Entertainment - E! Online Gossip/Celeb

Jackson Sues Over Secret Flight Tape
Tue Nov 25, 6:20 PM ET

By Lia Haberman

Fasten your seat belts, fold up your tray tables and return all seats to an upright position. Or else.

A media frenzy has erupted over a secret videotape of Michael Jackson's pre-surrender flight from Las Vegas to Santa Barbara, where he turned himself in on charges of child molestation. The tapes were allegedly shot on the sly by the charter company that flew him there.


As news of the tape broke, Jackson's attorney Mark Geragos jumped into action. In a press conference Tuesday afternoon, the legal eagle announced he had launched a lawsuit against XtraJet, the operators of the private plane that Jackson boarded before turning himself in last Thursday, because Team Jackson was secretly taped without its consent.


And to anyone else who might consider "besmirching" his client's reputation, "We will land on you like a hammer," said Geragos, who vowed to "put XtraJet out of business for this."


While an XtraJet attorney denied that the company surreptitiously placed the cameras in the plane, reps for the Santa Monica-based charter company screened excerpts of the two videotapes for several news organizations to see whether it was legit to distribute or sell them.


They needn't have bothered. On Tuesday, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge issued a temporary order barring the company from releasing the footage, which according to Fox Network shows Jackson looking "calm, often smiling or laughing."


The ruling, Geragos said, means XtraJet "can not show [the tape] to anybody, cannot duplicate it, cannot sell it."


FBI (news - web sites) agents also went to XtraJet headquarters on Tuesday to determine whether the company might have violated federal laws that prohibit illicit electronic surveillance.


Meanwhile, more details are emerging about the 12-year-old alleged victim.


Even as Santa Barbara officials have kept the boy's identity secret, most outlets have identified him as a recovering cancer patient seen on TV last February during Martin Bashir's controversial documentary about the eccentric celebrity.


At the time, the boy's mother defended Jackson's slumber-party practices but reportedly changed her mind after the documentary aired and the superstar's reps secured passports to send her and the family to Latin America--a move she saw as a cover-up.


What the mother did or didn't know about Jackson's alleged advances on her son are in dispute.


A divorce attorney who claims to have represented the mother of Jackson's accuser in 2001 said the family never mentioned the abuse. Michael Manning told the Associated Press the mother had nothing but positive things to say about the singer as recently as April or May.


" 'He was really good to us,' that's what she said at the time," recalled Manning. "Nothing badIf it turned sour, I don't know how." The attorney, who still represents the mother in the divorce, said he has not spoken to her since May or June.


On the flipside, a Hollywood comedy-club owner who introduced the "Thriller" singer to the cancer-stricken boy told Extra he realized there was a problem when he received an irate phone call from the boy's mother a few months ago saying "something happened."


Laugh Factor owner Jamie Masada, who refused to reveal exactly what the woman had said, befriended the boy and his family when a social worker referred them to a summer camp Masada runs for underprivileged kids.


"I feel really guilty because I was the person who brought them together," he told Extra. "What would you do if you see a kid [who has] three to four weeks to live and his wish is to meet Michael?"


Meanwhile, New York's Daily News has unearthed court records that show Jackson's accuser allegedly tried to steal clothes from a California store on orders from his father when he was just eight.


Mother and son were arrested and charged with burglary after security guards nabbed the pair with the hot goods in the parking lot. Guards wound up scuffling with the boy and his parents, who later sued, claiming the young boy had suffered a "sprained arm, nightmares and emotional distress."

As part of the settlement, charges against the family were dropped and they collected more than $200,000 for their court claims.

Dad, who has blasted his ex-wife as irresponsible in the press, is a piece of work. In 2001, he pleaded no contest to a charge of wife beating and was sentenced to attend domestic-violence counseling, per a report in Newsweek. The following year, he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of willful cruelty to a child in an incident involving his older daughter.

He's currently seeking custody of the three children, which includes a younger brother.

During his press conference Tuesday, Geragos again claimed the allegations were part of a scheme to get money from Jackson, who a decade ago reportedly paid between $15 million and $20 million to a child accuser to drop a civil sexual assault suit against the singer.

Other Jackson updates include:


A California grade school has covered up a foot-high sign that reads "Michael Jackson (news) Auditorium."
Jackson attended the Gardner Street Elementary School in Hollywood when he was a child and received the auditorium honor in a ribbon-cutting ceremony in 1989. But protests from parents convinced the school's principal and school district officials to cover over the singer's name with a plywood box.

In an email to the Los Angeles Times, Jackson's spokesperson said, "I wonder what those parents will say when Mr. Jackson is exonerated!"

Cops raided the Beverly Hills offices of Jackson's private eye Bradley G. Miller on the same day Neverland was searched, reports Celebrity Justice.
Sources say that prior to the abuse allegations, the mother of Jackson's accuser became upset when she learned that the pop singer may have given her son wine. Upon learning of her concern, Jackson immediately retained Miller and prominent defense attorney Geragos to investigate.

Miller has reportedly not returned to his offices since the search.


The other search warrant served in the Los Angeles area last week was for the home of Jackson's videographer. The man told a local TV station that authorities confiscated dozens of tapes, including footage of Jackson and his accuser talking about how innocent their relationship is. The footage was reportedly shot before the alleged molestation took place.


Meanwhile, "salacious" love letters and poems Jackson allegedly wrote to his accuser were seized by cops during the raid on Neverland, according to Court TV reporter Diane Dimond. "I absolutely know of their existence," she said.
At least a dozen letters, which investigators found with help from the victim, were confiscated along with videotapes.

Sources say Jackson's defense team plans to counter those claims with written statements from the accuser and his mother inked in February denying that the entertainer engaged in any funny business with the boy.

Jackson, who launched a Website to refute the charges predicated on what he calls "a big lie," has yet to respond to any of the latest allegations.


link to mj's website, if you dare:
http://www.mjnews.us/