Diane Dimond’s Suspicious Involvement? – MJEOL Bullet #54 REPOST

[b]Diane Dimond’s Suspicious Involvement? – MJEOL Bullet #54[/b] REPOST [i]Initially posted Jan 2 2004[/i] In a new [url=http://forum.mjeol.com/index.php?showtopic=12592]article from David Bauder[/url] of the Associated press, it is revealed that Jackson “news” reporter and tabloid writer Diane Dimond went to Court TV chairman Henry Schleiff months before the police raided Michael Jackson’s Neverland Ranch. According to the report, she told Schleiff she was “working on a great story,” and asked him to foot the bill by committing “money and manpower to help dig it out.” Some have already found it incredibly strange that she was the sole reporter to break this current story, as well as being the first source for information about an arrest warrant, which no other reporter or news agency could independently verify before District Attorney Tom Sneddon’s first press conference confirming it. It appears rather odd in retrospect that Dimond would be the only one privy to such information. Dimond has long been rumored to be a mouthpiece for the prosecution. In fact, it was reported here earlier that many observers have noticed a very close “relationship” between the media—in particular, Dimond—and the District Attorney. During that now infamous press conference by Sneddon and Sheriff Anderson (see [url=http://forum.mjeol.com/index.php?showtopic=10663&hl=]transcript[/url]), the following exchange occurred:

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SNEDDON: Are you aware of other civil cases that have been handled outside of the media since 1993 that were kept quiet? ANDERSON: Not to my knowledge. QUESTION: Really? ANDERSON: Yes. SNEDDON: Well, I am. QUESTION: How many? SNEDDON: Ask Diane, she knows everything about Michael Jackson. [LAUGHTER]

If it seems ridiculously odd that Sneddon would refer a question of that magnitude to a tabloid reporter—the same reporter once sued by Jackson, the same reporter ‘breaking’ stories, and the same reporter scorned from 1993—then you are not alone. Sneddon also claimed he wouldn’t do any interviews about this case. Yet soon after the press conference, Court TV broadcasted a sit-down interview with, you guessed it, tabloid reporter Diane Dimond, herself. Now with this new AP report, the questions and speculations are continuing to roll in. Some observers have questioned whether or not Dimond, and others, approached this family after the Bashir documentary in hopes they would levy allegations against Jackson. If Dimond was working on this story, and needed money and resources to help her “dig it out,” one has to wonder what her role is in making it come to fruition. Dimond does have a well-documented history for seeking out alleged “victims” of Michael Jackson. When she was still working with the now defunct tabloid TV show Hard Copy, Dimond was chasing a story that completely blew up in her face. Some time after the 1993 allegations, there was a “street kid” in Canada claiming to have been “molested” by Michael Jackson. Instead of going to the police, his alleged guardian wrote a letter to Diane Dimond. Dimond flew all the way to Toronto to get this kid’s very elaborate and highly researched story. Like the family now, he too claimed he only wanted “justice.” Dimond, of course, took the bait, got his “confessions” on camera, and took him to the authorities so he could “tell his story.” As it turned out, the kid was being fed very detailed lies from a Jackson-obsessed nut named Rodney Allen, who felt it was his mission to make Michael Jackson “pay” for some imagined wrong done to him. Rodney Allen, the “guardian” writing the letters to Hard Copy, admitted on camera he fed the information to the child and made the kid lie over and over again to both Dimond and the authorities at first. After the kid was questioned for hours by the police, he finally admitted he lied about the entire situation from beginning to end. It could have turned into another international scandal akin to this current one:

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(begin videotape) Diane Dimond, Hard Copy: I care about this one kid who gave me all sorts of information about Neverland, about Havenhurst, about Disneyland, about Michael Jackson’s body. Where did he get all that information? Allen: He got it from me. Dimond: You planted all this stuff in this kid’s head? Allen: I didn’t plant it in his head. He was asking questions. I answered them the best I can. I told him what I could tell him about the place because I want Michael to face it. Dimond: So this kid is an A-1, number one liar? Allen: Professional. (end videotape) Dimond voiceover: The whole story was a scam. A Toronto street kid meets a man obsessed with the Michael Jackson case, and the results could have been an international scandal. Meanwhile, back at the police station the boy finally broke down. He admitted that he and Rodney Allen had made up the whole story. (begin videotape) Dimond: The young boy was lying? Det. Darryl Campbell: That’s my belief. And as a result of that, he was charged, yes. Dimond: Can you tell us what he was charged with? Campbell: Public mischief. (end videotape) Dimond: Well the boy is still in custody tonight. And police continue their investigation of Mr. Rodney Allen.

In an effort to save face, Dimond pretended to be a victim in the entire scam when she turned in her report to Hard Copy. You can view the video of the entire Hard Copy story for yourself here: :4pinnedhttp://www.cmjfc.ca/scam.rm or here at MJEOL: :4pinned http://site.mjeol.com/dimondscam.rm Dimond herself has already begun to see the “rewards” of her Jackson scoops, whether they turn out to be true or false. Despite heavily pushing a false story about “love letters”, which turned out to be from a [url=http://site.mjeol.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=319]London tabloid[/url], she’s been given a promotion: hosting her own show on Court TV called Hollywood At Large. Many people thought she dropped off the face of the earth after the first Jackson scandal in 1993. This resurrection has been rather surprising. She has also admitted to knowing the accuser from 1993 as well. Thus, she does have a history of seeking out scam artists who have leveled abuse allegations against Jackson. So what does all of this mean? It may mean that both the public and Jackson’s defense team should look at the peculiar coincidences surrounding Dimond’s involvement with these allegations of abuse, if they haven’t already done so. The close “relationship”, whatever its nature, between she, the district attorney, and the sheriff’s department, is highly problematic because it calls into question the motives of the prosecution. Given her history of being scammed concerning molestation allegations against Jackson, one would hope she learned her lesson. I guess not. Stay tuned. -MJEOL