Timeline emerges in Jackson abuse case

MJJForum eNews #349 - July 31, 2004


Details are emerging on the conspiracy charge against Michael Jackson from one of the alleged five non-indicted co-conspirators. Ronald Konitzer, a former business associate of the entertainer, has spoken for the first time since the conspiracy charge was included in the new charges against Mr. Jackson.

Mr. Konitzer said that the documentary of Mr. Jackson?s life made by Martin Bashir, Granada and ITV named ?Living With Michael Jackson? set off a public relations firestorm that threatened the King Of Pop?s livelihood. In the video, it shows Mr. Jackson saying that it is okay to share your bed with children and is seen holding hands with the teenage boy who would later become his accuser.

Mr. Konitzer detailed the steps he and others took to protect the singer?s reputation. ?Take Two: The Footage That You Were Never Meant To See? was a production that cast Mr. Jackson in a positive light, said Konitzer. It was nothing more than damage control.

His story significantly contrasts with the narrative prosecutors presented in the July 27th court hearing in Santa Maria. Prosecutors said that the singer?s ?henchmen,? ?hirelings? and ?thugs? conspired to abduct, imprison and coerce the boy and his family to participate in a video that countered the ITV-Granada documentary.

Mr. Konitzer said that he or the other members of Mr. Jackson?s associates did nothing conspiratorial in regards in their actions after the documentary.

"It was a very natural development of events and a normal professional move that has been taken out of context -- there was no cover-up," Mr. Konitzer said in an interview Friday. "We were working around the clock at the ranch for 10 days in a row -- with my family even there -- and I can tell you the one thing I remember is a bunch of kids running around and having fun. There was nothing I saw that even resembled anything near imprisonment."

In the July 27th hearing, prosecutors described a conspiracy to keep the boy and his family at the singer?s Neverland Valley Ranch against their will, hiding them out at hotels and arranging for a trip to Brazil, so that they would appear in the ?Take Two? video more favorable to the pop legend.

Currently the Santa Barbara District Attorney?s office has not filed any charges against the five alleged co-conspirators. The co-conspirators are alleged to be Mr. Konitzer, former manager Deiter Wiesner; Vincent Amen, who had worked for Mr. Jackson?s production company, and his friend Frank Tyson. Mr. Tyson is the singer?s former personal assistant and has known Mr. Jackson since his youth; and F. Marc Shaffel, who assisted in the production of the ?Take Two? rebuttal video.

Mr. Konitzer and the lawyers for Mr. Amen and Mr. Tyson said that the allegations of a conspiracy are absurd.

Mr. Konitzer recalled that he was in a Miami hotel room with Mr. Wiesner putting the finishing touches on a business strategy to boost the entertainer?s career when they received a transcript of the ITV-Granada produced documentary ?Living With Michael Jackson? by Martin Bashir, that was aired in England first.

"Within 48 hours, the Bashir scandal hit," Mr. Konitzer said. "We knew it could be damaging for the business and that it needed to be addressed. The first action was trying to stop it."

An immediate action ensued, and lawyers were hired to block the airing of the documentary, but that did not work. The documentary was shown in England on February 3rd. The video was then sold to ABC to be broadcast in the United States. ?We had to prepare for the U.S. airing . . . It was like a hurricane was coming and we were going through the protective checklist.?

More than a dozen lawyers were hired to deal with business issues. ?Hiring a defense lawyer was basically to complete a 360-degree advisory board,? said Mr. Konitzer. He chose defense attorney Mark Geragos two days after the documentary aired in the United States on February 6, 2003.

He also hired public relations and crisis-management professionals to counteract the fallout of the documentary. He was on conference calls from Miami and then Los Angeles during nonstop brainstorming about how to stave off potential negative effects of the documentary on Mr. Jackson?s career and livelihood.

"We were looking for the right ammunition to discredit Bashir," he said. "Then we realized there was this other footage that hadn't been shown."

Mr. Jackson had his own videographer filming him during the time Mr. Bashir was filming for the documentary. The team went to Neverland to gather the footage for the ?Take Two? which ultimately aired on Fox on February 20th.

Mr. Konitzer said that the singer was at the ranch, but like a CEO of a large company, he let the hired professionals do the work.

"Everybody worked around the clock to get it all together," he said. "It was teamwork -- not a conspiracy."

The teenager and his mother were at the ranch, and did not appear in the final cut of the rebuttal video.

Mr. Amen?s attorney, Michael Bachner said, "From what Vincent Amen saw, these people were certainly in no way under any type of duress. This family was not under any type of force or compulsion to remain anywhere. They freely went around to speak to whoever they wanted. They went shopping. They made phone calls. They did everything free people do."

Mr. Tyson?s lawyer Joseph Tacopina said that his client also said that the family was not held against their will. "If she (the mother) were being held hostage, then I guess during one of her shopping sprees on Rodeo Drive she could have told a store manager while she was buying a thousand-dollar dress."

For prosecutors to characterize Neverland as a "place designed to entice children" is ridiculous, he said. "To say Neverland was constructed to be a predator's mansion is, quite frankly, very offensive. Thousands of children have been through there, and it's been the greatest moments in their lives."

Both lawyers say they doubt charges will ever be filed against their clients, but if they are, Mr. Tacopina said, "the last thing Tom Sneddon wants is my client to testify at his trial. . . . They have no interest in charging these men -- because if they do, we'll answer to the charges, and then they'll really have problems."

Prosecutors declined to comment Friday, citing a gag order in the case.

Sources: Newspress/MJJForum


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