TS Hathway

Square One

This week for the True Crime Wednesday feature, I am recapping the true crime documentary, Square One that can be found on Amazon Prime. I will be recapping the documentary first and sharing my thoughts and feelings afterward. I want to do a little “housekeeping” in regard to the documentary before I start the recap. I will not be using the first accuser’s name as I believe that are a victim in the situation and will discuss that more at the end but will be identified as JC. It is noted at the beginning of the documentary that no payment was made for any of the interviews they conducted. Last bit of “housekeeping.” JC has never spoken publicly about the allegations. Please remember that this documentary covers the topic of child abuse, child sexual assault, molestation, and pedophilia, read at your own discretion.

Square One

The documentary starts out by giving us the following facts:

  • On August 17, 1993 – The Los Angeles Police Department opened an investigation against Michael Jackson based on an allegation that he sexually molested a 13-year-old boy (JC).
  • On January 25, 1994 – Michael Jackson settled a civil lawsuit with the Chandler family for $15 million.

We are then presented with the following quote:

“…the settlement had left Mr. Jackson open to similar suits.” – New York Times Jan. 26, 1994”

We are first introduced to Josephine Zohny, who attended NYU with JC. We learn that she had been aware of who he was and did not approach him about it. We next meet the director Danny Wu, who is on the phone with Charles Thomson, an investigative journalist. Charles has extensively studied the FBI files on Michael Jackson, and presents some of the following facts:

  • No child porn was ever found at Neverland or at any of the properties Michael owned
  • The FBI intermittently investigated Michael for over a decade (no sustained surveillance or investigation ever established)
  • Over 20 different FBI departments were involved in their investigation

We learn that in 2005 ABC had a study done by the top psychiatrists in the country. They had concluded that Michael’s behavior would be very rare among pedophiles. Meaning that he does not fit the profile of your average pedophile. Someone who disputes that notion is Jim Clemente.

*We hear audio of Jim Clemente describing photos he had seen when the FBI had raided Michael’s properties*

We next meet Taj Jackson, Michael’s nephew, who was upset by what he heard Clemente say about the photographs. Taj was part of a band, 3T, their debut album sold 3 million copies worldwide. Taj explains that the pictures that Clemente was going on were pictures the band had taken with his uncle for their own single. Taj explained that he was not comfortable taking his shirt off for the shoot and everyone was okay with that. No one was pushing anyone to do anything they did not want to do. The band members wanted the shoot to be edgy, so they ripped a member’s shirt to give it the look they wanted.  Taj is disgusted that Clemente would take a fun experience he had with his uncle and turn it into something wrong and sexual. Taj also explains that his brother, TJ, was in the band as well. Taj says TJ would be even more upset than he was to hear what Clemente had to say. Taj expressed the most anger towards the notion that TJ was clueless about what was happening at the shoot. Taj believes that Clemente is a hateful person and wishes that people like him would leave the family alone.

*Clemente’s Twitter response to Taj is displayed on the screen* (We will discuss exactly what it says below)

We next meet Jenny Winings, a 2005 trial witness, who explains that she had been to Neverland Ranch around 8 times. She has spent the night at Neverland. She also speaks about what it was like to tour the property and how Michael would let fans in if he saw them at the gate. Next, we meet Caroline, Fristedt, a 2005 trial witness, who gives her overall experience at Neverland. Cut to Josephine explaining how she found out that the JC at her school was the first accuser from 1993. The documentary will now function as a timeline of how the 1993 accusations came to be and the ripple effect.

JC is the child of Evan and June. Evan had been born in New York and came to California to be a screenwriter. He had been a dentist at one point but did not enjoy the job. Evan managed to have a brief screenwriting career, even getting a screenwriting credit for the 1993 Robin Hood: Men in Tights film. Evan and June end up getting divorced and both end up remarrying. In May 1992, Michael and some of his team were traveling through Los Angeles when the car broke down. A chance encounter with a lady who saw them stranded ended Michael and his team at the Rent-A-Wreck business of David Schwartz. Schwartz was married to June, who promptly brought JC to the business to meet Michael. Once June and Evan divorced, Evan was not actively present in JC’s life.  Evan was behind on child support and would often fight with June as she tried to get him to engage with JC. Evan became an active participant in JC’s life after he learned about JC’s friendship with Michael.

JC’s first visit to Neverland Ranch was in February 1993 with his mom and sister. Evan met Michael in May of the same year. During times when Evan was at Neverland, he would make comments about how Michael should put on an addition to the main house for him to live in. When those comments did not get him anywhere, he then started making comments about how Michael should build him a new house. Evan became enraged when June mentioned to him that they were thinking of joining Michael on tour. Even though June had previously begged him to be involved in JC’s life to which Evan could be bothered, now all of a sudden he cared about not having access for months at a time. Evan began making comments to June and David, threatening to make allegations against Michael. Due to his increasingly erratic behavior, Schwartz decided to tape the conversation.

*We hear a taped conversation between David and Evan from July 8, 1993*

Evan was furious that Michael had stopped calling him and that Michael had stopped taking his calls. He would also complain that Michael stole his ex-wife and tore his family apart. There had been comments made by Evan about plotting revenge, as well as things moving along with his plans. These comments were made before there were ever any allegations made, it was also alluded to that a “nasty” attorney would be involved. Evan had hired Barry Rothman for representation in the accusation. At one point, Michael’s own private investigator questioned JC who denied any abuse claim that had been made. JC had even made a comment at the end of the questioning that his father was only saying these things so he could get money. Evan ended up taking June to court requesting a week of custody. June was more than happy to grant his request if he promised to return JC at the end of the seven days. Evan did not return JC when he was supposed to on July 11th, 1993.

JC would frequently be brought by Evan to Rothman’s office for hours, having closed-door sessions. While JC was in Evan’s custody, he was drugged with sodium amytal, which previously had been believed to be a truth serum in the 1980s. However, it turns out that sodium amytal allows a person to manipulate the members of someone under the influence of the drug. Evan claimed he had given JC the drug for a dental procedure, however, there was no reason to use the drug during a dental procedure. JC ends up changing his story while in his father’s custody, now stating that Michael had in fact abused him. On August 4th, 1993, Evan demanded $20 million from Michael to not go public with child sexual abuse claims, he did not approach law enforcement with the accusation. Michael’s legal countered with an offer of 3 original scripts purchased from Evan at a price of $350,000 each. Michael had made this offer because he wanted to give Evan and his son a chance to bond and mend their relationship due to Evan claiming Michael had stolen his son’s affection from him. Evan tries to go back to the original offer and is told it is never going to happen.

June went to court to make Evan give JC back, while in court over custody Evan never mentioned anything to the judge about JC being abused by Michael. In order for Evan to maintain custody of JC, he had to have JC disclose what was happening to a psychiatrist. Because of this knee-jerk response to the custody situation, he created a new one that he could no longer control. Evan’s reaction had triggered criminal proceedings and the fallout was that negotiations with Michael ceased. Once the media got wind of the criminal proceedings, there was a frenzy began. The media was offering all sorts of amounts of money for someone to say they had met Michael and had something to say about him. It was not until after the criminal allegation came out that June and her husband began meeting with Evan and Rothman behind closed doors. Prior to that she had not agreed with the allegation. Evan was observed being more worried about getting money out of Michael in the civil case than getting justice in the criminal case.

Michael suffered from the skin condition Vitiligo, a disease that attacks the pigment in the skin. This causes the skin to turn pale white almost translucent. Since the disease progresses in tiny increments over time you eventually look like you have paint splattered on you. Evan had stated that his son would be able to accurately describe the Vitiligo on Michael’s genitalia. The investigators obtained a warrant to photograph Michael’s entire body nude to match it to the accusation. Evan’s brother wrote a book where he described Evan discussing the Vitiligo situation with his lawyer. It was deemed a win-win situation by the lawyer because if JC’s description matched it matched, but if it did not they could just blame the Vitiligo. The Smoking Gun website got its hands on a document that was written by a detective that contains JC’s description of Michael. The description of Michael did not match in the slightest, even down to whether or not he was circumcised.

In Late August 1993, Michael filed a lawsuit alleging that he was being extorted by Evan and Rothman. Rothman drops Evan as a client due to the suit, Evan then hires Gloria Allred. Allred holds a press conference stating that the family is ready for a criminal case. However, Allred is fired shortly after, Rothman working in the background suggests Larry Feldman, who would be willing to push for a civil case. The difference between a civil case and a criminal case is in the civil case you are suing someone else for money, while a criminal case is brought about by the state/government. The criminal case ends up stalling due to lack of evidence, so they raid various locations associated with Michael looking for anything incriminating. However, their search fails to turn up anything to move the criminal case forward. The civil case on the other hand was moving through the court system like normal.

In October 1993, the judge in the civil case ordered depositions. Depositions force a person to state their case under oath and give evidence. Michael was ordered to be deposed in January 1994. Michael’s defense team went to court 4 times arguing that allowing the deposition to take place would force Michael to give away his defense that would be used in his criminal case. They argued that it would violate his constitutional rights and his right to a fair trial. Feldman had argued that the case should proceed because the complainant was a child, his memory was not fully developed, and he was at risk of losing it. However, keep in mind that JC is 14 at the time this is going on, he is not that young of a child. Evan was pushing for the civil case to proceed with the criminal case, which he should not have won but did. Michael’s deposition was scheduled for January 18, the Northridge, California earthquake happened on January 17 causing the deposition to be delayed. Typically, when a judge is not ruling in your favor it signals to the attorney that it may be time to talk settlement.

On January 25, the day that Michael was supposed to give his deposition, they reached an out-of-court settlement. Part of the stipulations of the settlement were that no one was barred from testifying in a criminal case about the allegations. However, they were not allowed to talk about the settlement or allegations anywhere else. The criminal case did not go away because of the civil settlement, the criminal case never proceeded because they never had enough evidence to charge Michael with a crime. During the summer of 1994, they had called a grand jury and failed to get an indictment.

Victor Gutierrez is a Chilean-born, freelance journalist. He claims to have first attended a meeting of North American Men Boys Love Association (NAMBLA) members in 1986. NAMBLA is basically a pro-pedophile group. Gutierrez claims that at a meeting he overheard people saying how it would be great if Michael was a pedophile. They believed that it would help society accept their beliefs. Gutierrez was determined after that 1986 meeting to gather evidence that Michael was a pedophile. He went as far as to befriend Michael’s maids, and former employees, and even approached Joy Robson, who told him off. Joy reported Gutierrez to Michael. In 1996, Gutierrez wrote a book called Michael Jackson Was My Lover. The accuser’s family has dismissed the claim and JC’s uncle wrote his own book, All That Glitters by Raymond Chandler. The director then informs us that they have looked at both books and conducted a comparison. They found that there were numerous similarities especially when it came to telling Evan’s point of view. At times passages were word-for-word identical. It should also be noted that several of the documents featured in Gutierrez’s documents of the accuser’s family would have only been from Evan.

Michael had sued Gutierrez and in October 1996 was awarded $2.7 million in damages. Gutierrez fled the country and filed for bankruptcy. After the settlement, Michael goes to work on the ‘HIStory’ album. He also does a Diane Sawyer interview in which at one point, Michael states that he’s innocent and there was no evidence connecting him to a crime. Though Michael never said anything specific between the interview and the album, Evan took it as a breach of the confidentiality agreement. Evan filed a lawsuit seeking $60 million in damages and he wanted the court’s permission to breach the agreement to make his own album ‘EVANStory’. After 6 years the case was eventually thrown out.

*On November 12, 1995 – JC’s emancipation is finalized*

*As a result of the 1994 civil settlement, California law now prohibits civil cases from preceding criminal cases*

Michael meets his second accuser, who was a cancer patient, during the summer of 2000. In 2003, Janet, the second accuser’s mother, approached Larry Feldman wanting to file a civil lawsuit against Michael. Since a criminal case had to precede a civil case, an arrest warrant was issued for Michael on November 18th, 2003. During the investigation, Janet’s family contradicted many of their own stories. During the 2005 trial due to California law, the prosecution was able to introduce prior bad acts. They brought an alleged victim to testify whose mother had previously sold a story to the tabloids for $20,000. The jurors may have found the kid sweet, but they did not find him believable. The prosecutor had sought JC to testify. During the 2005 trial, Josephine had observed JC say he did not believe Michael was guilty or capable of committing such a crime. JC seemed to gravitate towards other students in the program who enjoy Michael’s music.

According to the FBI files, JC had told the prosecutors in the 2005 trial that if they tried to force him to testify, he would fight every legal attempt. Even without JC there to verify the drawing, the prosecution sought to introduce it in the 2005 case. The judge however dismissed the motion to have it entered. On June 13, Michael was acquitted of all charges. On July 6th, Evan physically assaulted JC. JC obtained a restraining order against his father on August 5th. In 2008, Gutierrez was sentenced to 61 days in jail and ordered to pay $30 million Chilean pesos for spreading slanderous stories about Miss Universe, Cecilia Bolocco. On June 25, 2009, Michael Jackson died, and Evan committed suicide on November 5th of the same year. The following are the last facts we are presented about the allegations from after the 2005 trial:

  • May 1st, 2013 – Wade Robson files a creditor’s claim/civil lawsuit against Michael Jackson’s estate.
  • May 14th, 2013 – the Safechuck family business is served with a $24 million lawsuit
  • May 20th 2013 – James Safechuck discloses alleged childhood sexual abuse from Michael, he later hires Robson’s lawyers.
  • The lawyers seek out JC for assistance in their claims, JC refuses to be deposed.
  • 2019 – Robson and Safechuck appear in a documentary about their alleged abuse, that contained numerous provable inconsistencies. JC did not participate in it.
  • “According to the United Youth Security…’Research shows the average pedophile abuses approximately 250 children.’ Michael Jackson has 5 accusers. None of them went to the police. All of them went to civil lawyers seeking monetary compensation.”

This documentary showed me a completely different side than what I had heard in the media growing up. I have to say after being surrounded by statistics of crime when I was in college and then delving deep into true crime for my blog…I do not think he is guilty. Especially, with the statistic at the end. If you consider the numbers of women who have come after Weinstein, Epstein, and Golden State Killer’s sexual assault, those are not small numbers. I, myself, am a sexual assault survivor, and cannot imagine not wanting to see the person who harmed a child prosecuted by the law. Why would you only be after money? I know people do not come forward for many reasons, but I did not report each assault for my own reasons. But when someone does not come forward, they do not typically seek a civil settlement. I can only speak from statistics and experience though and I do not claim to be an expert. I would love for everyone to check out this documentary. I think it is well done, well organized, and presented in an easy-to-digest format. I came into the documentary ready to condemn Michael but came out with a different perspective. So, keep an open mind as you watch, and let me know what you think when you finish it.

Tomorrow for the Writing Thursday feature, I am presenting an original scene. Next week for the Missing Person Wednesday feature, I am highlighting the Doe Network profile of Erica Nicole Hunt. Until then keep sleuthing the cases; Nerd out.

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