardner. We never see Dr. Gardner's conclusions, which are suspiciously omitted from the posting on Jordan's interview:
Here are excerpts:
"Slowly, begrudgingly, more and more people are beginning to recognize that the charges against the McMartin preschool are without foundation. Even more important, the cause of this tragedy is also being acknowledged in some circles. Others, however, despite being in a position to see how the hoax developed, refuse to face up to the truth.
If the allegations are not true, why would the children say they have not only been sexually abused, but have also been exposed to rituals involving animal slaughter and even murder? The answer is both simple and terrible. They were trained. Trained first by the "experts" our law enforcement agencies trustingly allowed to "evaluate" the children and then by therapists hired to treat them.
Based on my own viewing of videotapes of 46 children in the McMartin case, I can state categorically that the children were in every single session outrageously manipulated by their interviewers. During the past five years, I have studied about 700 hours of audio- or videotapes in cases of alleged child sexual abuse. All too many show a pattern of interviewing techniques aimed at getting a child to admit abuse rather than to find out if any has occurred.
None, however, were as systematically manipulative as those done in the McMartin case. In each and every session a pattern emerges in which the children are alternately prodded and charmed, cajoled and tricked, until they finally give the interviewer what he or she wants, some 'yucky secrets.'"
Excerpt:
“I am advised that your officers have told frightened youngsters outrageous lies, such as, ‘We have nude photos of you’ in order to push them into making accusations against Mr. Jackson,” lawyer Bertram Fields wrote in an Oct. 28 letter to Police Chief Willie L. Williams. “There are, of course, no such photos of these youngsters, and they have no truthful accusations to make. But your officers appear ready to employ any device to generate potential evidence against Mr. Jackson.”
Tape of Corey Feldman’s police interrogation from December 1993
Released on Celebrity Justice in 2004 or 2005
In this interview , Feldman says Jackson was innocent, but tells police the names of 2 men who did molest him, who were later convicted of child molestation. Feldman will later say investigators were only interested in pressuring him to say something incriminating about Jackson.:
Yoshi (Levine) Whaley is the son of Jackson's assistant on the Bad Tour. Yoshi visited his mom on tour when he was about 11 in 1988, and spent some time hanging out with Jackson. In his deposition for Wade Robson's lawsuit, he says police came to his home in 1993 without his parents present and that police lied and tried to pressure him into saying something incriminating about Jackson. Levine defends Michael Jackson and says he never did anything to him.
When the police pressured him to “remember” wrongdoings by Jackson, he told them, “If I don’t remember, I don’t remember.”
Det. Neglia: "I realize how hard this is. I realize how painful it is to think of these things you tried so hard not to think about but you are doing fine. And you are also helping the kid that he is bothering now." Francia: What do you mean he’s bothering? Det. Bircham: He’s doing the same thing. Francia: Macaulay Culkin? Det. Neglia: Only he’s getting a lot more into it. Like your mother pulled you out of there. Macaulay’s mother is not going to pull him out of there. They are feeding him. Det. Birchim: He’s doing worse stuff. Det. Neglia: It’s much worse with him.”
They told Francia that Corey Feldman had drug problems because Jackson molested him:
Det. Neglia: He’s a junkie now, he gets arrested, he doesn’t act or anything. He gets high. He packs his nose with cocaine and he’s going to die by the time he is 22 years old. Jason Francia: How old is he? Det. Neglia: About 21. But that’s the kind of life he is living, and it’s got to do with being exposed to people like this, and having nobody to protect them and to take them out. Det. Birchim: Like you had your mom. Det. Neglia: Like your mom pulled you out, and you’re, you’re candid, and you’re (sic) honesty with us is going to help us. To pull the next kid out, it might even be too late for Macauly (sic) already. But these kids that he’s traveling with are on tour right now. Maybe we can pull them out of it… “
See page 4892 of Jason Francia's trial testimony for his 1993 statements about being around "too many people", when asked if he was ever touched inappropriately at Neverland, and his statements that he wasn't sure if Jackson even touched him inappropriately at all at the arcade.
"Nothing contaminates a forensic interview of a child as much as a bias that prompts someone to become a 'validator' on a mission to extract information necessary to successfully prosecute the accused. They ignore or reject all information that doesn’t fit in with their preconception of the case and focus the interview toward getting information to support charges against the accused. They ignore children’s exculpatory statements because their sole mission is confirm the allegations, not to elicit the child’s own statements."
"A common and severe problem for forensic interviewers is the danger of becoming jaded. Interviewers who become involved in these cases will, over time, build a set of prejudices based on their experiences. This causes them to project their past experiences into the contemporary interview. As well-intentioned as the individual interviewers may be, by filtering how they conduct a forensic interview based on their extensive past experience, they are likely to contaminate the present interview by confirmatory bias."
The guidelines emphasize the importance of open-ended questions, and the danger of closed-ended and suggestive questions.
Guidelines recommend avoiding leading and suggestive questioning, and to be careful of preconceived ideas going into the interview.
Havenhurst was the Jackson Family Home, where Michael Jackson lived before moving into Neverland Ranch in 1988.
The remaining dates of the tour are cancelled because Jackson developed a dependency on painkillers relating to his scalp surgery and worsened by the stress of the allegations.
Jackson's medical records confiscated
LaToya describes her abusive relationship with Jack Gordon, who took over managing her career from her father, and then married her in order to completely control her life. She describes how Gordon would keep her locked in her room and physically abused her.
Roger Friedman’s article about the Newt family being offered money lie and allege salacious stories about Jackson. The conversation between the Newts and tabloid broker Jim Mitteager were recorded by Mitteager. "Say he grabbed you on the butt. Say he grabbed you and touched you in any kind of way." The Newts turned down the offer.
Adrian McManus’ testimony at Michael Jackson’s 2005 trial
This article also references how Jackson's request to have the criminal case before the civil case was rejected.
Francia testifies that she was paid $20,000 from Hard Copy for her salacious stories about Michael Jackson, which was larger than her annual salary. She gives conflicting stories about whether she saw one or two figures in the shower. She testifies that she brought her son to work with her after allegedly seeing the shower scene.
This late submission demonstrates that Sneddon did not want the description to get in the hands of Jackson's defense.
More analyses of whether or not there was a match
This declaration was leaked to the press on December 28, 1993, which inflamed the media and stirred suspicions about Jackson's guilt. It appears to be part of the Chandler plan to push for settlement.
Chandler Settlement on January 25, 1994
Garcetti states that the criminal case is not affected by the Chandler settlement and that the alleged victim is allowed to testify.
He says, "Nobody's bought anybody's silence," referring to the Chandlers' freedom to testify in a criminal trial after the settlement.
Research shows how settlements predominate in civil cases.
Why settle a civil suit, even in cases of innocence
Thanks to the following sources, which helped guide my research
These sources have collected documents and analyzed the sex abuse cases against Michael Jackson over many years:
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