Category: MJEOL BULLET

Trial Review: King and Viner tell Judge about Feldman’s Confession – MB#316

AUGUST 1 2006 – It has been over a year since Michael Jackson was acquitted on all false charges of child molestation by a conservative Santa Maria jury on June 13 2005.  Believe it or not, there are still members of the public who are and have been completely in the dark concerning details of and around the trial.

The day before yesterday, I received an email asking “Hey didn’t Larry King have something to do with the trial?” The requester wanted more information. And apparently, he isn’t the only one. 

With that in mind, MJEOL will pick up its Trial Review series because there is just so much information that was shallowly covered by the mainstream media or not covered at all.

This trial review deals with the non-jury testimonies of CNN talkshow host Larry King and Michael Viner, both of whom were present when civil attorney Larry Feldman (yeah, that Larry Feldman), made some startling comments about the accuser’s mother, Janet Arvizo. At last check, Arvizo was scheduled to go on trial for perjury and welfare fraud.

Phase Two in Jackson/Schaffel Civil Trial Set to Begin in Two Weeks – MB#315 JULY 17 2006 – A split verdict in the Schaffel v Jackson / Jackson v Schaffel civil trial came down Friday (July 14). The jury awarded Schaffel $900,000 and Jackson $200,000. Before this lawsuit, Michael Jackson’s financial managers found that Schaffel had yet to be paid roughly $472,000 for his cut from the profits of two Jackson specials which aired in Fox in Feb 2003. Many observer of the trial were on the verge of being completely stunned that Schaffel would get a dime over the approx. $500,000 he was initially owed considering the evidence presented by Jackson’s attorney, Thomas Mundell, detailing what looked like Schaffel’s numerous financial illegalities. The Judge split the case up into two phases. As it turns out, only one of Jackson’s claims against Schaffel was heard by the jury in the first phase. The rest of Jackson’s claims for damages are scheduled to be heard in approx 2 weeks by the Judge during the accounting phase.

Forensic Accountant Cites Invalid Money Claims – MB#314

JULY 13 2006 – The jury is now deliberating in the matter of the civil suit and counter-suit between Marc Schaffel and Michael Jackson. Now Schaffel only wants $1.4 million instead of $1.6 million, which itself was cut down from the initial asking of $3.8 million.

Before closing arguments began, forensic accountant Jan Goren testified to digging through Schaffel’s financial goings-on. The forensic accountant found out a lot of things about the way Schaffel was cooking the books, so to speak, in relation to the bank account filled with Jackson’s money which he controlled.

Schaffel Admits to Taking Money from Account after Firing – MB#313 JULY 12 2006 – There was explosive testimony July 10 in the civil trial between Michael Jackson and Marc Schaffel. Schaffel is suing Jackson and Jackson is countersuing him. Under questioning by Jackson attorney Thomas Mundell, Schaffel admitted to writing 18 checks to use Jackson’s money for his own personal use. If that weren’t bad enough, the checks were written AFTER he was terminated from Jackson’s direct employ in Nov 2001. It gets worse. The checks were backdated by Schaffel to cover the fact he was writing them after he was fired; essentially trying to conceal what appears to be the theft of this money. According to the testimony, he was sent a letter of termination which he received on Nov 15 2001. So what did he do afterwards? Wrote a bunch of checks and dated them for before Nov 15. These 18 checks were included in the total amount of over three quarters of a million dollars within in the larger amount of money Schaffel claimed Jackson owed him or promised to give him.

Pathetic Accusations from Schaffel as his Case Crumbles – MB#312 JULY 10 2006 – Marc Schaffel’s testimony in the suit/countersuit civil trial against Michael Jackson held in Santa Monica, California left much to be desired. Particularly, any type of verified documentation showing that he gave Jackson any loans anywhere near the amount he initially claimed he did. After a key ruling from the judge in the case, and probably seeing that Jackson’s attorney was tearing their “case” to shreds, Schaffel and his attorney slashed the amount of money they are trying to get by more than half. Now Schaffel only wants $1.6 million instead of the $3.8 million he originally sought. The attorney cross-examining Schaffel on Jackson’s behalf cornered Schaffel about monies he allegedly gave to Jackson. Possibly seeing his case crumble before his eyes, Schaffel played the ‘boy’ card by making an asinine, last minute allegation of helping Jackson adopt boys in Brazil. You can’t make this stuff up, people!

Tavasci Testifies in Jackson Civil Trial – MB#311 JULY 5 2006 – Evvy Tavasci testified June 30 2006 in the civil trial now taking place involving Marc Schaffel. Both Jackson and Schaffel are suing each other. Schaffel claims Jackson owes him over $3M. Jackson says Schaffel owes him money, engaged in self-serving side-dealing, kept false books of account, “concealed funds, commingled funds, misappropriated funds,” and wrongly profited from being associated with him (Jackson counter-sues former aid). Schaffel’s attorney is still presenting what little case he has. However, due to time scheduling conflicts, the Judge allowed Jackson attorney Thomas Mundell to call Evvy Tavasci to the stand early. Tavasci has known Jackson for 15 years. She became Jackson’s executive administrator and personal assistant in 1993. Though her contact with Jackson was “episodic”, she says Jackson is creative but he “doesn’t maintain a good memory for facts day to day” (pg 5 of Partial Court Transcript, lines 12-13).

Lawyer: Schaffel a Professional Swindler, Pornographer – MB#310 UPDATE
<i>Past reports and court docs shed light on Schaffel’s history</i>

JUNE 18 2006 – For a while now, the public has been treated to a one sided view of a case involving Michael Jackson and “professional swindler” Marc Schaffel.

It was big news when Schaffel filed a lawsuit against Jackson.  However, Jackson’s countersuit got very little if any coverage by broadcast and cable networks.

Jackson’s countersuit accuses Schaffel of concealing and commingling funds, misappropriating funds, providing false books of account, and wrongfully profiting from falsely associating himself with Jackson after he was dismissed as a business associate.

Since the lawsuit and countersuit, the public has been getting nothing but leaks from those associated with Schaffel. 

Interestingly enough, Jackson is far from the only person to make claims of being swindled by Schaffel.

JUNE 14 2006 – I have never been one to depend on the media to accurately report or review anything concerning Michael Jackson.  With yesterday (June 13 2006) being the one year anniversary of Jackson’s vindication by a non-black, conservative Santa Maria jury, I didn’t really expect the media to spend any time acknowledging the day.

Imagine my surprise as I flipped to MSNBC and caught a segment of the Allison Stewart-hosted show “The Most” where they mentioned the one year mark.  Since justice was served without a media-hoped-for “guilty” verdict, I expected to see a shallow, half-assed and rather short “review” of events about the trial. 

I was not disappointed.  It’s quite clear that some are still in total denial about the truth of the trial, and the truth of what was revealed about the allegations in court.

In the very few minutes discussed about the topic, Stewart and her guest — a male Access Hollywood bobblehead reporter — did everything but talk about the TRIAL.

Tabloid-addicted Media Bash Jackson, Downplay Fraud Case? – MB#308 The testimony of Mercy Dee Manrriquez and signed documents prove Arvizo committed welfare fraud and perjuy MAY 21 2006 – Janet Arvizo is set to stand trial on felony charges of welfare fraud and perjury. Arvizo, the mother of the kid who made false allegations of molestation against Michael Jackson, is claiming she isn’t guilty of committing the crimes as charged. Jackson was acquitted of all charges by the conservative Santa Maria jury almost a year ago. Arvizo appeared at a court hearing Friday (May 19 2006), waived her right to a preliminary hearing, and is set for arraignment on June 21 2006. Coincidentally, her trial is about two months before the Santa Barbara DA’s office is scheduled to go on trial for allegedly committing various acts of misconduct in an unrelated case. Never one to miss an opportunity to sit around like pitiful, gossipy hens, the ‘usual suspects’ – Jim Moret, Harvey Levin and Diane Dimond — appeared on Nancy (dis)Grace’s show to regurgitate damn near every unfounded or unsubstantiated piece of non-news they could find with the name ‘Jackson’ attached to it.

New York Times Dissecting Jackson’s Alleged Finances without Full Story – MB#307

MAY 13 2006 – When in hell did the amount of money Michael Jackson has in his pockets become a subject of superficial and allegedly in-depth discussion worthy of attention from the New York Times?

According to an article in the New York Times, carried by the International Herald Tribune, the media entity is trying to cover a story for which they can only get one side. Jackson obviously isn’t sharing any of his financial information with them, nor should he.

What’s incredibly lame about this latest round of regurgitated assumptions is that the NYT has chosen to cover it when lesser-respected news outlets have already covered and re-covered….and re-covered it. Instead, they choose to focus on the speculation-laden details from “sources” and the sensationalized wishes of those who would like to see Jackson’s financial downfall come to pass. I’m shocked! Not.