Vital [Jackson] Video Tapes May Be Missing – Fox

[b]Vital [Jackson] Video Tapes May Be Missing[/b] Monday, March 07, 2005 By Roger Friedman Something’s wrong in the world of Michael Jackson evidence. It has to do with the 40-minute video, shown to the jury last week, in which the accuser and his family defend Jackson. My sources say the version the jury saw was incomplete, with 30 to 50 minutes of material missing. They also insist that the original footage was shot on Betamax tape; the jury was shown a DVD. The entire video was shot overnight on Feb. 19 to 20, 2003 by Jackson’s videographers, Hamid Moslehi and Christian Robinson. They used two cameras and three or four 30-minute tapes. One camera was always kept running as other camera’s tape was being changed, creating a “B-roll” that the jury did not see. The supposition is either that Moslehi had already removed some tapes before his office was raided by Santa Barbara County investigators, or that the prosecution showed the jury an edited version without explanation. No mention was made in court of a motion to show an edited video, however. Additionally, I am told that Moslehi tried to sell videotape of the family to various networks and half-hour syndicated entertainment shows after the raid. According to my source, “[one of the major networks] was about to pay a lot of money for them.” The deal fell through when Judge Rodney Melville stopped Moslehi from doing so. The missing tapes would have shown more footage of the family, my source says, “fooling around and having a good time.” This would be in stark contrast to the family’s claim that it was coerced into making statements it didn’t believe. What’s missing from the original footage, my sources believe, is everything shot between the questions that were asked and lots of “backstage” material, all of which would be positive for the defense. Some of the footage could show the mother’s then-boyfriend, now husband, U.S. Army Major Jay Jackson. “If they play the rest of the tapes, wherever they are, you’ll see the mother coaching the kids telling them what to say, not the filmmakers telling them. But [defense attorney] Tom Mesereau may not know this,” a source said. The tapes also would show videographer Robinson asking the family, “If Michael’s a bad guy, tell me.” The family members respond that they know they can say this if they wish to, but decline in favor of extolling the singer’s virtues. Source: [url=http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,149603,00.html]http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,149603,00.html[/url]