1993 Child Sexual Abuse Accusations Against Michael Jackson
In the summer of 1993, Evan Chandler accused Michael Jackson of sexually abusing his thirteen-year-old son, Jordan. The relationship between Jackson and Jordan began in May 1992. Chandler initially welcomed and encouraged the friendship, and bragged about his connection to a celebrity. The friendship became well known as the tabloid media reported that Jackson became a member of the Chandler family.
In June 1993, Chandler confronted his ex-wife June, who had custody of Jordan, with suspicions that their son had been in an inappropriate relationship with Jackson but June dismissed his worries. According to several sources, Chandler threatened to go public with the evidence he claimed he had on Jackson, who asked his lawyer Bert Fields to intervene. Chandler's lawyer, Barry K. Rothman, called psychiatrist Dr. Mathis Abrams and reported a hypothetical situation of sexual molestation mirroring what his son had alleged.
Without meeting Jordan, Abrams then sent Rothman a letter on July 15 stating there was "reasonable suspicion" of sexual abuse and if it had been a real case, he would be required by law to contact the Los Angeles County Department of Children’s Services (DCS). On August 4, Chandler and Jordan met with Jackson and Anthony Pellicano, Jackson's private investigator, and Chandler read out Abrams' letter. He then opened negotiations to resolve the issue with a financial settlement. On August 16, three days after Chandler and Rothman had rejected a $350,000 offer from Jackson's camp, June's attorney notified Rothman that he would be filing papers next morning to force Chandler to return Jordan to allow him to go on the Asian-leg of Jackson's Dangerous World Tour.
On the day Jackson began the second leg of his tour, news of the allegations broke to the public and received worldwide media attention. Jackson ultimately cancelled the remainder of the tour due to health problems arising from the scandal. In January 1994 Jackson reached a financial settlement with the Chandlers to resolve the matter and in September a criminal investigation was closed due to lack of evidence. Five months after Jackson's death, Evan Chandler committed suicide on November 5, 2009, in his luxury apartment in Jersey City, New Jersey.
Read more about 1993 Child Sexual Abuse Accusations Against Michael Jackson: Friendship, Tape Recording, Allegations and Negotiations, Media Reaction and Civil Suit Settlement, Aftermath, People V. Jackson
Famous quotes containing the words child, abuse, accusations, michael and/or jackson:
“Another appealing aspect to having grandparents is that they do help, to give [your child] a sense of continuity—of his place in the world and in the generations. Not only do grandparents help him intellectually to comprehend that there are parents of parents, but they also aid him in understanding where he fits in the succession of things. Even a very young child can begin to feel a sense of rootedness and history.”
—Lawrence Balter (20th century)
“Children are extraordinarily precious members of society; they are exquisitely alert, sensitive, and conscious of their surroundings; and they are extraordinarily vulnerable to maltreatment or emotional abuse by adults who refuse to give them the profound respect and affection to which they are unconditionally entitled.”
—Wisdom of the Elders, quoted in Kids Are Worth It, by Barbara Coloroso, ch. 1 (1994)
“This might be the end of the world. If Joe lost we were back in slavery and beyond help. It would all be true, the accusations that we were lower types of human beings. Only a little higher than apes. True that we were stupid and ugly and lazy and dirty and, unlucky and worst of all, that God Himself hated us and ordained us to be hewers of wood and drawers of water, forever and ever, world without end.”
—Maya Angelou (b. 1928)
“The psychologist called him a psychopath. They didn’t know what else to call him.”
—Michael Mann, U.S. screenwriter. Michael Mann. Will Graham (William Petersen)
“War is a blessing compared with national degradation.”
—Andrew Jackson (1767–1845)