HARVEY ON WHY MIJAC IS INNOCENT – EURWEB.COM

[b]HARVEY ON WHY MIJAC IS INNOCENT: Comic questions accusers’ settlements in lieu of prosecution.[/b] December 20, 2004 *During interviews Saturday for his forthcoming film “Racing Stripes,” we got a chance to sit down with comedian Steve Harvey and talk some serious Michael Jackson. Harvey is one of the King of Pop’s most vocal supporters in the singer’s fight against child molestation charges, hinging his firm belief in Jackson’s on the accusers’ willingness to accept money, rather than going after Jackson in court. “See here’s the deal, if you rape my son, my son, you can’t give me no money,” affirms Harvey. “I want you. You can’t buy me out. And real men and real people who have real families feel that way. If somebody molests your daughter, you’re not buying none of that. That’s how real people are. So how all of a sudden is some money gonna buy them off? “You don’t get the whole 20 [million],” he continues. “The lawyer’s gonna get half of that. Then by the time you pay the taxes, you understand where you’re at? You sayin’, ‘So it’s okay to rape my son for $2 million?’ That’s how I know it’s fake; it’s just about money. Because real parents love their children so [much], that you can’t do nothing to them and get away with it. I want ass. You do something to my son, I’m getting’ yo’ ass. You not paying me off, I’m getting yo’ ass. Trust me. I want you to go to prison, so I can call some of my cats I know that’s down there so I can make your life hell for 14 years.” Harvey, who accompanied Jackson during his surprise visit to L.A.’s First AME Church days before the infamous Jackson-family-in-white court appearance, says he and the singer are friends, and talk on the phone two to three times a week. “He’s a different kind of guy. Got that,” Harvey says. “Would I have done some of the things he’s done in public? No. First of all, ain’t no kids comin’ to my house to play, because I’m 48. I ain’t got no eight-year-old buddies.” But Harvey feels those eight-year-olds are, indeed, just buddies to the Gloved One, and that District Attorney Tom Sneddon has trumped up the molestation charges against Jackson because the artist slipped through the state’s fingers in 1994, when the family of an 11-year-old boy accusing him of molestation a year earlier decided to settle out of court for an estimated $20 million. “The D.A. has a vendetta against him because he thinks he got away the first time,” says Harvey. “Michael Jackson just paid these people to leave him alone. Twenty million to you is a horrid amount of money. To Michael Jackson, it’s nothing. He paid them just to leave him alone. And they went away.” In the wake of the disparaging Eminem video “Just Lose It,” Jackson called into Steve Harvey’s morning show on 100.3 The Beat in Los Angeles to let off some steam. Harvey, who joined Michael in denouncing the video’s various digs at Michael’s molestation rumors and plastic surgery, said Jackson’s appearance on the show received mixed reviews from the fans. “Fifty percent of the faxes were, ‘It’s just a video, you shouldn’t feel that way,’” Harvey says. “Well see, it’s easy for you to say because the video ain’t about you. See, if you were in the video being depicted as a child molester, you would be as hurt as Michael Jackson, but see people forget that. “I just thought it was really unfair of Eminem because he’s in a custody battle for his child. He wants little Hailie and that’s beautiful, but you know Michael is fighting for his life and his children, but you so insensitive you gonna do a video about the man like this when he’s in the middle of a crisis.” When asked if he thought the charges and forthcoming court battle would serve as a death knell for his recording career, Harvey said: “‘Over’ for Michael is different from [over] for everybody else. Michael’s last album sold over two, three million copies. It was considered a failure. That’s because he done sold 40 million. Anybody else sell three million albums, it’s party time at the house. It’s over for Michael as far as the numbers he used to do, but nobody else is gonna sell 40 million because of Napster anyway.” Source: http://www.eurweb.com/story.cfm?id=17921