Untouchable

by Randall Sullivan

  At the Calabasas house, the main concern had become the issue of custody. Margaret Lodise had scheduled a hearing before Judge Beckloff on the morning of July 25 to try to temporarily suspend Katherine Jackson’s guardianship of Prince, Paris, and Blanket. On the afternoon and evening of July 24, Ribera was dealing with that all by herself, “because Perry was like MIA,” she recalled.

  Unbeknownst to his associate, Sanders had finally made phone contact with Janet and Jermaine Jackson, and after a series of difficult conversations had convinced them, he thought, that letting him speak to Katherine would staunch the flow of bad publicity. He exercised no control over Sandy Ribera, who maintained her own law firm, separate from his, and had, in fact, repeatedly cautioned her about speaking out before she had more information, Sanders said. “All I want is to talk to my client and confirm her condition,” he told Janet and Jermaine, again and again.

  Katherine Jackson’s condition by that point was one of advanced confusion. That afternoon, her television’s sound had suddenly come on. There was still no picture, but the first words she heard were people talking about her being missing and possibly having been “abducted.” When she asked what was going on, her children and Janice Smith blamed it all on media sensationalism and an attempt by Trent Jackson to get even with Randy by filing a missing persons report with the police, then joining with Sandy Ribera to spread the rumor that her own children had kidnapped her. They said Trent had actually attacked Randy when he went to the Calabasas house to try to explain to Prince, Paris, and Blanket what was happening, and then had gone after Jermaine when he tried to protect his brother. The security guards seemed to think they were working for Trent and had backed him even after he had physically assaulted two of her sons, Mrs. Jackson was told. Then the police had arrived, called either by TJ or that Sandy Ribera, and not only refused to arrest Trent, but actually threw her own children off the property. Prince and Paris had seen the whole thing; it must have been terrible for them, Katherine was told. And now the media was turning on them like the pack of animals they were.

  The media weren’t the only ones turning against Randy, Janet, Rebbie, and Jermaine, however. Their brothers Marlon, Jackie, and Tito appeared on CBS’s The Insider that evening to make it clear they weren’t in league with their siblings in Arizona. “All I know is there’s somebody who made the decision that my mother cannot talk to me, and whoever that person is, they’ve got to answer to me, because I’m going to see my mother and I’m going to bring her home,” Marlon said, and then choked up. “I’m going to get to the bottom of this. I am.”

  While the three brothers were talking to CBS, Perry Sanders was flying to Tucson aboard a chartered jet, having been promised by Janet and Jermaine that he would be permitted to speak with their mother and confirm that she was well.

  Janet and Jermaine landed at Tucson Airport aboard a commercial jet at almost the same moment Sanders’s private jet set down. By cell phone, the two instructed him to meet their hired car near baggage claim. When Sanders’s own driver pulled the Lincoln Town Car he was riding in up behind the limousine where Janet and Jermaine were waiting, they told him to get in and have his car follow theirs to Miraval Spa.

  What he believed about who was running this operation was confirmed for Sanders when Janet and Jermaine refused to discuss the situation until they had put Randy on speakerphone, and then let the youngest Jackson brother do most of the talking. All three siblings were sticking to the official story that Katherine was under doctor’s order to rest and “de-stress” by staying away from phones and computers, and that they had wanted to remove Michael’s children from the Calabasas property for no other reason than to reassure them that their grandma was being taken care of. Sanders kept nodding and saying he understood, repeating once again that all he wanted was to have a conversation with his client in order to dispel the rumors and gossip that were flying around the Internet. When Sanders asked about what had happened at the Calabasas house earlier that day, Jermaine showed him a scratch on his neck and insisted that Trent Jackson had attacked him for no reason. Janet, speaking in a breathy murmur that was eerily similar to the one her brother Michael had put on in public, said she was deeply wounded by the false report on TMZ that she had cursed at Paris and slapped the girl, and that her lawyers would be taking action. Over the phone, Sanders assured Randy that he was no friend to John Branca and was not in league with the estate. At one point during the drive, Janet, still speaking in that whispery voice, told the driver to pull over to the side of the road, then asked Sanders to step outside so that they could speak privately “as a family.” Sanders was invited back into the car a few minutes later and driven on to Miraval. When they arrived, though, Janet suggested that Sanders must be famished and should get a bite to eat while she and Jermaine checked on their mother. Sanders had just finished his meal when two of Janet’s security team arrived at his table to tell him, “You won’t be needed tonight,” then walked away. “I was dismissed,” he recalled.

  His pilot said he was required by FAA regulations not to fly again until the next morning. There was nothing to do but go back to the airport, find a hotel room and get a few hours sleep before he had to fly to Los Angeles for the guardianship hearing that had been scheduled for 8:30 a.m.

  It was only a short time later that Katherine Jackson phoned the house in Calabasas to say that she was firing Trent Jackson and every member of the security detail at the house. The people at Calabasas recognized that Mrs. Jackson was on a speakerphone and could hear the murmurs of other people in the room with her, “whispering into her ear and telling her what to say,” Ribera recalled. TJ Jackson said he wasn’t even sure at first that it was his grandmother, because she sounded literally like a different person. She was taking long pauses between sentences and using words he had never heard her use before, TJ would tell Judge Beckloff the next morning: “I’ve never heard my grandmother talk like that. She wasn’t sharp. Some words seemed a little sharp.” He almost wondered if his grandmother was “speaking in code,” TJ added.

  Then Mrs. Jackson said she wanted to talk to Sandy. “After she fired Trent and security, the estate immediately hired them back,” Ribera said, “so that they didn’t leave the house.” But if Katherine fired Ribera, “the estate wasn’t going to hire me back, and I knew it.” Instead of handing the phone to Ribera, though, TJ told his grandmother that Jackie and Marlon were there and asked if she didn’t want to speak to them, then waved his two uncles forward and let them finish the conversation with Katherine. Ribera would say later that TJ had saved her job.

  Over the telephone during the early morning hours of the July 25, Ribera and Sanders worked out a plan to request that TJ be named the children’s temporary guardian, until Mrs. Jackson was allowed to return home. Margaret Lodise was amenable, and so was Judge Beckloff once he had been informed that TJ Jackson was named in Katherine Jackson’s will as her “successor guardian” to Michael’s children. After Sanders described his thwarted attempt to see Katherine in Arizona, Beckloff agreed to appoint TJ as the children’s temporary guardian, noting he did not believe Katherine Jackson had done anything wrong and was acting solely out of concern about “the actions of third parties.” The law required him to apply for permanent custody, the judge told TJ Jackson, but that process could be delayed if Mrs. Jackson came home. “The children’s primary concern is that they get their grandmother back,” Lodise told the judge.

  At Miraval, Janet and her handlers had arranged for ABC’s Nightline to tape a statement from Mrs. Jackson that she read off a teleprompter, seated between Rebbie Jackson and Stacee Brown, with Janet Jackson, Jermaine Jackson, and Janice Smith standing behind her. “Hello, I’m Katherine Jackson, and there are rumors going around about me that I have been kidnapped and held against my will. I am here today to let everybody know that I am fine and I am here with my children, and my children would never do a thing like that, holding me against my will. It’s very stupid for people to think that. Bu
t anyway, I am devastated that while I’ve been away, that my children, my grandchildren, have been taken away from me, and I’m coming home to see about that, also.” There was more, but it was obvious that every word Katherine said had been dictated (as Mrs. Jackson would confirm once she was back home). The strangest part of the entire scene was the expression on Janet Jackson’s face, a bizarre combination of shame, regret, and cornered animal calculation that contrasted vividly with the fixed smiles of those who sat and stood with her.

  Katherine Jackson’s speech “reminded me not just a little bit of a hostage reading her kidnapper’s message to the press,” Roger Friedman wrote in the column posted online shortly before midnight. Marlon Jackson tweeted, “I’m tired of not knowing where my mom is. I did speak with her last night, but she didn’t sound like herself. I was told by Janet, Randy, and Jermaine that I could not see my mom. Doctor’s order. But see them on television with her. How come they could not call me so I could be with her as well?” Paris Jackson tweeted, “they promised my grandmother would be home YESTERDAY. why isn’t she home?”

  Katherine was already on her way by then, riding in a car with Rebbie, Janice Smith, and two of her grandchildren that sped across the desert in the dead of night. Shortly after the car crossed into California, Mrs. Jackson woke Sanders with a phone call and asked if she could meet him at the Calabasas house the next day. The car carrying her back arrived at Calabasas at just before 3:30 a.m. “grandma’s here! #thankyougod<33” Paris tweeted.

  The big news the next morning, though, was that Prince Jackson had finally made his entrance into the Twittersphere drama. After thanking his father’s fans, telling them how much his father appreciated their support, and that he did too, Prince explained he had been “waiting a long time to reveal my side,” but at last was ready: “As long as I can remember my dad had repeatedly warned me of certain people and their ways. Although I am happy my grandma was returned, after speaking with her I realized how misguided and how badly she was lied to. I’m really angry and hurt.” He had sent group texts to his relatives demanding to know what was going on, and when Janet replied-all to the group, got a rude awakening about what they were saying to each other, including about him and his sister. Prince then spoke to those people directly: “For this whole time, we were denied contact to our grandmother. ‘If you continue with your lies, I will continue with the truth.’” He signed off as “Michael Jackson Jr.”

  When Sanders arrived at the Calabasas house on July 26, he had stepped through the front door expecting to be fired. Instead Katherine greeted him warmly, and it did not take long before Sanders could see that his client understood at least the rough outline of what had taken place. By the time their meeting was done, she had readily agreed to reinstate Trent and the security staff. Katherine was not going to publicly criticize her children, though, Sanders realized, or permit anyone else to criticize them, either. Sanders made it clear he wasn’t there to assign blame. The main thing to get done, he told Katherine, was her reinstatement as the children’s guardian.

  Immediately after the meeting with Mrs. Jackson, Sanders issued a statement that, “I am pleased to report that she is fine and laughed at the widely published report that she had suffered a stroke.”

  Roger Friedman predicted that Katherine would find a way to avoid facing the unpleasant truth about what had taken place during the previous ten days. “‘Ignorance is bliss’ has been her motto.” Sandy Ribera, though, said Mrs. Jackson understood completely how she had been deceived: “It breaks her heart, I think, but she maintains loyalty to her family.”

  Randy Jackson certainly remained in denial, unable to grasp either that it was too late to challenge the July 2002 will or that he had lost not just this battle, but the entire war. Shortly after Sanders told the media that Katherine was laughing at reports she had suffered a stroke, Randy tweeted seven bulletin points to his followers:

  1) When TJ asked my mother if he should ask for temporary guardianship, my Mother told TJ NO—twice.

  2) The estate denied Rebbie, Janet, and Jermaine access to the house when they returned home to Calabasas with a letter written by Howard Weitzman, who is not a resident of the home.

  3) The estate is trying to isolate my mother from her family JUST LIKE THEY DID TO MICHAEL, in order to propagate their lies, financial agendas, and to protect a fraudulent will.

  4) The same people that are trying to manipulate my mother are the same people that were involved with my brother when he died.

  5) In order to obtain temporary guardianship, TJ lied to the court. Rebbie, Janet, Jermaine, and I would never harm our mother and we are doing our best to protect her and the estate knows that. I want to know why Perry Sanders would consider a negotiation based on lies.

  6) It is clear that anyone who stands up against the executors of the estate—John Branca, John McClain and their attorney Howard Weitzman—is denied access to my mother.

  7) It is my fear and belief that they are trying to take my mother’s life.

  It was with Katherine Jackson’s explicit permission, however, that Sanders, TJ Jackson, TJ’s attorney Charles Schulz, and Margaret Lodise met to work out an agreement under which TJ would be named permanent coguardian of the three children. It was “a good deal all around,” Sanders said when he announced the agreement that afternoon, because TJ already handled duties like household management and security arrangements, and now Mrs. Jackson would be officially free to focus on the emotional lives of Prince, Paris, and Blanket.

  That night, Katherine showed up at the Unity tour concert in Saratoga, California, accompanied by all three of Michael’s children. Yes, Jermaine was one of those onstage, Sanders said, but so were Jackie, Marlon, and Tito, and Katherine wanted to be there for them.

  Mrs. Jackson wouldn’t be seeing Jermaine—or Randy or Janet or Rebbie—at the Calabasas house any time soon. On July 29, the estate issued an order banning those four siblings, plus their children and Jermaine’s wife from entering the property. Also banned were Janice Smith “or anyone else who was involved in the recent events that led to Mrs. Jackson’s separation from and inability to communicate with Michael’s children.”

  The order, written by Weitzman, added that “Joe Jackson is precluded from entering the property.” While Joe had been all but invisible during the previous two weeks, Ribera and others at the Calabasas house heard that he had been “squatting” at Hayvenhurst during that period, and had met with Randy there. Ribera and Sanders each assumed that Joe had been involved in some way.

  Weitzman had also written that “Howard Mann, who is in litigation with the estate and is working with the Jackson siblings that wrote the ‘letter’ should also not be allowed on the property.” Mann was flabbergasted that a number of Web sites credited him with drafting the letter, a notion that Weitzman had encouraged. “Randy hates me,” a mournful Mann said. “He’s been trying to convince Katherine to cut me off almost since the day we met.” Randy Jackson’s dislike of Mann paled by comparison to what Branca, McClain, and Weitzman felt toward him, though. The trial over what the executors and their lead attorney described as Mann’s attempt to create “a shadow estate” through his business relationships with Katherine, Prince, Paris, and Blanket Jackson was scheduled to begin in early September and promised to become an especially vicious courtroom battle. Weitzman and Branca were still steaming from a letter Mann had written more than a year earlier in which he demanded they submit their resignations and promised that if they didn’t he would see them put in prison. That letter had been sent not long after Mann described their administration of the estate to TMZ as “a fraudulently obtained dictatorship” and shortly before he helped craft the affidavit in which Katherine Jackson stated that her son Michael had told her more than once that he disliked Branca and believed the attorney “had stolen from him.” Katherine and Joe Jackson were both scheduled to testify on Mann’s behalf at the trial and Mann was making it clear to the other side that he intended to put the c
laims that the will was a forgery and that Branca had made up the story about being rehired as Michael Jackson’s attorney front and center in court.

  Branca had once more been proven lucky in his enemies. Inexplicable mistakes by Mann’s legal team in the documents they had filed to compel Branca’s deposition had enabled the estate’s attorneys to force a refiling. The attorney Mann had assigned the task of filing the new deposition demand had failed to respond in a timely manner, meaning that Branca would again avoid being questioned under oath about the will that had named him as Michael Jackson’s executor and the various questions that still surrounded his assumption of that position. At the end of the first full week of August, the federal judge hearing the case had ruled massively in the estate’s favor on a summary judgment motion, gutting Mann’s claim to intellectual property rights and almost certainly guaranteeing that Branca would not even have to answer questions on the witness stand. For the Jackson side, the only blessing was that Perry Sanders had refused to let Katherine join the case as anything other than a witness. The estate could claim a victory over her business partner, but not over her personally.

  At the Calabasas estate Michael’s children were in the happiest environment they had known since their father’s death, according to Ribera. “The combination of TJ and Mrs. Jackson makes the kids really happy. They love their grandmother and don’t want to leave her, but they also love TJ, and he’s so good to have around, because he does the fun things.” The day before, TJ had taken Paris shopping for an electric guitar, and when the two returned they had performed a version of Michael’s song “Black or White” for his mother, Ribera recalled, “and Mrs. Jackson was like, tapping her foot in time with them. It was just so nice.”