March 15th, 2005 Trial Analysis: Gavin Arvizo’s Testimony (Cross Examination), Terry Flaa, Jeff Klapakis, and Steve Robel (Direct & Cross Examination), Part 1 of 4
Mesereau continued his cross-examination of Jackson’s accuser Gavin Arvizo by asking if he knew the results of the DNA sample that he gave to sheriff’s investigators, and about yet another discrepancy between his grand jury and trial testimonies; Gavin told the grand jury that he wanted to do the press conference in February 2003 with Jackson, but he later testified that Jackson wanted to do it. Gavin stated that the reason he told the grand jury that he wanted to do it is because it was a joke, and Mesereau pounced on this revelation!
1 Santa Maria, California
2 Tuesday, March 15, 2005
3 8:30 a.m.
4
5 THE COURT: Good morning.
6 THE JURY: (In unison) Good morning.
7 THE COURT: You ready to proceed.
8 MR. MESEREAU: Yes, Your Honor.
9 Thank you, Your Honor.
10
11 GAVIN-ANTON ARVIZO
12 Having been previously sworn, resumed the
13 stand and testified further as follows:
14
15 CROSS-EXAMINATION (Continued)
16 BY MR. MESEREAU:
17 Q. Mr. Arvizo, when you claim you were
18 inappropriately touched by Mr. Jackson, you claim
19 there were no witnesses watching, correct.
20 A. Yes.
21 Q. Now, at some point, do you recall giving a
22 DNA swab to any Santa Barbara Sheriff.
23 A. Yes. They gave me a DNA swab.
24 Q. Do you know approximately when that was.
25 A. No.
26 Q. Did you ever learn what the results were of
27 any DNA testing.
28 A. No. 2021
1 Q. Did you ever discuss it with Prosecutor
2 Sneddon.
3 A. No.
4 Q. Did you ever discuss it with any other
5 prosecutor.
6 A. No.
7 Q. Did you ever discuss it with any sheriff.
8 A. No.
9 Q. How about any lawyer or paralegal.
10 A. No.
11 Q. Did you ever discuss it with any member of
12 your family.
13 A. No.
14 Q. So as you sit here today, you don’t know
15 what the results are of those DNA tests, right.
16 A. No.
17 Q. Okay. Now, you indicated that you were
18 upset that there was no press conference in Miami
19 when you and your family traveled to Miami to see
20 Michael Jackson, correct.
21 A. I said it wasn’t that big of a deal, because
22 I was already having fun.
23 Q. Well, you wanted a press conference in this
24 case, didn’t you.
25 A. Michael wanted it.
26 Q. No —
27 A. Michael told me he wanted it.
28 Q. Sir, when you were testifying before the 2022
1 grand jury, you wanted to give a press conference,
2 didn’t you.
3 A. No, I thought we were going to have a press
4 conference, because that’s what I was told.
5 Q. Do you remember telling Mr. Sneddon and the
6 grand jury that you wanted to have a press
7 conference.
8 A. I might have said that we wanted to have a
9 press conference, because Michael wanted to.
10 Q. Michael wanted to have a press conference
11 when you were in front of the grand jury; is that
12 what you’re saying.
13 You can answer the question.
14 A. No.
15 Q. Remember telling Mr. Sneddon, “Oh, man, I
16 was going to have a press conference”.
17 MR. SNEDDON: Excuse me, Your Honor. Could
18 we have a page reference on that, before Counsel
19 reads it.
20 MR. MESEREAU: Sure. Sure. It’s 449.
21 MR. SNEDDON: That’s fine.
22 Q. BY MR. MESEREAU: Okay. Do you remember
23 when you were in front of the Santa Barbara Grand
24 Jury, Mr. Sneddon told you there was an order that
25 you not talk to the media, and your response was,
26 “Oh, man, I was going to have a press conference”.
27 Do you remember that.
28 A. That was probably a joke. 2023
1 Q. That was a joke.
2 A. Yeah.
3 Q. So you’re in front of the Santa Barbara
4 Grand Jury talking about this case and you’re
5 telling a joke.
6 A. Yes.
Here is what he actually said about the press conference during his grand jury testimony on March 30th, 2004; he wasn’t referring to a press conference with Jackson, rather he was referring to wanting to do his own press conference after giving his grand jury testimony!
MR. SNEDDON: Please, if you would.
MADAM FOREPERSON: Before you leave I must caution you that you are not to discuss with anyone the content of your testimony that you have given this day before the Grand Jury. A violation of my instruction could be the basis of a charge of contempt of court against you. Do you understand?
THE WITNESS: Yes.
MADAM FOREPERSON: Thanks.
MR. SNEDDON: You know what contempt of court is?
THE WITNESS: (Shakes head from side to side.)
MR. SNEDDON: Let’s just go over that. A contempt of court would be a judge would get really angry.
THE WITNESS: Okay.
MR. SNEDDON: And he would call you on the carpet, and he could do a lot of things to you.
THE WITNESS: Okay.
MR. SNEDDON: None of which are good.
THE WITNESS: Okay.
MR. SNEDDON: Also, you know there’s a gag order in this case so you’re not allowed to hold any press conferences or talk to the media?
THE WITNESS: Oh man. I was going to have a press conference.
[112]
MR SNEDDON: All right. You’re free to go.
How many child abuse victims could “tell a joke” right after they are finished describing the abuse they suffered at the hands of a sexual predator? Do you think any of the victims of Jerry Sandusky told any “jokes” before wrapping up their testimony? I don’t think so!
Mesereau tried to ask Gavin about his behavior at Neverland, for example: Gavin and Star were once caught riding the Ferris wheel without permission and throwing rocks at the employees from atop of it, but Judge Melville sustained Sneddon’s objection to this line of questioning, so Mesereau had to move on. (You can read the interviews of Neverland employee Julio Avila and Marlon Brando’s daughter Prudence Brando on pages ; in those interviews they discussed the misbehavior of Gavin and Star at Neverland.) Next, he asked Gavin if he remembered being taken on shopping sprees by a reporter, and by Gary Hearn, who was Jackson’s chauffeur, but Gavin could not recall going on those shopping sprees (as usual):
7 Q. Okay. All right. Do you know someone who
8 worked at Neverland named Julio Avila.
9 A. I don’t remember.
10 Q. Do you remember that name at all.
11 A. I remember a guy that might have been named
12 Julio, but I forgot his name.
13 Q. Okay. And was he someone who worked around
14 the amusement rides.
15 A. Oh, yes. Well, he — he was the manager of
16 the whole Neverland, but then they moved him to the
17 amusement park, if we’re talking about the same guy.
18 Q. Do you remember anyone complaining about you
19 and Star —
20 MR. SNEDDON: Object, Your Honor. It’s a
21 violation of a 403 ruling.
22 MR. MESEREAU: I don’t think it is.
23 THE COURT: I’m not remembering this. Give
24 me another hint.
25 MR. MESEREAU: It has to do with behavior at
26 Neverland. Nonsexual nature.
27 THE COURT: All right. I’ll sustain the
28 objection. 2024
1 Q. BY MR. MESEREAU: Do you recall you and your
2 brother Star being picked up by a FOX News reporter
3 at your home.
4 A. No.
5 Q. Never happened.
6 A. Well, I have a friend that works for FOX
7 News, but —
8 Q. What’s your friend’s name.
9 A. Barbara.
10 Q. Barbara Schroeder.
11 A. I don’t know her last name.
12 Q. Do you recall being picked up by Barbara
13 Schroeder and taken for a spending spree.
14 A. I remember going to the movies with her and
15 her daughter.
16 Q. Do you remember she and another member of
17 the media treating you and your brother to shopping.
18 A. I have a friend that used to work for FOX
19 that I met at The Laugh Factory, but he works in,
20 like, cell phones or something.
21 Q. Do you recall Barbara Schroeder and another
22 representative of FOX News taking you and Star
23 shopping and paying your bills.
24 A. They weren’t representing FOX News to us.
25 They were our friends.
26 Q. Do you remember them taking you shopping and
27 paying your bills; yes or no.
28 A. I don’t remember them paying my bills. And 2025
1 I remember going to the movies with them. I don’t
2 remember going on shopping sprees.
3 Q. Where did you go with them.
4 A. We went to the movies.
5 Q. Where.
6 A. Galleria.
7 Q. Which galleria.
8 A. I don’t know. Somewhere in Los — Hollywood
9 somewhere.
10 Q. In Los Angeles, right.
11 A. Yes.
12 Q. Okay. And you’re saying they never took you
13 to any store and paid any bill for you.
14 A. No.
15 Q. Okay. You mentioned that someone named Gary
16 Hearn had driven you and your family from time to
17 time while you were at Neverland, correct.
18 A. Yeah, Gary drove us around.
19 Q. How many times do you recall Gary Hearn
20 driving you around.
21 A. I don’t remember.
22 Q. Was it five times. Ten times.
23 A. Well, no, it was less than that.
24 Q. Okay. And where do you remember Gary Hearn
25 driving you to.
26 A. I remember he drove us one time from the
27 hospital to Neverland, and once from our apartment
28 to Neverland. 2026
1 Q. Do you remember your being in his car and
2 your mother asking to stop so you could buy various
3 things at stores.
4 A. No.
5 Q. Don’t recall him ever stopping so anyone in
6 your family could go shopping.
7 A. No.
Next, Mesereau asked Gavin if he or his family complained about being held against their will to Officer Andrew Lassak of the LAPD, and of course Gavin couldn’t remember. He was a friend of the family, and visited the Arvizos at their home during one of their “escapes” from Neverland:
8 Q. Okay. Do you know someone named Andrew
9 Lassak.
10 A. No.
11 Q. Okay. Now, you mentioned —
12 A. Lassak. Police officer.
13 Q. Yes. Do you know him.
14 A. Yes.
15 Q. How did you meet him.
16 A. He was an LAPD officer that — I forgot,
17 really, how we met him. I think he was — I don’t
18 know. My mom met him or something, and then he
19 visited us a lot.
20 Q. Do you know approximately when you first met
21 this LAPD officer, Mr. Lassak.
22 A. After my father left. A few months after my
23 father left, after I finished chemotherapy.
24 Q. And he was a friend of your family, correct.
25 A. Yes.
26 Q. He used to visit your house, correct.
27 A. Yes.
28 Q. You spoke to him, right. 2027
1 A. Yes.
2 Q. You saw your brother and sister speak to
3 him, didn’t you.
4 A. Yes.
5 Q. And you saw your mother speak to him, right.
6 A. Yes.
7 Q. Do you recall anyone ever complaining to Los
8 Angeles Police Officer Andrew Lassak that anyone was
9 being held against their will.
10 MR. SNEDDON: Your Honor, I’m going to
11 object to the question as vague as to time frame.
12 MR. MESEREAU: I’ll rephrase it, Your Honor.
13 THE COURT: All right.
14 Q. BY MR. MESEREAU: During the period you
15 claim you escaped from Neverland three times, do you
16 recall anyone in your family ever complaining to
17 LAPD Officer Andrew Lassak that anyone was being
18 mistreated or held against their will.
19 A. His name is Lassak, and I don’t remember
20 anything happening like that.
In his next series of questions, Mesereau ask Gavin to confirm if he had been caught drinking in the kitchen by employees (Gavin denied this, as usual), if he rested his head on Jackson’s shoulder during a meeting with Brett Ratner and asked if he could accompany them to Miami (Gavin denied both), if he had ever asked Chris Tucker for money or if he had told him that he wanted to see Jackson in Miami (Gavin denied this), and if he remembered asking actress Vernee Watson for money (Gavin didn’t remember.) Watson also taught Gavin during her acting classes.
21 Q. Okay. Now, correct me if I’m wrong, I think
22 you testified that you used to stay up — let me
23 rephrase that.
24 You would end up staying up most of the
25 night when you were at Neverland, correct.
26 A. Sometimes.
27 Q. Not all the time.
28 A. No. 2028
1 Q. Isn’t it true that you and your brother
2 would sometimes roam around the main house starting
3 at 7:00 a.m. in the morning.
4 A. The cooks — the chefs would be in there
5 like 6:30 or 7:00 or something, and then we’d go in
6 there to eat breakfast.
7 Q. Okay. And how often do you remember doing
8 that.
9 A. Every morning when we would eat breakfast.
10 Q. Do you know someone named Shane Meredith.
11 A. No.
12 Q. Never knew an employee named Shane Meredith
13 at Neverland.
14 A. If I did, I don’t remember that.
15 Q. He caught you with an open bottle of alcohol
16 at Neverland, didn’t he, when Michael Jackson wasn’t
17 even around.
18 A. No.
19 Q. Now, you talked yesterday about someone
20 named Brett Ratner. Do you remember that.
21 A. Yes.
22 Q. And he was working on a Rush Hour movie,
23 right.
24 A. Yes, he was the director for both of them.
25 Q. And you met Brett Ratner at Neverland one
26 time, right.
27 A. Yes, he came to Neverland once.
28 Q. And you saw him in the library, right. 2029
1 A. Michael and him were in the library, and
2 they told me to go there.
3 Q. You saw him in the library with Michael,
4 correct.
5 A. They told me to go in there.
6 Q. Okay. And you sat down next to Michael
7 Jackson, didn’t you.
8 A. I sat on the couch. I sat on this red couch
9 and Michael was sitting here on the seat, and Brett
10 Ratner was sitting here also.
11 Q. At one point during that meeting, you rested
12 your head on Michael Jackson’s shoulder, didn’t you.
13 A. No. It was early in the morning, and I
14 was — we were sitting — he was sitting on another
15 chair.
16 Q. And you asked if you could go with Michael
17 and Brett Ratner to Florida, didn’t you.
18 A. I don’t remember asking that.
19 Q. You don’t remember it or you’re not sure you
20 did it.
21 A. I don’t remember ever asking that.
22 Q. Okay. Do you remember hearing your mother
23 tell Jesus Salas that she was very concerned about
24 all the media attention.
25 A. I don’t remember. I remember my mom would
26 say stuff like that, but — she didn’t really like
27 it, but, I mean, I don’t remember if she did say it
28 to Jesus Salas. 2030
1 Q. Okay. Now, you indicated that you would get
2 to the kitchen sometimes early in the morning,
3 right.
4 A. Well, yeah. Me and a bunch of other people,
5 when we wanted to eat breakfast.
6 Q. Now, you and your brother often would cook
7 for yourselves, correct.
8 A. We wouldn’t really cook. We might grab an
9 apple or some ice cream, but we wouldn’t cook.
10 Q. Ever see your brother Star cook in that
11 kitchen.
12 A. No.
13 Q. Do you remember ever telling Chris Tucker
14 that you didn’t make any money from the fund-raiser.
15 A. No. Well, what fund-raising.
16 Q. Fund-raiser for you at The Laugh Factory.
17 A. No, because we did make money at The Laugh
18 Factory.
19 Q. Yes. So you never told Chris Tucker, “We
20 didn’t make any money from the fund-raiser”.
21 A. Why would I say that when we did. No, I
22 never said that.
23 Q. Okay. Do you recall yourself asking Chris
24 Tucker for money.
25 A. No.
26 Q. Do you remember telling Chris Tucker that
27 your family was being hounded by the media and could
28 not leave your house. 2031
1 A. No.
2 Q. Never said that.
3 A. I might have told them about some media
4 people that were around our house, but, I mean —
5 Q. Do you remember telling Chris Tucker the
6 media was hounding your family and there was no
7 place for you people to go.
8 A. No. Because —
9 Q. Never said that.
10 A. I might have talked to him about some guy
11 that was holding a camera outside of my house, but,
12 I mean —
13 Q. Do you remember telling Chris Tucker that
14 your family had nowhere to go.
15 A. No.
16 Q. Do you remember telling Chris Tucker that
17 you knew Michael Jackson was in Miami and you wanted
18 to go see him.
19 A. No. Well, I — well, the first time I flew
20 in his plane over to Miami, so I don’t know if
21 you’re trying to talk about that or what.
22 Q. Well, before you flew on Chris Tucker’s
23 plane to Miami, do you remember telling Chris Tucker
24 that you wanted to go to Florida to see Michael
25 Jackson.
26 A. No.
27 Q. Never said that.
28 A. Michael called, and they arranged it so that 2032
1 we can go on Chris’s plane.
2 Q. But you never told Chris you wanted to go
3 see Michael in Florida, right.
4 A. I don’t remember if I said in those exact
5 words.
6 Q. Okay. Do you know Vernee Watson.
7 A. I kind of remember her name. But —
8 Q. She was an acting teacher for you, wasn’t
9 she.
10 A. Was she on a show with Will Smith, the Fresh
11 Prince of Bel Air show.
12 Q. Excuse me, I couldn’t understand what you
13 said.
14 A. I think I remember who she is, but I don’t
15 remember.
16 Q. Did she teach you acting at a school owned
17 by Belinda Johnson.
18 A. I went to some — I mean, I don’t know if
19 we’re talking about the same Renee Watson.
20 Q. Just asking you if you know someone named
23 haven’t —
24 Q. Do you know who she is.
25 A. As I said, I kind of think I do, but I don’t
26 know if it’s that person — if that name goes with
27 that face.
28 Q. Well, can you please describe the Vernee 2033
1 Watson that you know.
2 A. She has like dreadlocks and she’s
3 African-American. And she — she played Will
4 Smith’s mother on Fresh Prince of Bel Air. And —
5 yeah.
6 Q. And how do you know her.
7 A. I don’t remember. She’s been our friend for
8 a long time.
9 Q. Is she still your friend.
10 A. Um, we — we haven’t called her in a while.
11 But I think I met her through a dance company, a
12 dance class — a dance studio I was with.
13 Q. Do you recall ever asking her for money.
14 A. No.
15 Q. Do you recall your mother ever asking Vernee
16 Watson for money.
17 A. No.
As Mesereau continued to bombard Gavin with questions about why he never complained to anyone that his family was being held against his will as they went on numerous shopping sprees, Gavin admitted that he was “happy to be at Neverland all the time” and that he “liked being at Neverland. That was like Disneyland.” But then he claimed that it wasn’t until the last escape that he realized that he didn’t want to be there!
5 Q. Okay. Do you recall you, your brother, your
6 sister and your mother going to a dental office
7 around February 24th, 2003.
8 A. I remember we might have went to a dental
9 office. I mean, I used to have braces.
10 Q. And you went to that office to have your
11 braces removed, right.
12 A. I believe so.
13 Q. Pardon me.
14 A. I believe so.
15 Q. Okay. Well, do you remember going there
16 from Neverland.
17 A. Yes.
18 Q. And it was a Dr. Seamont you went to, right.
19 A. I don’t know.
20 Q. He was not too far from Neverland, right.
21 A. I think they were in Solvang.
22 Q. And you had your braces removed, right.
23 A. Yes. Because my teeth started separating
24 because the wires were all broken.
25 Q. And who took you to that dental office.
26 A. I think it was Frank.
27 Q. Do you know the approximate date.
28 A. No. 2036
1 Q. And you left Neverland and went into town
2 that day about 2:34 in the afternoon, right.
3 A. I don’t know.
4 Q. Okay. And do you remember how long you were
5 away that day, from Neverland.
6 A. I don’t know.
7 Q. It was about five and a half hours, wasn’t
8 it.
9 A. As I said, I don’t know.
10 Q. Okay. Do you remember stopping in Solvang.
11 A. I thought that’s what the orthodontist was,
12 in Solvang.
13 Q. Do you remember, when you left the office,
14 going anywhere else.
15 A. No.
16 Q. Do you remember anybody complaining at the
17 office that anyone in your family was being held
18 against their will.
19 A. I don’t remember.
20 Q. Did you have dinner or any meal in Solvang.
21 A. I don’t remember having a dinner or a meal.
22 Q. Do you remember going shopping in Solvang
23 that day.
24 A. No.
25 Q. No.
26 A. No.
27 Q. Now, your mother was mad at your L.A.
28 dentist that put the braces on originally, right. 2037
1 A. I don’t know if she was mad at him.
2 Q. You never noticed that at all.
3 A. No.
4 Q. Okay. Do you know who paid for your dental
5 work in Solvang on that day.
6 A. I don’t know who paid for it.
7 Q. And your mother was there, right.
8 A. I think so.
9 Q. Davellin was there, right.
10 A. I think so.
11 Q. And Star was there, right.
12 A. I think so.
13 Q. Okay.
14 A. They never — they hardly ever let us be
15 apart. They wanted to keep us together.
16 Q. Excuse me.
17 A. They never wanted us to be in separate
18 areas. They always wanted to keep us together.
19 Q. Well, remember you went to Toys R Us with
20 Michael.
21 A. Yeah, I remember.
22 Q. Your mother wasn’t there.
23 A. My mom was at Neverland, where they can
24 still keep her.
25 Q. Oh, was your mother on the trip to Toys R
26 Us.
27 A. No, she was in Neverland in her unit, where
28 they could still keep her and watch her. 2038
1 Q. I see. So you went into town with Michael
2 Jackson, correct.
3 A. Yeah. Michael took us to Toys R Us.
4 Q. You picked up some fans, correct, on the
5 way.
6 A. Yeah, Michael invited some people into
7 our — the thing.
8 Q. You never complained to anyone in the store
9 or any of these fans that anyone was being held
10 against their will, correct.
11 A. I was actually happy to be at Neverland all
12 the time.
13 Q. And you were happy to go —
14 A. That’s something you don’t really
15 understand, is that the majority of those times
16 was — the first few escapes that you talk about,
17 I liked being at Neverland. That was like
18 Disneyland. I loved being there. I had lots of
19 fun.
20 I mean, my mom was the one always worried.
21 It wasn’t until the last time that I realized
22 “I don’t want to be here.”
23 Q. Your mother was worried, but she always came
24 back, right. Right.
25 A. I guess so.
Later on, Mesereau asked Gavin about his recollection of why he didn’t ask for help when he was at the dentist’s office getting his braces removed, and he then pivoted to the topic of the Neverland Valley guest book that he and Star defaced while they were at Neverland. Gavin denied defacing it, and claimed that his brother probably did it. Mesereau then challenged Gavin about the authenticity of a comment that looked as if it was written by Gavin, but was admonished by Judge Melville for “testifying” (lawyers have strict guidelines that they must follow when cross-examining witnesses, and they cannot make assumptions, as Mesereau did in the following excerpt by saying that a letter looked like an “F”.)
16 MR. MESEREAU: Oh. Here we go again.
17 I have in front of me Defense Exhibit 5031,
18 which is a Neverland Valley guest book.
19 May I approach the witness.
20 THE COURT: Yes.
21 Q. BY MR. MESEREAU: Mr. Arvizo, I’m showing
22 you a Neverland Valley guest book that’s listed as
23 Exhibit 5031. Have you seen that before.
24 A. Yes.
25 Q. Where have you seen this before.
26 A. In the front of the — the — where you walk
27 in the front entrance, there’s like this podium-type
28 thing, and it sat on there.6. 2045
1
2 Q. Now, there’s some writing on the cover of
3 that book. Do you see that.
4 A. Yes.
5 Q. Is that your writing.
6 A. No.
7 Q. You didn’t write that.
8 A. No. That’s my brother’s, I think.
9 Q. Well, it says “Gavin,” doesn’t it.
10 A. Yeah.
11 Q. You didn’t write that.
12 A. It says “Blow Hole and Gavin.”
13 Q. Okay. Do you know who wrote that.
14 A. “Blow Hole’s” my brother.
15 Q. You didn’t write that at all.
16 A. No.
17 Q. Okay. Do you know why your brother wrote on
18 the cover of the guest book.
19 A. Because it looked cool. Because it’s on the
20 part where you can see it. I don’t know. You
21 should ask my brother.
22 Q. Did you see him do that.
23 A. No.
24 Q. Did you ever talk to him about it.
25 A. No.
26 Q. Now, you had looked through this guest book
27 before, correct.
28 A. I didn’t really look through it, but I 2046
1 signed it once.
2 Q. Okay. So your signature would be in there.
3 A. I don’t know if my signature would be in
4 there. But I remember —
5 Q. I’m sorry.
6 A. I don’t know if my signature was in there,
7 but I remember saying, like, “Thanks for letting us
8 come to Neverland,” and it was the first time I’d
9 ever been to Neverland.
10 Q. Okay. But this is the book you saw at
11 Neverland, right.
12 A. Yes.
13 Q. Okay.
14 Move to admit Defense Exhibit 5031.
15 MR. SNEDDON: Your Honor, I have no
16 objection to either option. They can put in a
17 photocopy of the front, which is what he was
18 questioned about, but as to the entire contents, I
19 object.
20 THE COURT: All right. The objection is
21 sustained as to the contents.
22 MR. MESEREAU: Okay. With your permission,
21 Vernee Watson.
22 A. I kind of remember her name. But, I mean, I
23 Your Honor, we can just get a duplicate of the
24 cover.
25 THE COURT: That would be fine.
26 MR. MESEREAU: Okay. Okay.
27 THE COURT: You can leave — is there an
28 agreement that once he gets the duplicate of the 2047
1 cover, that he can exchange the duplicate for the
2 original and remove the original. Or do you want to
3 wait until the end of the trial for that.
4 MR. SNEDDON: No, that would be fine, Your
5 Honor. I’m just at a little bit — “duplicate”
6 meaning —
7 THE COURT: The duplicate of the cover is
8 what he was saying.
9 MR. MESEREAU: Yeah.
10 MR. SNEDDON: Will it have the same writing
11 on it.
12 THE COURT: “Duplicate” usually means the
13 same. I mean, it’s a duplicate.
14 MR. SNEDDON: All right. I’ll wait till the
15 duplicate comes in, and we can talk about it then.
16 How’s that.
17 THE COURT: Okay. All right. Go ahead,
18 Counsel.
19 MR. MESEREAU: Thank you, Your Honor.
20 Q. Mr. Arvizo, according to you, it’s your
21 brother’s handwriting, right.
22 A. It kind of looks like it. But I don’t know
23 if it is.
24 Q. And it says, “Hi, Doe-Doe, it’s your Blow
25 Hole. I love with you all my heart. Love forever,
26 your Blow Hole, Gavin.” Do you see that.
27 A. It says “Blow Hole and Gavin.” It doesn’t
28 say “Blow Hole” — 2048
1 Q. It looks like an “F.”
2 THE COURT: Counsel, you’re testifying.
3 MR. MESEREAU: I’m sorry, Your Honor. Okay.
4 Q. You didn’t see your brother do this, right.
5 A. No —
6 MR. SNEDDON: Asked and answered, Your
7 Honor.
8 THE COURT: Sustained.
In this excerpt, Mesereau questioned Gavin about the mannequin that he and Star claimed that Jackson simulated sexual acts upon, and asked Gavin if he knew who defaced it by taking a magic marker and smearing it near the vaginal area. Gavin denied any knowledge of it, and Mesereau specifically asked Gavin why Star defaced it, which prompted an immediate objection from Sneddon, who claimed that Mesereau was testifying again, and Judge Melville agreed and sustained his objection.
9 MR. MESEREAU: Your Honor, I have in front
10 of me an exhibit, No. 5032, which is a photocopy of
11 a mannequin.
12 I’d like to approach the witness, if I may.
13 Q. Mr. Arvizo, I’m showing you a document
14 that’s labeled Exhibit 5032. Do you see that.
15 A. Yes.
16 Q. And that appears to be a photograph of a
17 mannequin, correct.
18 A. Yes.
19 Q. Appears to be an African-American girl with
20 braids, right.
21 A. Yes.
22 Q. With a blue jean jacket, right.
23 A. Yes.
24 Q. And a pink shirt. Do you see that.
25 A. Yes.
26 Q. Have you seen that mannequin before.
27 A. Yes, I saw it in Michael’s bedroom.
28 Q. Is that the mannequin that you’re claiming 2049
1 Mr. Jackson simulated a sex act with.
2 A. Yes.
3 Q. Okay. Now, did you ever discuss with Mr.
4 Jackson where that mannequin came from.
5 A. No. He said that — there was a bunch of
6 mannequins all over his bedroom.
7 Q. Well, did he ever tell you this was
8 something that was custom made and it’s a mannequin
9 of a cousin of his.
10 A. No. He just said that he has lots of
11 mannequins.
12 Q. So you never discussed with him what this
13 mannequin was all about, right.
14 A. No.
15 Q. You never knew that this mannequin was
16 something that was paid for and custom made because
17 it’s his cousin.
18 A. He never told me that.
19 Q. Okay. Okay. When did you first see this
20 mannequin.
21 A. In his bedroom. Where the bed actually is.
22 Q. And do you know approximately when that was.
23 A. I don’t — probably the first time I went in
24 his room I saw it there. And then the second time I
25 was in his room. All the way after Miami was when
26 we made the joke about it.
27 Q. At some point you learned that somebody had
28 defaced that mannequin, right. 2050
1 A. Defaced. What do you mean.
2 Q. Yes. Somebody had taken like a magic marker
3 and messed up that mannequin, right.
4 A. No, I don’t remember that.
5 MR. MESEREAU: Your Honor, at this time I’d
6 like to approach the witness and show him Exhibit
7 No. 5033, which is a photograph —
8 THE COURT: All right.
9 MR. MESEREAU: — of a mannequin as well.
10 Q. Mr. Arvizo, I’m showing you Defense
11 Exhibit No. 5033. Do you see that.
12 A. Yes.
13 Q. And do you see where somebody went into the
14 vaginal portion of that mannequin and defaced it
15 with a magic marker.
16 A. Yes. I see that, I guess.
17 Q. You know who did that, don’t you.
18 A. No.
19 MR. MESEREAU: May I publish this, Your
20 Honor.
21 THE COURT: No.
22 Q. BY MR. MESEREAU: You don’t know who did
23 that at all.
24 A. No.
25 Q. You didn’t do it.
26 A. No.
27 Q. Your brother didn’t do it.
28 A. No. 2051
1 MR. MESEREAU: May I approach one more time.
2 THE COURT: Yes.
3 Q. BY MR. MESEREAU: Do you see the skirt on
4 the mannequin in Defense Exhibit 5032.
5 A. Yes.
6 Q. Same material as you see on the mannequin in
7 Defense Exhibit 5033, right.
8 A. I guess so. Yeah.
9 Q. But you’ve never seen this defaced
10 portion —
11 A. No.
12 Q. — right.
13 A. No. No.
14 Q. Do you know why your brother defaced the
15 guest book.
16 MR. SNEDDON: Your Honor, I’m going to
17 object. Counsel’s testifying. And he’s already
18 said he didn’t do it.
19 MR. MESEREAU: I didn’t ask if he did it.
20 THE COURT: Sustained; calls for speculation.
21 MR. MESEREAU: Okay. Move to admit Defense
22 Exhibits 5032 and 5033, Your Honor.
23 THE COURT: They haven’t been properly
24 identified. So it’s denied.
25 MR. MESEREAU: Exhibit 5032 is the
26 photograph of the mannequin that I showed
27 Mr. Sneddon.
28 THE COURT: That one is admitted. 2052
1 MR. MESEREAU: And 5033 is also a photograph
2 of the same mannequin.
3 THE COURT: But it hasn’t been identified as
4 to the marking you’re talking about. He has never
5 seen it that way, so we don’t know who did it, when
6 it was done. There’s no foundation.
7 MR. MESEREAU: We’ll do it — we’ll do it
8 later, then.
9 THE COURT: All right. No foundation.
10 MR. MESEREAU: Okay. All right.
Mesereau’s initial cross-examination ended here, after he questioned Gavin on if he knew why Jackson wore makeup, and he gave an answer that should really make readers feel even more compassion towards Jackson: Gavin said that he knew Jackson wore lipstick because he had no pigmentation in his lips, which really puts everything into perspective. Jackson was oftentimes ridiculed for wanting to look effeminate, but Gavin just confirmed (and not that anyone needed his confirmation!) that Jackson had a legitimate reason to wear that lipstick and makeup!
Also, pay attention to how Gavin says that he didn’t know that Jackson had patches on his skin from vitiligo, and that he thought Jackson was “all white”. Remember, Gavin claimed that he saw Jackson allegedly run into the bedroom fully nude and with an erection as he and Star watched television, and if they had truly seen Jackson naked, they would have known that Jackson had those patches! Gavin just unknowingly shot himself in the foot again!
On a personal note, I am absolutely stunned that Sneddon did not try to ask Gavin and Star to describe Jackson’s penis so that he could execute another strip search on Jackson to see if it matched! It’s probably due to the fact that they both claimed that they didn’t get a good luck at Jackson’s penis because they were so uncomfortable that they ran out of the room. (That’s their side of the story; according to Sneddon’s opening statement, it was Jackson who ran out of the room!)
Here’s what Gavin said under direct examination about seeing Jackson nude:
22 Q. BY MR. SNEDDON: Was — was there ever any
23 occasion where you had — well, was there ever an
24 occasion where you saw anything with regard to
25 Mr. Jackson coming up the stairs.
26 A. Yes.
27 MR. MESEREAU: Objection; vague.
28 THE COURT: Overruled. 1650
1 Q. BY MR. SNEDDON: And where were you when you
2 saw Mr. Jackson coming up the stairs.
3 A. Me and my brother were laying on the bed.
4 Q. And what were you doing.
5 A. I think we were just laying there.
6 Q. All right. And when Mr. Jackson came up the
7 stairs, did you notice anything.
8 A. Yeah, he was naked.
9 Q. When you say “naked,” what do you mean by
10 that.
11 A. Like, not clothes on.
12 Q. Did Mr. Jackson do or say anything at that
13 point in time.
14 A. No, he just ran up and just got something
15 and went back down.
16 Q. I’m sorry.
17 A. I think he just ran up there and got
18 something and went back downstairs.
That is a complete contradiction to Sneddon’s opening statement! Sneddon claimed that Star and Gavin ran downstairs after Jackson retrieved the item he was looking for in his bedroom! Here’s the excerpt:
11 It’s in this room and on that bed where the
12 boys were sitting there watching T.V. one night, and
13 all of a sudden, the defendant appears from the
14 stairwell, absolutely stark naked, with an erection.
15 And when the boys look at him – and Star will say he
16 was grossed out – that the defendant says, “It’s
17 natural. It’s okay. Why don’t you boys do the same
18 thing.” Their response was to get up from the bed
19 and go downstairs and pretend like they had to go to
20 the bathroom.
And here is what Gavin had to say under cross examination about Jackson’s “all white” body that he claimed to witness when Jackson allegedly ran into the bedroom in the nude:
11 Q. Finally, Mr. Arvizo, in your direct
12 examination, you commented a couple of times on
13 Mr. Jackson wearing makeup. Do you remember that.
14 A. Here.
15 Q. When you were answering Prosecutor Sneddon’s
16 questions, a couple of times you used the word
17 “makeup” in referring to Michael Jackson, right.
18 A. I said one time when he was — a story about
19 a time when we were in the room where his makeup
20 was, but I don’t remember me saying it a lot of
21 times.
22 Q. Now, you knew that Michael Jackson has a
23 skin disease called vitiligo, right.
24 A. He told me about it.
25 Q. And he told you that he’s an
26 African-American man with a skin disease that eats
27 up pigment in his skin, correct.
28 A. Yes. 2053
1 Q. And you knew that that disease was causing
2 certain patches of white and brown on his skin,
3 right.
4 A. Yes. I guess.
5 Q. And —
6 A. I don’t know. It’s not like I was making
7 fun of him yesterday, if that’s what you’re trying
8 to imply.
9 Q. Well, you knew that his skin is vulnerable
10 to sunlight, correct.
11 A. Yes.
12 Q. And that’s why you see him with an umbrella,
13 correct.
14 A. Yes.
15 Q. And you also knew, because of the patches
Gavin didn’t know about Jackson’s vitiligo patches, and testified “I didn’t know about patches. I thought he was just all white.” Seriously!
16 that appear on his skin from that disease, he does
17 sometimes put some makeup on, right.
18 A. I didn’t know about patches. I thought he
19 was just all white.
20 Q. Well, you discussed the skin disease with
21 him, right.
22 A. Yes.
23 Q. You knew the skin disease was changing the
24 color of his skin, right.
25 A. That’s what he told me.
26 Q. And you knew that’s why he put makeup on;
27 true.
28 A. Not really. I thought it was just because 2054
1 he had, like — because he — he didn’t have pink on
2 his lips, so he would put makeup on his lips.
3 I mean, I wasn’t making fun of him
4 yesterday, if that’s what you are trying to say.
5 Q. You weren’t making fun of him at all.
6 A. No.
Finally, Mesereau asked Gavin if he had ever discussed the fact that he had until 18 to file a civil lawsuit against Jackson with his mother or attorney, and he denied it as well. However, it will be proven later on in this trail that a civil lawsuit against Jackson was indeed discussed before police were notified by Dr. Katz.
7 Q. Okay. Now, you’re aware, are you not, that
8 you have until the age of 18 to file a lawsuit
9 against Mr. Jackson if you choose to, correct.
10 A. No.
11 Q. You’ve never discussed that with your
12 mother.
13 A. No.
14 Q. Never discussed that with Larry Feldman, the
15 attorney.
16 A. No.
17 Q. And never discussed it with Bill Dickerman,
18 the attorney.
19 A. No.
20 Q. Okay. You’re also aware that if Mr. Jackson
21 is convicted, you could automatically win that civil
22 suit, right.
23 A. No.
24 Q. No one’s ever discussed that with you.
25 A. No. We said things like, oh, we don’t want
26 his money, and stuff like that.
27 Q. Never discussed that issue with any
28 attorney, right. 2055
1 A. No.
2 Q. First time you’ve heard about it.
3 A. About that I can — you just told me now
4 that I can sue him till I’m 18 or something like
5 that. I didn’t even know about that stuff.
6 Q. Didn’t even know about that, right. And
7 never heard your mother mention it.
8 A. No.
9 MR. MESEREAU: No further questions.
10 THE COURT: Redirect.
11 MR. SNEDDON: Yes.
Sneddon began his redirect-examination by asking Gavin to explain why he never spoke to anyone outside of his family about the case:
13 REDIRECT EXAMINATION
14 BY MR. SNEDDON:
15 Q. Morning, Gavin.
16 A. Hey, Tom.
17 Q. I’m going to ask you just a few questions.
18 It won’t be long.
19 First of all, with regard to this particular
20 case, Mr. Mesereau has asked you a lot of questions
21 about did you have conversations with your brother
22 and your mother and other people about what you’ve
23 testified here in court today.
24 A. Uh-huh.
25 Q. Do you recall those questions.
26 A. Yes.
27 Q. And you said you did not.
28 A. Yes. 2056
1 Q. Were you given some instructions with regard
2 to who you could talk to and who you couldn’t talk
3 to about this case.
4 A. You guys told us that we can’t talk to
5 anybody about this case. Well, our family and —
6 anyone that was, like, involved; you know what I
7 mean.
8 Q. When were you told that.
9 A. When the case first started.
10 Q. So from the time you were first involved in
11 the case till today, those were the instructions you
12 were given.
13 A. Yes.
14 Q. And have you followed those instructions
15 faithfully.
16 A. Yes.
In this excerpt, Gavin is asked to confirm that he really told the truth during his grand jury testimony (and by saying he was telling the truth during the grand jury testimony, Gavin is also admitting that he was lying throughout his trial testimony whenever contradictions were established, such as Gavin stating that his grandmother told him he must masturbate, but then attributing that statement to Jackson during the trial.)
9 Q. Gavin, when you testified in front of the
10 grand jury, did you tell the truth.
11 A. Yes.
12 Q. And when you testified in front of the grand
13 jury, were the things that you told the grand jury
14 fresh in your mind at that time.
15 A. They were probably fresher.
16 MR. MESEREAU: Objection; leading.
17 MR. SNEDDON: Your Honor, I’m laying the
18 foundation for an Evidence Code section exception.
19 THE COURT: All right. The objection is
20 overruled. The answer was already in. Next
21 question.
Ironically, Gavin claimed that he “grew closer to God” when he battled cancer, and described how he had numerous people praying for him:
2 Q. Yesterday you made a statement to the jury
3 in response to one of Mr. Mesereau’s statements.
4 You made a statement something to the effect, “God
5 gave me cancer to guide me in a certain way.” Do
6 you recall that.
7 A. Yes.
8 Q. What did you mean by that.
9 A. Well, through — when I had cancer, I got
10 really close to God.
11 And they had like missions all over the West
12 Coast down to Mexico praying for me. They had —
13 I don’t know. Something happened where they had a
14 picture and they put on a wall.
15 And then my friend went to Israel and put a
16 picture on this wall where they put, like, all these
17 people that have, like, diseases and stuff like
18 that.
19 And then — I don’t know. Because of my
20 cancer, my parents started fighting more, I guess.
21 And — I mean, it sounds kind of sad that they got
22 divorced, but, I mean, it was kind of a window, I
23 believe, to find my stepdad and — because it’s a
24 lot better than it was before having my stepdad in
25 my life.
And he’s still “close to God” now, according to Ron Zonen! He gave a brief update on Gavin’s status in this interview from April 2011:
Here’s a sign of Gavin’s “conservatism” from his Facebook page:
Next, Sneddon told Gavin to describe how he was treated at school by his classmates after the Bashir documentary aired:
8 Q. Now, when you went back to school after you
9 left Neverland Ranch – okay. —
10 A. Yes.
11 Q. — March and April, you were at John
12 Burroughs, correct.
13 A. Yes.
14 Q. Did — what was — what was it like when you
15 went back to school.
16 A. All the kids would laugh at me and try to
17 push me around and stuff, and say, “That’s the kid
18 that got raped by Michael Jackson,” and stuff like
19 that.
20 Q. Did — what was your reaction to that.
21 A. I would sometimes not say anything and just
22 walk away. And if they got close enough, sometimes
23 I would fight them. After they hit me first,
24 because I didn’t like to throw the first punch,
25 because I believe that — I mean —
26 MR. MESEREAU: Objection; nonresponsive.
27 THE COURT: I’ll sustain the objection.
28 In the middle, “After they hit me first,” is where 2069
1 it stops.
2 MR. SNEDDON: Thank you, Your Honor.
3 Q. So there were fights that you got into after
4 you left Neverland Valley Ranch because of the
5 things that the kids were saying to you.
6 A. Yes.
7 Q. And when you get in a fight, what happens.
8 Where do you have to go.
9 A. They took us to Dean Alpert.
Next, Gavin admits to Sneddon that he really did deny to his principal that he had been abused by Jackson, but only because he was already getting teased:
10 Q. Now, you were asked yesterday whether you
11 had a conversation with Dean Alpert where he asked
12 you whether or not Mr. Jackson had touched you. Do
13 you recall that.
14 A. Yes.
15 Q. And you recall that you probably told him it
16 didn’t happen, correct.
17 A. I told him that it didn’t happen.
18 Q. Okay. You told him it didn’t happen.
19 A. Yes.
20 Q. Okay. Why did you tell him that.
21 A. Because all the kids were already making fun
22 of me in school, and I didn’t want anybody to think
23 that it really happened.
But yesterday during Mesereau’s cross examination, Gavin said he couldn’t remember where he spoke with his principal at, or what exactly he said!
27 Q. Where did the discussion with Dean Alpert
28 take place. 1819
1 A. I don’t remember. It was probably in his
2 office.
3 Q. Okay. And the purpose of the discussion was
4 what, if you know.
5 A. It was probably about Michael.
6 Q. Okay. You say “probably about Michael”.
7 A. Uh-huh.
8 Q. But you’re not sure.
9 A. I’m not sure what the whole conversation was
10 about.
11 Q. Okay. But sometime in that conversation,
12 Dean Alpert looked you in the eye and said, “Are
13 these allegations that Mr. Jackson sexually abused
14 you true,” right.
15 A. Uh-huh.
16 Q. And you said they were not true, right.
17 A. Yeah. I told him that Michael didn’t do
18 anything to me.
19 Q. Okay. Mr. Alpert asked you twice whether or
20 not Michael Jackson had ever done anything of a
21 sexual nature to you, correct.
22 A. I don’t know if he asked me twice.
23 Q. Well, the first time he asked you, you shook
24 your head “No,” right.
25 A. I don’t know.
26 Q. And the second time he asked you, you said
27 to him, “No, he did not touch me in any sexually
28 inappropriate way,” correct. 1820
1 A. I don’t know.
2 Q. You don’t know.
3 A. I’m pretty sure I told him that.
4 Q. Okay.
5 A. But, I mean, I don’t know how exactly it
6 happened.
As Sneddon moves on to the next subject, notice how he starts off by saying “Just a couple more easy questions”, which is symptomatic of how he questioned Gavin throughout his police interviews, grand jury testimony, and direct examination. The first “easy question” that he asked Gavin was to recall the number of times he shopped at Anchor Blue during his “imprisonment” at Neverland, and Gavin answered that he recalled shopping there once:
6 Q. Almost done. Just a couple more easy
7 questions and —
8 Mr. Mesereau asked you yesterday about going
9 to Anchor Blue. Do you recall that.
10 A. Yes.
11 Q. How many times do you recall going to shop
12 at Anchor Blue.
13 A. Once.
However, under Mesereau’s earlier cross-examination, Gavin couldn’t remember if he shopped at Anchor Blue, or any other store!
19 Q. Okay. Do you remember seeing a movie called
20 Old School around March 1st, 2003.
21 A. A little bit.
22 Q. Your mother, your brother, your sister and
23 you went to that movie theater, right.
24 A. I don’t really remember.
25 Q. You also went to Anchor Blue that day,
26 right.
27 A. I believe so. I guess.
Gavin then went on to describe the articles of clothing that were missing from his suitcase that was packed but left at Neverland during his final “escape”, but subsequently delivered to his home by Frank Cascio and Vincent Amen. He named underwear, shirts, and pants that were missing from the suitcase, but Sneddon was only interested in knowing if Gavin had spoken to Jackson about the missing underwear, and ignored the missing shirts and pants! Gavin claimed that he was in Jackson’s bedroom, and decided to take a shower in the guest unit, so Jackson told him to leave his “stinking underwear” in his hamper, so Gavin obliged and never received it back, and Sneddon used this allegation to give the jurors the impression that Jackson wanted to keep Gavin’s dirty underwear for himself as a memento of his relationship with Gavin, since Gavin had left the ranch for the last time. This is a common characteristic among true child predators:
14 Q. Now, the suitcases that they bought you —
15 I just want to talk about you individually, okay. —
16 A. Okay.
17 Q. — was it more than one.
18 A. It was — like, they had this package thing
19 where you would buy one, and they would have all —
20 they would have this big one, and in the inside it
21 would be one smaller, and another one that was even
22 smaller that was a carry-on bag.
23 Q. So you had a series of suitcases.
24 A. Yeah, and — yes.
25 Q. And when you left Neverland, did you take
26 all those suitcases with you, you personally.
27 A. I think I just took the — no, I didn’t take
28 them. They — after we left and we stopped — we 2071
1 didn’t want to go back —
2 Q. Okay.
3 A. — Frank and Vinnie showed up on our door
4 and they were knocking on the door. And then we
5 waited until they left, and we looked outside and
6 our suitcases were there.
7 Q. Did you open your suitcase and go through
8 it.
9 A. Yes.
10 Q. Was there anything missing.
11 A. Yeah.
12 Q. What.
13 A. Some of my underwear, some of my shirts, a
14 couple pants, and stuff like that. And they put in
15 some other guy’s pants.
16 Q. Did you ever have a conversation with the
17 defendant in this case, Mr. Jackson, about your
18 underpants.
19 A. Yes.
20 Q. Tell the jury about it.
21 MR. MESEREAU: Objection; beyond the scope.
22 THE COURT: Overruled.
23 THE WITNESS: There was one time that I slept
24 in his room – and he was probably joking but I kind
25 of took it serious – I had pajamas on and — I was
26 using his pajamas. And I told him I was going in to
27 take a shower in my unit.
28 And then he was like, “Leave your stinking 2072
1 underwear in the hamper,” or something like that.
2 And then so — because I had to change out
3 of my clothes to go to my unit. And then I don’t
4 know if he was joking or not, but I actually did.
5 Q. BY MR. SNEDDON: Did what.
6 A. Put my underwear in the hamper.
7 Q. Did you ever get those back.
8 A. No.
9 Q. With regard to the items that were dropped
10 at your — at your door by Frank and Vinnie, that
11 was after you left Neverland for good.
12 A. Yes.
Sneddon ended his redirect-examination by asking Gavin how he really felt about Jackson after all that he had been through, and he replied by playing the “religion card” and saying that he used to admire Jackson, but now admires God, in order to try to earn the jury’s sympathy:
13 Q. Okay. Gavin, I just have one last question
14 to ask you: Yesterday in response to Mr. Mesereau’s
15 questions, you told him that Mr. Jackson was like a
16 father figure to you; is that correct.
17 A. Michael Jackson.
18 Q. Yeah.
19 A. Yes.
20 Q. And that you thought he was one of the
21 coolest guys in the world, correct.
22 A. Yes.
23 Q. And that you admired him.
24 A. Well, I only admire God, but he was a pretty
25 cool guy.
26 Q. How do you feel about Mr. Jackson now in
27 light of what he did to you.
28 MR. MESEREAU: Objection. 352; relevance; 2073
1 leading.
2 THE COURT: Overruled.
3 THE WITNESS: I don’t really like him
4 anymore. I don’t think he’s really that deserving
5 of the respect that I was giving him and as the
6 coolest guy in the world.
7 MR. SNEDDON: Nothing further, Your Honor.
8 THE COURT: Recross.
9 MR. MESEREAU: Yes, please, Your Honor.
Mesereau’s recross-examination was fairly short and to the point, as he asked Gavin about his disciplinary problems at school, and whether or not he had talked to any of the prosecutors about what he would be asked in court today:
11 RECROSS-EXAMINATION
12 BY MR. MESEREAU:
13 Q. Mr. Arvizo, did you discuss your testimony
14 of yesterday with anyone last evening.
15 A. No.
16 Q. Did you discuss any of it with Mr. Sneddon.
17 A. No.
18 Q. Was the last meeting you had with Mr.
19 Sneddon Sunday night.
20 A. Yes.
21 Q. Did you discuss your testimony with any
22 attorney or employee of an attorney last night.
23 A. No.
24 Q. Okay. Did anyone talk to you about what
25 Mr. Sneddon was going to ask you today.
26 A. No.
27 Q. Okay. Now, did you have a meeting at a law
28 office last Saturday. 2074
1 A. No.
2 Q. Anyone in your family go to a law office
3 last Saturday, to your knowledge.
4 A. No.
5 Q. Never heard about it.
6 A. No.
7 Q. Okay. When is the last time you talked to
8 any lawyer associated with Larry Feldman’s office.
9 MR. SNEDDON: Your Honor, I’m going to
10 object as beyond the scope of the redirect.
11 THE COURT: Sustained.
12 Q. BY MR. MESEREAU: Mr. Arvizo, when you were
13 having disciplinary problems at school, they went
14 far beyond just fighting with students, didn’t they.
15 A. No, it was everything that I told you.
16 That’s what happened.
17 Q. You were repeatedly accused of disrespecting
18 teachers, right.
19 A. That’s what I told you yesterday.
20 Q. Okay. And you didn’t even show up for
21 detention much of the time when you were ordered to,
22 right.
23 A. No, I showed up at every detention.
24 Q. Well, do you recall never showing up for a
25 detention that Teacher Parker ordered you to attend.
26 A. No.
27 Q. Don’t recall that.
28 A. No. 2075
1 Q. Okay. You were accused of getting up in the
2 middle of class and disrupting everything, right.
3 MR. SNEDDON: Your Honor, I’m going to
4 object as asked and answered. We went through this
5 yesterday.
6 THE COURT: Sustained.
7 MR. MESEREAU: No further questions, Your
8 Honor.
9 THE COURT: All right. Do you have anything
10 further, Mr. Sneddon.
11 MR. SNEDDON: No, Your Honor.
12 THE COURT: You may step down.
13 Call your next witness.
14 MR. MESEREAU: Your Honor, may the witness
15 be subject to re-call.
16 THE COURT: Yes. He’s not excused.
17 MR. MESEREAU: Thank you, Your Honor.
18 MR. ZONEN: We’ll call Officer Terry Flaa to
19 the stand.
After reading Gavin’s testimony, it’s hard to believe that he could say all of those lies about Jackson after all the help that he had received from the pop star. Let’s look at what Jackson had to say about Gavin during his interviews with Rabbi Boteach in 2000-2001, which were published after Jackson’s death in “The Michael Jackson Tapes” and “Honoring The Child Spirit”.
Here is what he said about Gavin in “The Michael Jackson Tapes” on pages 372-374:
And here is what he said about Gavin in “Honoring The Child Spirit” on pages 120-121:
In case you’re wondering what the Arvizo boys are up to nowadays, here’s the latest scoop:
Star Arvizo is a 2012 graduate of Georgia State University and a 2009 graduate of Georgia Military College, according to his Facebook profile.
Gavin Arvizo is a student (and possibly a graduate) of Emory Univiersity, and is an aspiring law school student, according to his Facebook profile. He is a member of the Emory University Mock Trial team, which is for aspiring law school students who attend Emory. If you look through their photo albums, you’ll see plenty of photos of Gavin enjoying life as a college student, while Jackson’s dead body rests at Forest Lawn cemetery.
In September 2011, Gavin and Star were invited to the wedding of Assistant District Attorney Ron Zonen and comedian and family friend Louise Palanker, and numerous photos of them were intentionally posted online on Palanker’s Facebook page. And to add insult to injury, Diane Dimond attended the wedding as well!
I don’t believe it was an “accident”, because the Arvizos were able to successfully live below the radar for many years after Jackson’s acquittal, and then for them to have numerous photos published online, as well as their official Facebook profiles tagged in those photos, it just seemed to me that they were thumbing their noses at Jackson fans all around the world! It’s like they were trying to say “Hey! You’re musical idol is dead, and we’re enjoying our lives to the fullest!”
After the photos were published, I compiled them into a single post aptly titled “Michael Jackson’s Enemies Are LITERALLY One Big Happy Family!” Not only did I include the photos of Star and Gavin at the wedding of Zonen and Palanker, I also showed how so many of Jackson’s enemies (i.e. his accusers, prosecutor, media detractors, and former Neverland employees) are friends with each other on Facebook!
Here are some interesting statistics from Gavin’s cross-examination that shows how terrible of an actor he was! He said the phrase “I don’t know” 137 times!
He said “I think” 120 times!
He said “I don’t remember” 52 times!
And he said “I guess” 30 times!
Before I get to my bullet point summary of Gavin’s testimony, let’s look at this footage of Gavin running away from paparazzi and hiding his face from the cameras in the summer of 2009!
Here is some media coverage from the final two days of Gavin’s testimony:
Finally, here is footage of Jackson and Gavin in 2000; Jackson was Gavin’s light during his darkest hour, and who would have ever thought that Gavin would be the cause of Jackson’s darkest hour!
Summary of Gavin’s testimony:
1. Gavin testified that during their first stay at Neverland in August 2000, Jackson asked him and Star to ask their parents if they could sleep in his bedroom while they were inside of Jackson’s office, and his parents said yes. However, this is contradicted by Sneddon’s version of events; he stated during his opening statements that Jackson and Gavin were ALONE in his office when Gavin was asked by Jackson to ask his parents for permission to sleep in his bedroom!
Frank Cascio contradicted Gavin by claiming in this interview that it was Gavin who asked Jackson to sleep in his bedroom on his own initiative.
When they went into Jackson’s bedroom later that night, Gavin was allegedly shown online porn by Jackson and Frank Cascio. Gavin claimed that he didn’t remember if it was Frank’s computer or the computer that Jackson had given him, but Star said it was shown to them on the computer that Jackson had given to them.
2. During his opening statement, Sneddon stated that Jackson only called his “special friends” nicknames such as Apple Head and Doo-doo head, but Gavin inadvertently contradicted that notion by stating that Jackson called ALL the kids at Neverland by those nicknames.
3. Gavin stated that it was Jackson’s idea for them to hold hands while shooting their scene in Bashir’s documentary, and that it was his own idea to place his head on Jackson’s shoulder because they were “best friends”, but Thomas Mesereau and Brian Oxman confirmed to Aphrodite Jones that it was Bashir’s idea!
4. Gavin testified that during his stay with Jackson in Miami, he was offered “Jesus Juice” for the first time by Jackson; he claimed it was offered by Jackson to him to help relax him from all of the media scrutiny surrounding the Bashir documentary. He claimed that Jackson also offered him and Star “Jesus Juice” on the flight back to Neverland from Miami (although Star never referred to it as “Jesus Juice”). Interestingly, when asked by Sneddon to describe everyone who was on the flight, Gavin failed to mention Dr. Fars, who Star claimed sat directly across from Jackson and Gavin.
5. According to Star, Jackson gave him a diamond-studded watch and a jacket as a gift in exchange for not telling anyone about the alcohol that they had consumed together. The watch had an estimated value of $75,000 dollars, and was eventually given to attorney Larry Feldman (whom Gavin referred to as Larry; he was on a first name basis with all of the attorneys in this case).
6. Gavin testified that upon their return to Neverland, he drank alcohol (including Bacardi, Vodka, and Jim Bean) with Jackson and Star “every night that Michael was there”, and that Jackson would take them into the arcade, wine cellar, office, and bedroom to drink. He recounted one occasion where he had to bury his head into a pillow to allay the dizzying side effects that drinking too much Vodka gave him. Gavin denied ever drinking alcohol outside Jackson’s presence. Interestingly, when asked to describe one of these drinking episodes that allegedly occurred in the wine cellar, Gavin answered “me and my …” and the quickly corrected himself and said “me and Michael”. This is because Gavin and Star were drinking alone in the wine cellar, and Gavin corrected his lie before he could finish saying it!
7. When his mother Janet told him that she wanted the family to leave Neverland with ranch manager Jesus Salas, Gavin stated that he told her that he didn’t want to leave because he was “kind of having fun”. The Arvizos eventually left Neverland but returned in a few days once Frank Cascio promised Janet that Dieter Weisner and Ronald Konitzer wouldn’t be there, but when she returned and saw them she asked to be taken to Jay Jackson’s apartment.
8. Gavin recalled being told to lie and say great things about Jackson during the filming of the rebuttal video at the home of Hamid Mosheli, and a few hours later he and his family were interviewed by social workers for the DCFS at the home of Jay Jackson, Janet’s boyfriend at that time, where they once again denied any abuse by Jackson. They were then taken back to Neverland by Aja Pryor, the ex-girlfriend of actor Chris Tucker. Afterwards, the family was taken to an inn in Calabasas, where they went shopping for their trip to Brazil. Clothes were bought and paid for by Frank Cascio and Vinnie Amen, and Visas and passports were obtained for the family. Gavin testified that he overheard Jackson and Frank Cascio discussing the trip to Brazil while they were in the hotel room.
9. Gavin recounted an incident where he and Star were in Jackson’s bedroom at Neverland, and Jackson simulated having sexual intercourse on a female mannequin. Gavin couldn’t remember if this happened before or after the trip to Calabasas.
10. Gavin gave a detailed account of two alleged incidents where Jackson showed him and Gavin a briefcase that was full of both complete issues of adult magazines, and cut out pages of adult magazines, as they sat in his bedroom. Ironically, when describing the second incident, Gavin couldn’t remember if it was Jackson or he and his brother that brought the porn into Jackson’s bedroom!
11. Gavin testified that he and Star were in Jackson’s room one day, and Jackson ran into the room butt naked and with an erection, and got something, and then ran downstairs. But this is a major departure from Star and Sneddon’s version of this event! Sneddon stated in his opening statement that Jackson told them that it was “natural” for men to be naked, and Star also testified to this as well. But Gavin couldn’t remember if Jackson said anything! Also, Gavin and Star said that Jackson went back downstairs after he retrieved the item that he was looking for, but Sneddon said that it was Star and Gavin who went downstairs!
12. Gavin recounted the time when he had to go to the hospital to give his doctors a urine sample so that they could check on the condition of his kidney, and when he told Jackson that he was worried that the alcohol that he had consumed would be detected in his urine sample, Jackson allegedly told him “Just don’t take the test”, and they continued to drink alcohol together. At 4am the next day, a few hours before his appointment, he allegedly called his mother Janet and told her about his drinking with Jackson, but he couldn’t remember what she said.
13. Later that morning, Gavin, Janet, and Vinnie Amen were driven to the hospital, but made a stop at a Denny’s restaurant so that he could use the restroom, and then before they reached the hospital, Janet complained that the bottle of urine had been emptied by Vinnie during their stop at Denny’s. This story was concocted in order to give credibility to the allegation that Gavin was drunk at Neverland.
14.Sneddon ended his direct examination on a crescendo by asking Gavin to describe the two alleged incidents of abuse that he could remember (Gavin claimed to be too drunk to remember the other alleged instances). According to Gavin, in the first incident, he and Jackson went into his bedroom after drinking alcohol in the arcade, and Jackson started talking to him about masturbation, and Jackson told him that if he doesn’t do it he’ll get to a level where he’ll have to rape a girl (due to pent up sexual tension). Jackson told Gavin a story about a boy who once had sex with a dog in because he didn’t masturbate. Gavin told Jackson that he didn’t masturbate and didn’t even know how, and Jackson offered to do it for him. After that, both he and Jackson went under the covers, and Jackson put his hands into Gavin’s pants and masturbated him for five minutes before he ejaculated. Jackson said that it was “natural” for boys to ejaculate. (At least Gavin didn’t lie and say that Jackson ate his semen the same way Jordan Chandler did in 1993!)
On a side note, Gavin used the word “section” instead of “incident” or “occurrence” when he was asked to describe the time when Jackson allegedly told him that boys have to masturbate. That slip up is indicative of the fact that Gavin was going through his “mental rolodex” of rehearsed lies! He obviously memorized his lies and put them into different “sections” (e.g., the “boys must masturbate” lie, the “Jackson molested me” lie, the “I drank wine with Jackson in the wine cellar” lie, etc.), the same way he memorized the script his mother wrote for him prior to his deposition in the JC Penney case!
15. The second alleged incident occurred the next evening in Jackson’s bedroom. They had come from the arcade after yet another episode of drinking, and the story is pretty much a repeat of the first alleged incident: Jackson offered to masturbate him and he ejaculated again.
16. Mesereau began his cross examination with his usual introduction of how he speaks for Jackson, and not the government, and immediately questioned Gavin about the timing of his alleged abuse, the credibility of his story of being abused after the airing of the Bashir documentary, the fact that the allegations came up only after the Arvizos met with two civil lawyers, and other pertinent facts. Mesereau was all over the place on the first day of his cross-examination, and he was obviously trying to throw Gavin off of his rehearsed speech, in order to get him flustered and agitated in front of the jury. Mesereau was admonished several times for interrupting Gavin as he gave his answers, and this is a sign that Mesereau was hyper and excited, and couldn’t wait to trap Gavin in his own lies. Judge Melville also had to admonish both Mesereau and Gavin for arguing with each other.
17. Under cross examination, Gavin stated that the abuse started “a week or two” before he left Neverland for the last time in May 2003, but during his grand jury testimony on April 15th, 2004, Gavin told Assistant District Attorney Ron Zonen that ALL of the acts of abuse by Jackson – including the events that he claimed he was too intoxicated to remember – occurred within the last few days that he was at Neverland!
18. Gavin downplayed all of the helpful things that Jackson did for him and his family during his battle with cancer. The only time Gavin became emotional is when he recounted how he was told that Jackson wasn’t at Neverland, but then saw him and felt that Jackson had lied and was trying to distance himself from his family. Gavin explicitly stated that it “broke his heart” to realize that Jackson didn’t want to be around him anymore, and George Lopez, Jamie Masada, and Louise Palanker never did that to him.
19. Gavin testified that he couldn’t remember anything about his final “escape” from Neverland, but Star testified that Janet concocted the lie that her father was ill and she used that as an excuse for her kids to leave Neverland for the last time.
20. When questioned about his deposition during the JC Penney case, Gavin said that nobody told him what to say before he was deposed, but Mesereau showed him a transcript of his deposition in which he stated that his lawyers had told him what to say, and Gavin still denied it! He also denied speaking about the case with his mother, but his father David stated in an interview with Mesereau’s investigator that Janet gave her children scripts to memorize for their deposition on pages 7-25 of this document.
21. Gavin was caught in a huge lie when he was challenged by Mesereau about his statements under direct examination that Jackson told him that if he doesn’t masturbate, he could rape a woman, when he had initially attributed that statement to his grandmother during his police interviews and grand jury testimony. Gavin said it was just a weird coincidence that Jackson told it to him first, and then during one of his escapes from Neverland his grandmother subsequently told him as well. After repeated questioning, Gavin said that he was “sure” that he did indeed mention in another police transcript that Jackson told him that statement, but Mesereau just moved on.
22. Gavin was caught in yet another lie when Mesereau questioned him on his previous assertion that he had been abused by Jackson “a few weeks before leaving Neverland”, when he had said initially that it was “a few days before leaving Neverland”.
23. Sneddon and the prosecution team had an emergency meeting with the dean of Gavin’s school on Saturday, March 12th, 2005 after they became aware that Gavin had denied any abuse to him in the weeks after the Bashir documentary aired. After meeting with the dean, they called an emergency meeting with Gavin that weekend, which Gavin couldn’t initially remember any details of, until after intense prodding my Mesereau, Gavin finally admitted that he met with prosecutors to discuss his misbehavior at school and his denials to the dean of Jackson’s abuse.
24. When he asked by Mesereau if he had any disciplinary problems, Gavin answered that he had a LOT of disciplinary problems! Mesereau’s goal was to show that Gavin was street tough, and capable of lying and being disruptive, and was not the perfect angel that the media painted him as. Gavin admitted to fighting and talking out lout, among other things. He also claimed to have been an advisor to the ROTC club, and admitted that he had issues with other students in the club. Gavin also rationalized his disrespect towards Mr. Geralt by saying that Mr. Geralt “brought himself down to Gavin’s level” by accusing him of being on drugs during an afterschool detention session. Another one of Gavin’s teachers said that he had good acting skills, an observation that would unfortunately become a self-fulfilling prophecy!
25. Mesereau impeached Gavin’s credibility by showing him multiple cards that he and his family sent to not only Jackson, but to Prince and Paris! They addressed Jackson as “daddy”, “your best friend”, and other loving terms, and eroded any believability in their assertion that they only said good things about Jackson in the rebuttal video because they were forced to.
26. Gavin claimed that the doctors were never able to determine exactly what type of cancer he had, so as a result he stated that “I only believe that God gave me this cancer to guide my life in a certain way”. Yeah, whatever.
27. Mesereau attempted to ask Gavin if he remembered making a false claim of child abuse against his mother in 1996, but Sneddon objected and Judge Melville sustained his objection.
28. When Mesereau questioned Gavin about the bedroom alarms outside of Jackson’s bedroom, and Gavin admitted that they could be heard from inside the second floor of the bedroom, which is a stark contradiction to Star’s claim that they could not be heard from inside Jackson’s bedroom, which is how he was able to observe Jackson abusing Gavin!
29. When Gavin was specifically asked if he had ever spoken with comedian Jay Leno, he emphatically denied that either he or his family ever spoke with the comedian. However, Mesereau claimed in his opening statement that Gavin called Leno, and with his mother Janet in the background, began to offer overly effusive praise and admiration to Leno, which made Leno uncomfortable. After hearing in the background what he thought sounded like Janet pressuring Gavin to ask him for money, Leno hung up the telephone!
When asked by Mesereau about when he met with Sneddon about the possibility of being questioned about Jay Leno, Gavin said he and Sneddon didn’t meet to discuss Jay Leno until “a day or two” before his direct examination! Gavin was never asked about Leno during his police interviews or his grand jury testimony, and he denied speaking with Leno (although it will be proven later on in this trial that he did speak with him.)
30. Gavin claimed that he never went inside of Jackson’s bedroom when Jackson was away, but Star stated that he and Gavin would both sleep in Jackson’s room, and Azja Pryor stated in a July 2009 interview that both Gavin and Star begged to sleep in Jackson’s room AFTER the dates when the alleged abuse took place!
31. Gavin testified that he couldn’t really remember whose computer was used to look at online porn during his first visit to Neverland in 2000, but he said it was “probably” Frank’s computer (which was a Sony) because he didn’t activate the internet on the computer that Jackson had given him until a few days after he had left Neverland. However, Star testified that it was the computer that Jackson had given to Gavin (which as an Apple) that was used to watch online porn that was activated while they were at Neverland!
32. Gavin testified that he was very angry with Jackson in 2000-01 when, during his chemotherapy sessions, he could no longer get in touch with Jackson because his phone numbers had stopped working, and felt that Jackson had abandoned his family. He wanted to go back to Neverland and travel to New York to watch him record his album. He admitted this to police during his initial interviews in 2003.
33. Mesereau grilled Gavin about the inconsistency between his statements to police and his testimony regarding when the abuse first occurred. He told police that it occurred during the last few days of his stay at Neverland, but under cross examination he stated that the abuse happened “a week or two” before he left Neverland. Also, Gavin claimed that his mother wanted to leave Neverland “during the last days”, but that he wanted to stay “during the last days” because he was having “lots of fun”. That is an astonishing admission for an alleged victim of child abuse!
34. Mesereau went on the attack and questioned Gavin’s consistency in his numerous interviews with police. Gavin initially claimed that he and Jackson “didn’t drink a lot”, but in subsequent interviews he stated that he and Jackson “drank every night”. Gavin claimed that “a lot” could mean “every night”, or something like that. He couldn’t remember saying what he said, even after he was shown the transcripts of his police interviews.
35. Mesereau then began to challenge the logic in Gavin’s assertion that he was abused by Jackson only after he had been cleared by the DCFS and the Santa Barbara’s Sheriff’s Office, and after the filming of the rebuttal video. Gavin clung to his story, and admitted that he didn’t tell his mother, step-father, or siblings that he had been abused by Jackson. As Gavin tried to explain why he continued to sleep in Jackson’s room after the abuse began, he shot himself in the foot by stating that it was because Jackson “left after the second time”, and that was why he was “pretty sure that it happened two weeks before he left Neverland for the last time”. Mesereau pounced on this information again, as Gavin had previously told investigators that the abuse happened a few days before he left. Sneddon objected to this line of questioning multiple times, and they were all sustained by Judge Melville, who went on to admonish Mesereau against arguing his case in lieu of asking questions.
Gavin also contradicted his earlier testimony that he had never slept in Jackson’s bedroom when he wasn’t there by stating that he actually stayed in the bedroom after the abuse started because Jackson wasn’t there!
36. Mesereau caught Gavin in yet another lie when he questioned why Gavin told Dr. Katz that he thought a “crazy” fan of Jackson would kill him, but he later told police investigators throughout numerous interviews that Frank Cascio was the only person that threatened to have his family killed. Gavin sarcastically stated that just because Dr. Katz wasn’t mentioned in the police transcripts, it doesn’t mean that he wasn’t talked about! Yeah, whatever.
37. When asked about his effusive praise of Jackson in the rebuttal video, Gavin downplayed the role that he played in his recovery by stating that Jackson turned his back on him by changing his phone number, which is something that he claimed Chris Tucker and George Lopez never did. (This is another obvious sign of the anger and resentment that Gavin had towards Jackson, and which eventually motivated Gavin to concoct these false allegations against Jackson.)
38. Mesereau asked Gavin why is it he felt the need to write numerous letters to Jackson after he did the rebuttal video, which would be strange considering that Gavin claimed that all of the positive things that he and his family said about Jackson were scripted, and that Jackson began abusing him after shooting the video (he initially claimed that Jackson abused him before the rebuttal video was shot, but his story evolved over time.)
Essentially, what Mesereau was trying to establish to the jury is why would Gavin want to write Jackson letters where he referred to Jackson as “father” and “daddy”, and thank Jackson for all he had done during his cancer treatments, if the abuse started to occur after the shooting of the rebuttal video? Unfortunately, Judge Melville sustained Sneddon’s objection.
39. Mesereau questioned Gavin about why he initially told police that he was abused by Jackson BEFORE the filming of the rebuttal video on February 20th, 2003, but later changed his story to claim that he was abused AFTER it was filmed! When Gavin was shown the transcript of his police interviews, he claimed that it refreshed his recollection, but that “even to this day” he doesn’t “remember” exactly how everything happened. He then stuck by his current assertions that he was abused after the rebuttal video was filmed, despite his earlier statements.
Mesereau then cornered Gavin by asking him to confirm if he told Sneddon he had been abused at different times by Jackson during separate interviews, and although Sneddon objected to this question, Judge Melville overruled it, and Gavin was forced to answer. Gavin claimed that he spoke to Sneddon several times off the record (and without his conversations being recorded), and Sneddon would act “really nice” to him and “help him” and “make him feel better”. This explains why Gavin felt comfortable enough to refer to Sneddon and the other prosecutors by their first name throughout the trial!
40. Mesereau caught Gavin in yet another lie by asking him to explain why he said that his brother Star stayed with him in Jackson’s room every night until the last few days they were at Neverland, yet he initially told the grand jury that Star didn’t stay in Jackson’s room the last few times. Gavin just stumbled and stuttered throughout his answer, and tripped himself up again by confusing the timeline of his alleged abuse between “the last few days” and “the last week or two”.
41. Gavin accidentally shot another hole through the prosecution’s theory that they were forced to shoot the rebuttal video! Mesereau questioned Gavin about his mother’s statements to someone off camera about gangs and gang signs, and Gavin stated that his mother was “just making a joke”, which would seem pretty incredible considering the fact that they claimed that they were forced to shoot the rebuttal video under duress! How could they all laugh and joke if they were being threatened to shoot a video that they didn’t want to shoot, and to read a script that they didn’t write?
42. When questioned about his feelings about Jackson, Gavin once again revealed that he was angry that their relationship had ended because he viewed Jackson as a big brother and a father figure, and that Jackson wasn’t as “nice” as he and his family thought he has.
43. Mesereau then tore into Gavin about the real motivation for making up his child abuse allegations against Jackson, and was forced to continually simplify the question as Gavin struggled to answer, and Judge Melville refused to force Gavin to answer the question until it was simplified. Gavin eventually admitted that he didn’t tell the police about his claims until after he had seen two civil lawyers.
44. Mesereau questioned Gavin about his claims that he thought Jackson was a father figure to him, until he met his new step-father Jay Jackson. Mesereau asked Gavin why he felt that Jackson was such a father figure to him when Jay Jackson was already in his life prior to the filming of the rebuttal video, and Gavin said it was because they were not as close in the beginning of their relationship.
Ironically, Mesereau asked if the reason that Janet Arvizo had a curl running her face is because she was trying to look like Janet Jackson, and Gavin of course denied it!
45. Gavin denied asking Rijo Jackson (Michael’s younger cousin) to masturbate and watch porn with him in the guest house, and denied stealing wine when he was in Miami, but Rijo stated in his interview with Mesereau’s investigator, and on the witness stand later on in the trial, that Gavin did indeed engage in such behavior.
46. Gavin denied ever being coached by his mother to lie in this case and in prior cases, but this was contradicted by his father’s interview to Mesereau’s investigator.
47. During the grand jury proceedings, Gavin stated that he wanted to do the press conference in Miami after the Bashir documentary had aired, but under cross examination he testified that it was Jackson who wanted to do the press conference. When asked to explain this discrepancy, Gavin stated that he was “just joking” when he said he wanted to do the press conference during his grand jury testimony. How many child abuse victims could “tell a joke” right after they are finished describing the abuse they suffered at the hands of a sexual predator? Do you think any of the victims of Jerry Sandusky told any “jokes” before wrapping up their testimony? I don’t think so!
48. As Mesereau continued to bombard Gavin with questions about why he never complained to anyone that his family was being held against his will as they went on numerous shopping sprees, Gavin admitted that he was “happy to be at Neverland all the time” and that he “liked being at Neverland. That was like Disneyland.” But then he claimed that it wasn’t until the last escape that he realized that he didn’t want to be there.
49. Mesereau questioned Gavin about the mannequin that he and Star claimed that Jackson simulated sexual acts upon, and asked Gavin if he knew who defaced it by taking a magic marker and smearing it near the vaginal area. Gavin denied any knowledge of it, and Mesereau specifically asked Gavin why Star defaced it, which prompted an immediate objection from Sneddon, who claimed that Mesereau was testifying again, and Judge Melville agreed and sustained his objection.
50. Mesereau’s initial cross-examination ended here, after he questioned Gavin on if he knew why Jackson wore makeup, and he gave an answer that should really make readers feel even more compassion towards Jackson: Gavin said that he knew Jackson wore lipstick because he had no pigmentation in his lips, which really puts everything into perspective. Jackson was oftentimes ridiculed for wanting to look effeminate, but Gavin just confirmed (and not that anyone needed his confirmation!) that Jackson had a legitimate reason to wear that lipstick and makeup!
51. Gavin said that he didn’t know that Jackson had patches on his skin from vitiligo, and that he thought Jackson was “all white”. Remember, Gavin claimed that he saw Jackson allegedly run into the bedroom fully nude and with an erection as he and Star watched television, and if they had truly seen Jackson naked, they would have known that Jackson had those patches! Gavin just unknowingly shot himself in the foot again! Also, Gavin claimed that Jackson ran downstairs after they saw him run into his bedroom naked, but during his opening statements Sneddon said that Star and Gavin ran downstairs to pretend they had to use the restroom!
52. Mesereau tried to ask Gavin if he remembered making a false claim of child abuse against his mother in 1996, but Sneddon objected and Judge Melville sustained his objection, and Mesereau moved on to another topic.
53. Before ending his cross-examination, Mesereau asked Gavin if he had ever discussed the fact that he had until 18 to file a civil lawsuit against Jackson with his mother or attorney, and he denied it as well. However, it will be proven later on in this trail that a civil lawsuit against Jackson was indeed discussed before police were notified by Dr. Katz.
54. Under redirect-examination, Gavin was asked to confirm that he really told the truth during his grand jury testimony (and by saying he was telling the truth during the grand jury testimony, Gavin was, unknowingly, also admitting that he was lying throughout his trial testimony whenever contradictions were established, such as Gavin stating that his grandmother told him he must masturbate, but then attributing that statement to Jackson during the trial.) Ironically, Gavin claimed that he “grew closer to God” when he battled cancer, and described how he had numerous people praying for him.
55. Gavin admitted to Sneddon that he really did deny to his principal that he had been abused by Jackson, but only because he was already getting teased. However, he previously testified under cross-examination that he didn’t where or when he spoke to his principal about the alleged abuse, or what he said during their meeting!
56. Sneddon began to end his redirect examination by telling Gavin “just a couple more easy questions”, which is symptomatic of how he questioned Gavin throughout his police interviews, grand jury testimony, and direct examination. The first “easy question” that he asked Gavin was to recall the number of times he shopped at Anchor Blue during his “imprisonment” at Neverland, and Gavin answered that he recalled shopping there once. However, under Mesereau’s earlier cross-examination, Gavin couldn’t remember if he shopped at Anchor Blue, or any other store!
57. Gavin was asked by Sneddon to describe the articles of clothing that were missing from his suitcase that was packed but left at Neverland during his final “escape”, but subsequently delivered to his home by Frank Cascio and Vincent Amen. He named underwear, shirts, and pants that were missing from the suitcase, but Sneddon was only interested in knowing if Gavin had spoken to Jackson about the missing underwear, and ignored the missing shirts and pants! Gavin claimed that he was in Jackson’s bedroom, and decided to take a shower in the guest unit, so Jackson told him to leave his “stinking underwear” in his hamper, so Gavin obliged and never received it back, and Sneddon used this allegation to give the jurors the impression that Jackson wanted to keep Gavin’s dirty underwear for himself as a memento of his relationship with Gavin, since Gavin had left the ranch for the last time. This is a common characteristic among true child predators.
58. Sneddon ended his redirect-examination by asking Gavin how he really felt about Jackson after all that he had been through, and he replied by playing the “religion card” and saying that he used to admire Jackson, but now admires God, in order to try to earn the jury’s sympathy.
59. After Sneddon’s redirect-examination was completed, Mesereau questioned Gavin again about his misbehavior at school, but Sneddon objected on the grounds that the topic had already been discussed, and Judge Melville sustained the objection, and Mesereau had no further questions for Gavin.
After reading that summary, wouldn’t you agree that this photo of Gavin is a pretty accurate depiction of his personality?
The testimonies of detectives Terry Flaa, Jeff Klapakis, and Steve Robel will be summarized in the next post in this series: https://michaeljacksonvindication2.wordpress.com/2012/06/28/march-15th-2005-trial-analysis-gavin-arvizo-cross-examination-terry-flaa-jeff-klapakis-and-steve-robel-direct-examination-part-2-of-3/
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Michael Jackson Vindication 2.0 
I found this comment on youtube. All I can say is wow:
Gavin had a twitter account last year but later deleted it. This comment was made by him to one of MJ’s fans who sent him a very nasty comment:
“Like the bible states, you shouldn’t have any idols before god. Stop worshipping someone who you didn’t know and who harmed children. He could care less about you people yet you obsess over him and lick his dead balls like he was some kind of messiah. He was broken, disturbed, and very sick. A wolf in sheep’s clothing who had the world fooled. Unless you know all the facts, then please keep your ignorance to yourself. Thank you.”
Thanks for letting us know! So much for the possibility of Gavin ever confessing to his lies and feeling remorse!
The thing I’ve noticed about his comment is that he never said Jackson molested him or spoke directly about his allege abuse. I noticed the same thing with his brother Star’s comment about Jackson. He never mentioned his brother or spoke directly about the abuse he claimed to have seen and that his brother endured. That right there is very compelling and speaks volumes. I can see Tom Sneddon and Ron Zonen sitting at a table with these people and telling them things like “Jackson is a monster, he’s done this to lots of kids, you guys are very brave, you’re doing the right thing” etc…So in Gavin and Star’s minds, they believe that they did the right thing and have no remorse because even though Jackson never did anything bad to them, he was still a child molester who did bad things to other children.
But this “wolf in sheep’s clothing” helped him to recover BIG TIME. I am pretty sure if it was not for Michael this Gavin asshole wouldn’t be alive. Anyway.
What comes around goes around. As always. By the way Jordan Chandler at least admitted he lied because his father told him so when he became an adult.
He sure thinks highly of himself, doesn’t he? Pudgy little jerk.
You gotta admit, Gavin is right on point with his comment. See Jackson for who he was not what you star struck eyes saw. Even Oprah Winfrey has re-evaluated her opinion of Jackson after interviewing his victims and fact checking their statements. I think Gavin, the victim, deserves praise for being able to have a successful life after being molested and then attacked by Jackson fanatics who stalk the poor guy and comment on his personal social accounts out of the blue. He’s moved on so leave him in peace. You people need to get offline and get a life. You’re so obsessed with Jackson and his memory that you use precious time in your life to search out people like Gavin and copy pictures of their family, dig into their background, if married, have kids, job. That’s not a sane thing to be that obsessed let alone harassment which is a crime. Grow up, move on and leave Gavin, who isn’t posting the details of his victimization are anything else related to Jackson because he’s living a successful life.
I just want to add something about the fact that even after the airing of the bashir documentary, Gavin pleaded to Michael to sleep in his room. Frank Cascio mentioned in his book one occasion where Gavin asked to sleep in Michael’s room and Michael felt very uncomfortable and denied their request firstly, but the boys kept begging until Michael agreed. After that Michael, Frank and the boys went to his room and watched movies and at some point Michael and Frank went down to the kitchen. When they came back to the room, the boys were checking porn websites on the computer Michael gave Gavin. When Gavin and Star tried to show Michael something on the screen, Michael said to Frank that the boys can’t to that and that he didn’t want this coming back on him. I will post the excerpt where Frank talk about this incident:
“Then came the night when Gavin and his brother Star pleaded with Michael to allow them to sleep with him.
“Can we sleep in your room tonight? Can we sleep in your bed tonight?” the boys begged.
“My mother said it’s okay, if it’s okay with you,” Gavin added.
Michael, who always had a hard time saying no to kids, replied, “Sure, no problem.” But then he came to me.
“She’s pushing her kids onto me,” he said, visibly concerned. He had a strange, uncomfortable feeling about it. “Frank, they can’t stay.” He was absolutely aware of the risks he ran in agreeing to share a room with these boys, especially because this was the very issue that had provoked such a furor in Bashir’s video.
“No,” I said flatly, “they can’t stay. Their family’s crazy.”
But Michael didn’t know how to say no to Gavin, so he asked me to handle the situation.
I went to the kids and said, “Michael has to sleep. I’m sorry, you can’t stay in his room.”
Gavin and Star kept begging, I kept saying no, and then Janet said to Michael, “They really want to stay with you. It’s okay with me.”
Michael relented. He didn’t want to let the kids down. His heart got in the way, but he was fully aware of the risk. He said to me, “Frank, if they’re staying in my room, you’re staying with me. I don’t trust this mother. She’s fucked up.”
I was totally against it, but I said, “All right. We do what we have to do.” Having me there as a witness would safeguard Michael against any shady ideas that the Arvizos might have been harboring. Or so we were both naive enough to think.
That night we watched movies and hung out. At some point Michael and I went down to raid the kitchen. We came back to the room with Doritos, vanilla pudding, some cans of Yoo-hoo, and peanuts.
Michael had just given Gavin a laptop as a gift, and when we returned to the room, we were greeted by the sight of a thirteenyear-old boy ogling an Internet porn site. I don’t think the kid had a porn habit or anything. He was just a teenager exploring the Web for the first time. He kept saying, “Frank, look at this. Frank, look at that.”
I didn’t pay much attention, but when Gavin and Star tried to show Michael something on the screen, he said, “Frank, they can’t do that. I don’t want this coming back on me,” and left the room.
At some point I made the boys stop watching the porn. I hadn’t introduced them to it, suggested it to them, or shown them anything in any way. As far as I was concerned, they were just being boys… doing what boys with access to the Internet tended to do. Later,
Michael came back to the room and put on a movie, some kind of cartoon.”
“THE WITNESS: I don’t really like him
4 anymore. I don’t think he’s really that deserving
5 of the respect that I was giving him and as the
6 coolest guy in the world.”
This kid is so arrogant. Who the hell does he think he is? Poor Michael. Did all he could to help this spoiled little punk and this is how he repays him? wow.
Do we know who were the attorneys and the PI Janet Arvizo hired 6 months before meeting MJ.
Reading these transcripts just sickens me. My brother-in-law is friends with a judge who told him that the police lie all the time in cases. I guess I am still naive, but I always hope that someday one of them would have the courage to tell the truth about the railroading of MJ; but then I read this and the tone is so obviously pro-prosecution, and they really didn’t investigate the Arvizos at all. I suppose there are police who knew this case was bogus and kept their mouths shut in order to protect their jobs or their fellow “brothers”. I just don’t see how these people can live with themselves. I know I couldn’t do it. They all have a severe case of lack of conscience.
I remember when I was younger and I was working at a courthouse when the OJ Simpson case was going on ..They had the issue with Mark Furhman being racist, and the possibility of them planting evidence to make their case stronger..The people I worked with thought OJ did it of course , but that the police had planted some evidence also because they wanted to make sure the case would stick
Dr Henry Lee gave a lecture at my daughters school in Conn., and he said they worked backward from the blood sample taken from Simpson and compared it to the blood they found outside Bundy on a fence or something,at a later date in the investigation, and it was the exact same amount missing from the vial that was in police custody…hmmm..They said if they really think someone is guilty , they do that sometimes ..I couldnt believe it , but it appears to be true.
Think of all the people standing around at the grand jury watching Sneddon hand Gavin those magazines and nobody said a word other then the juror about shouldnt he be wearing gloves…He wasnt part of Sneddons gang..He was a civilian..
The DA is a very powerful person and most of those jobs are political..somebody from the school comittee gives Sneddons wife a job as a teachers aide and he gives someone in that guys family a job..
If you look at the court officers during the trial , they look afraid to seem friendly to MJ, even when he acknowledges them, because they will be out of a job….
Another thing is that the timeline that was attached to the Operations Plan says that Janet told the police in July that Asaf “Michael’s Body Guard” threatened her and left a tape recorder to tape the interview with DCFS.Asaf was actually Asaf Vilicek that worked along with Brad Miller. Terry Flaa had already spoken to DCFS and had the transcript read to him on the phone and knew that there was only the Arvizo family present.How did that not get passed along. After the raid of Brad Millers office and no tape was found Janet changed the story to say that she turned off the tape recorder. HOW MANY LIES DID THE POLICE HAVE TO COVER UP??? Well the answer is simple. The whole thing from beginning until the end is a a lie with these people. THe Arvizo kids were not angels that’s for sure they were street smart enough to shoptlift at the age of 8 among other things. That family was always accusing someone of something. It is time that someone showed them to be the liars that there are.
If the police can cover up lies, and Sneddon can falsify evidence, what other things were they capable of?
I use to feel sorry for Gavin, but after reading this, I wish him and his family nothing but the worst life has to offer. They are very, very horrible people. I would never make such allegations not even against my worst enemy. Child molestation is not something you play with. It’s a very serious crime, and to falsely accuse someone of such an act is unthinkable. They completely destroyed MJ’s life with their horrific lies. I really want to know why they turned against him so viciously. What did he do to them that they would want to hurt him? I remember reading Star’s facebook message to a fan where he called MJ “disgusting”, a “coke snorter” and a “boy manipulator”, and this was AFTER he passed away. This was pretty harsh and downright despicable. MJ was nothing but nice to him and never uttered one negative word about him or his family even after he was acquitted. So I’m trying to figure out where this strong hatred for him comes from?
Losing.That’s where their hate comes from. They were thinking he was their pot of gold and he showed the world that the last thing they should ever be is trusted.The funny thing is that Frank supposedly said something to them about a new apartment and college educations. Well I think someone else is providing that for them, namely Mr. and Mrs. Ron Zonen.
But before “losing” the case, there had to be a reason(s) that the case was brought to trial in the first place. “Stacy” is correct. There had to be extensive hate involved in bringing this case to trial. Why hate? The Arvizo Family had been “dropped” by Michael Jackson long before the molestation charges ever came about. (The Arvizo family were people Jackson had been helping and were not people he considered his friends. When at Neverland, Gavin would beg to see Jackson, but Jackson instructed the staff to say he wasn’t home. Unfortunately for Jackson, Gavin “caught” Jackson at Neverland on one of those occasions. Hate is building.) Next Big Mistake on Jackson’s part: Gavin was temporary “called back” to Neverland by Jackson, specifically for the Bashir interview to bolster Jackson’s image as a man who deeply cared about a long-ago-past cancer patient–an idea that obviously backfired due to Gavin’s ga-ga behavior towards Jackson on network television. Once the interview was over, and not needed for the purposes of the interview, Gavin was sent packing once and for all–again. No doubt, the Arvizo Family was now infuriated at being totally banished from Jackson’s life–not once, but now twice. (Note: Jackson was never “friends” with the Arvizo’s in the first place. Jackson was only there to help a cancer-stricken child and family.) The hate from the Arvizo family stemmed from a need to “get back” at Jackson. How better to do show “hate” than by ruining Jackson’s career with molestation allegations and, at the same time, cash in on Jackson’s millions once the criminal case was “obviously” going to be won. (A civil suit, after a win at criminal trial, is a given cash-in for victims.) The Avios’s thought they could readily duplicate the Chandler case with the exception that California law had since changed such that the Avisos, unlike the Chachler’s, were forced to go to criminal trial prior to collection of damages. California law had since changed and required that, prior to an out-of-court settlement for collection of damages on a felony charge, a criminal trial was/is now required. And, as said earlier, a win at criminal trial means and an automatic win (and a big money cash-in) at a civil trial–which the Arvizos had long, long before planned.
So basically Zonen promised the Arvizo’s those things that they thought Michael was giving to give them, if they went along with the lies?
Well I think it was what happened after they lost the case and it looks that way now when you see that they all still hang around each other. How important does someone have to be in your life to get invited to a private wedding?
Yes. The relationship between the Arvizo’s and Zonen is fishy. I think what happened back in 2005, was the Arvizo’s upholding their side of the bargain, and now Zonen and co are upholding theirs. It does look obvious, especially since the Arvizo’s are getting the things they thought Michael was going to provide for them. Unless Janet committed another welfare fraud act, I don’t see how they’re managing all those things by themselves.
Well Well…Lets see According to these TWO LIARS (GAVIN ARVIZO AND JORDAN CHANDLER Michael Jackson Molested them)…hmmm yeah lets see…Both accusers and hteir parents have shady pasts…and yeah Michael Jackson “ALLEGEDLY” molested TWO boys 10 YEARS APART…yeah I mean cant u all see that all child molesters molest ONLY TWO boys out of THOUSANDS that they meet every where they go and then EVERY TEN YEARS>.oh yeah I can totally see how he was a child molester…Molest ONLY 2 boys out of thousands and then only molest every ten years..makes sense to me..NOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Absolutely. But lets look at how it works.
Evan Chandler and his entire scumbag family saying they’ll do anything for justice…but were all scared ******** when they were faced with the idea of a criminal trial, cause they knew their lies would be exposed right there and then, hence the fight for civil trial, so they could get their precious money, then pull out after getting what they wanted.
And yes, haters like to point out that Michael wanted to take the 5th amendment. But he did in 2005 and look at how that turned out…He admitted he would fall apart under examination, which is understandable, given his mental state. He could never have held that together,
He settled with Jason Francia, cause of more threats. The kid only remembered being “inappropriately touched” after much prodding by the police. And Blanca Francia/the thief was his mother! Nuff said
And you see the Arvizo fiasco…They wanted money, by going to the lawyer who got the civil trial for the Chandler’s, perhaps not realising Sneddon had changed the law at that point, so they would enter a criminal trial first, ha ha. Much of it had to do with Sneddon mind you. The DA who falsified evidence and fed people with lies to aid his personal beliefs and vendetta against Michael.
Diane Dimond claims there are more victims, but when you prod her about them, you get a load of tripe about her inability to disclose sources and they are too scared to come forward…How convenient.
Haters claim that the likes of Brett Barnes, Omer Bhatti and Jimmy Safechuck, to name a few, were victims as well…and they believe the **** in Victor “the pedo” Gutierezz and Evan Chandler’s “love story”, where all of Michael’s victims were in love with him and wouldn’t turn on him…idiots.
I wonder if any kid or parent in the Sandusky case protested sending him down out of love and money? No?
The FBI investigated the claims of people who were allegeding things…the conclusion from the Feds?
“Bull****”
Haters still stand by Aaron Carter’s words that MJ offered him cocaine…but the real transcript of the interview emerged which proved otherwise and the interviewer was Daphane Barack…who has done several shifty things in her career before pulling that stupid stunt.
Gene Simmons alleged that one of his backing musicians quit her role with Michael after seeing Brazilian boys going into his hotel room. Charles Thomson refuted this. And Simmons only said to promote the magazine he was in for the interview.
And let’s not forget Anthony Pellicano. Who before that very odd and brief interview he gave, where he claimed Michael did worse things to kids than molest them, no hater would give him any credit to his stance that he believed Michael was innocent. And after it, THEY NOW BELIEVE HIM AND GIVE HIM CREDIT FOR THAT! EVEN THOUGH THEY SAID HE WAS A CRIMINAL AND A LIAR, THEY BELIEVE HIM NOW! Seriously, unbelievable.
I could go on…but the point, 2, 222 ‘victims’ of Michael Jackson DO NOT EXIST. They exist only in the words of money grabbing, fame seeking liars and the minds of “sheepeople” who can’t get any sense in their thick skulls.
And going over what Corey Feldman alleged, that Michael showed him adult stuff.
Corey said it was porn, then turned around and said it was a medical book with gory pics and pics of nude patients, but Michael skimmed over those things. He also alleged that Michael threatened his life after falling out just before 9/11…but later said the worst thing Michael ever did to him was abandoning him and changing his contact number. He was also present at Michael’s memorial service.
As much as I like Corey and sympathize for what happened to him, I just can’t figure the guy out.
Bear in mind he alleged the things at the time when Michael was getting crucifed by everyone back in 2005, the time when everyone was being payed to say all kinds of crap about him, so…
Hi, Lacienegasmiles–this is from Wikipedia saying there were 8 witnesses who testified they were abused–there were 10 who went to the police but only 8 testified at the trial.
“Over the course of the trial that lasted eight days, jurors heard from eight witnesses who testified that Sandusky sexually abused them.[56] Jurors also heard testimony about assaults on two other victims who were never identified.[56] Of the eight males who gave testimony, each explained that they met Sandusky through The Second Mile organization; their individual accounts spanned from the mid-1990s until 2009.[57][58] The witnesses testified of similar stories of being abused in the football locker room showers or in the basement of Sandusky’s home[57] Sandusky’s defense attorneys argued that the accusers were driven by financial motives.[59]”
Comapring the Sandusky case with Michael’s shows how ridiculous and trumped-up the charges were against Michael. Sandusky had 8 victims who testified about hundreds of occasions of abuse over 15 years. Michael had Gavin, who claimed 2 instances of abuse and J. Francia who was tickled and that’s it!! Striking contrast between the two cases.
There were 10 victims who took the stand against Sandusky and now his adopted son and another 2-4 or maybe even more victims have come forward during the jury deliberations. This is how a real abuser operates. He is a married seemingly heterosexual man who has been living as a respected member of his area for years.
With Sandusky every single victim had charges that Sandusky was convicted on, not one single witness was debunked or not believed.
There are also likely to be lawsuits against the people who knew about the abuse but did nothing about it
Already there are reports that Freeh and his staff uncovered emails that show ex-school president Graham Spanier had been told by former administrators Gary Schultz and Tim Curley about their meeting with graduate assistant coach Mike McQueary. Schultz and Curley are facing criminal charges because McQueary allegedly told them that he witnessed Sandusky raping a boy in the Penn State locker room and the administrators failed to report the same to police, and then allegedly lied about it before the grand jury investigating Sandusky.
For years, Penn State officials appear to have not only been aware of Sandusky’s hideous acts, but chose to cover up the incidents, thereby allowing others to be attacked by Sandusky.
http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/i-team/jerry-sandusky-conviction-beginning-penn-state-faces-civil-lawsuits-victims-article-1.1101356#ixzz1z3fsTqLq
They have proof the abuse was reported at the time and just not investigated and they have the FBI involved already.
According to Schmuley’s book, Michael saw Gavin as an angel? he saw in him ‘the white light that comes before we die’?? Michael really did not see children as people, as fallible human beings who have good and bad, virtues and faults, strengths and weaknesses. He was way too idealistic about children, that’s for sure.
Gavin was telling jokes throughout his initial confession to police. He told jokes about how much he knew about sex over MJ, he told jokes about drinking with MJ, about who else was in the room… he didn’t take any of it seriously.
One of Sadusky’s victims was described as being in the fetal position throughout his entire police recounting.
Even the juror’s were in tears during Sadusky’s victims stories – and Sadusky had a smile on his face the entire time. In Michael’s case the juror’s laughed at the victims, and Michael shook his head throughout their testimony.
If you look at the Sandusky trial….you really see what a prosecutor looking for justice for victims is all about.That trial had several victims and lasted only about a week..Michael Jacksons lasted nearly 5 months ,I believe , because Sneddon was trying to save his case before it even got to court with the ridiculous conspiracy charges..
It’s like the Murray case – Sadusky had almost nothing other than character witnesses. Just as with Murray.
The MJ case was so bloated because they needed to put on everyone to try and find one bit of good evidence. As with the Murray case, most of the witnesses used by Sneddon had not actually given any interviews to them beforehand, a lot of their testimony was a surprise, so almost all of their own witnesses testified for MJ, instead of against him. Think about how shocked they were to find this teacher who Gavin had confided that MJ had never molested him. Or Debbie on the stand. Or the airline stewardesses. Or how they needed to put Stacy Brown up there because they’d learned Bob Jones was not going to say what they wanted him to say. Hell, just look at the Arvizo’s – get on the stand and Gavin can’t even tell his lies straight while on there! They needed all those witnesses to try and find one credible piece of evidence against MJ, and they couldn’t.
Well said. Another thing is the pretext phone call. In 98, a mother of one of Sandusky’s victims called the police because she suspected abuse and then the police told the mother to call him up and listened in to what he said. Sandusky said he wanted to die and he wanted forgiveness. Like Mesereau said (in either the opening/closing arguments) there was no pretext phone call in the Jackson case because they knew the allegations were bogus.
Isn’t it strange that Sneddon, whose been a prosecutor for over 30 years, had witnesses this crazy on the stand? Like Taibbi said, any other DA would drown themselves before building a case around these lunatics. I feel like he didn’t really care about convicting Jackson (he had no evidence), but wanted to embarass him and run him out of the county-which he did successfully.
I believe the pretext call was mentioned in the closing argument by Mesereau..That didnt give the cops a clue either..pfft.
Didnt give them a clue that , Geragos told them about their past con games and Gavin supposedly dying wish is to meet MJ , and yet he seemed to have not ever even heard of Neverland..
MJ not around so the change the timeline…incredible the lengths they went to , to bring this BS to court..
I dont see how they could have looked at the Bashir garbage and not realized this was just like any one of the other people who sold stories to tabloids.
Bashir has the nasty voice over and put that kids picture all over the world , but if he really thought MJ was doing something to the child , I would assume he would have contacted the authorities , and of course he didnt because he knew he slanted that crap..
Gavin could have said he was molested by someone who looked like Harpo Marx and they still would have come after MJ
Pathetic that when all this stuff was going on with MJ and it was making more news then the war the United States was in..
Sandowsky is busy raping little kids. and nobody seemed to care…
@Nan
Yes, it was during closing arguments that Mesereau mentioned the lack of any pretext phone calls by the prosecution, and I included an excerpt here in this post: https://michaeljacksonvindication2.wordpress.com/2012/05/09/february-28th-march-1st-2005-trial-analysis-summary-of-sneddon-and-mesereaus-opening-statements/
I truly believe that if Judge Melville was deciding the fate of MJ and not a jury..he would have convicted Michael. And I think Sneddon was counting on the jury being influenced by 15 yrs of media slander of Jackson and lot of concocted stories by media about this particular case. He left no stone unturned, he even had a PR!!
Honestly, I think it was Satan with all its powers after Michael…but in the end his good deeds saved him from prison.
“Gavin supposedly dying wish is to meet MJ , and yet he seemed to have not ever even heard of Neverland..”
Dave Chapelle did this comedy bit on Michael (I watched it not knowing what it would be like) and he jokingly made a point which is quite thought provoking. Gavin was only 10; why would his dying wish be to meet Michael Jackson? Shouldn’t it be the Backstreet boys or whoever else the kids listened to at that time? If this was the 80’s, every kid would want to meet him since Michael was everywhere at that time. But kids of that age group at that point in time didn’t think of Michael as an artist, but as a famous freak. I mean, its POSSIBLE, but they’re also a bunch of proven grifters.
“How many child abuse victims could “tell a joke” right after they are finished describing the abuse they suffered at the hands of a sexual predator? Do you think any of the victims of Jerry Sandusky told any “jokes” before wrapping up their testimony? I don’t think so!”
Oh my goodness, you people are AMAZING! VERY good point. Shove down that the throats of the bloggers who say MJ was guilty because they themselves were victims. Would they tell a joke after describing THEIR abuse?
” I was actually happy to be at Neverland all the time”.
LOL, so if he’s admitting to lying about the kidnapping, why the hell would anyone believe he was being molested? If Diane Dimond thinks the conspiracy theories were bizarre, that means she thinks the Arvizos’ own words are bizarre and inadvertently admits that Michael was innocent.
I feel like I owe Michael a huge apology for ever doubting him.
If you look at the Sandusky trial….you really see what a prosecutor looking for justice for victims is all about.That trial had several victims and lasted only about a week..Michael Jacksons lasted nearly 5 months ,I believe , because Sneddon was trying to save his case before it even got to court with the ridiculous conspiracy charges..
The Sandusky prosecutor didnt prolong his case because he was in bed with tabloid reporters who were making money and ratings off the case, like Sneddon.
I also didnt see any huge press conference with that prosecutor laughing and joking about ta situation where a child has supposedly been damaged…
Thank you. It´s important to share this complete information. May be through the years, SOME PEOPLES realize the MOST LIES OF THE HISTORY. Michael i´ll fight for you FOREVER!. Thanks for yyour work!!
David, thank you for doing all this time consuming work.It is so clear from these transcripts , I just wanted to make a few points because it is incredible how ridiculious the prosecutors case is ..It make absolutely no sense
———
1 Q. Okay. Now, you indicated that you would get
2 to the kitchen sometimes early in the morning,
3 right.
4 A. Well, yeah. Me and a bunch of other people,
5 when we wanted to eat breakfast.
______________________________
Isnt it funny how the prosesutors try and make it seem like these people were isolsated at Neverland,, constantly monitored, and yet this says they are eating breakfast with a BUNCH of people.MJ always had lots of people roaming around his ranch..There was people everywhere and the prosecutors are trying to say they didnt know what time is was etc..because they were held captive ..oh please !!
.
Thank Heaven Mesereau let this kid keep talking
_______________________
19 Q. Okay. Okay. When did you first see this
20 mannequin.
21 A. In his bedroom. Where the bed actually is.
22 Q. And do you know approximately when that was.
23 A. I don’t — probably the first time I went in
24 his room I saw it there. And then the second time I
25 was in his room. All the way after Miami was when
26 we made the joke about it.
This prosecution is saying MJ was grooming this kid etc, showing him porn on the first night on the computer and yet he never made it into MJ room until “All the way after Miami” , the second time , , even though he was visiting with his father several times
NOBODY is grooming this kid..pfft
_____________
THE WITNESS: There was one time that I slept
24 in his room – and he was probably joking but I kind
25 of took it serious – I had pajamas on and — I was
26 using his pajamas. And I told him I was going in to
27 take a shower in my unit.
28 And then he was like, “Leave your stinking 2072
1 underwear in the hamper,” or something like that.
2 And then so — because I had to change out
3 of my clothes to go to my unit. And then I don’t
4 know if he was joking or not, but I actually did.
5 Q. BY MR. SNEDDON: Did what.
6 A. Put my underwear in the hamper.
7 Q. Did you ever get those back.
8 A. No.
——————
If you are changing out of pajamas and putting street clothes back on to walk to your unit, why wouldnt youleave your underwear on and throw all your clothes in the hamper in the UNIT,,duh
I dont believe for a minute he really left his underwear in MJ hamper unless he was an idiot…It sounds to me like MJ was reminding him to change his underwear when he showered …
—————————————-
This testimony is riddled with inconsistencies and flat out mistakes , which imo is why Sneddon asked Gavin this question during his redirect
Q. Mr. Mesereau asked you yesterday about the
18 fact that when you went through chemotherapy you had
19 some temporary memory loss and inability to
20 concentrate at some points in time.
21 A. Yes.
22 Q. At the time that these events occurred at
23 Neverland Ranch involving you and the defendant,
24 Michael Jackson, were any of those effects from the
25 chemotherapy still present with you.
26 A. No, they went away after a while.
——————
I just would like to point out that when this kid gets caught messing up,saying he really cant remember time lines , Sneddon knows he has messed up his lies and tries to blame it on chemo , to give him a way out..,,the kid is too stupid th catch it..
He says NO , his side effects from chemo were already gone when these events took place , so Sneddon knows he cant blame alcohol for all this kids inconsistencies.
Zonen uses the same excuse for him supposedly not remembering speaking to Jay Leno in his closing argument..They want you to feel sorry for him because he had cancer and use that cancer as an excuse for being caught in lie after lie….
They had to know this was a total fabrication.,,..
The only one I will ever feel sorry for involved in this case are Michael and his children.
I made a correction to bullet point #51. Thank you Nan for pointing it out to me! Even MJ advocates make mistakes too! LOL
So the rabbi confirmed that Frank was scarred of the Arvizo almost the day he met them.