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Court
- September 16 & 17 - My Second Trip as a Media Rep
by Gail Felix
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I am going to go
in order of my notes. This time it was so much easier, as I knew I could
park in the back parking lot at the Court House! I didn't even think
to park there in August. I felt so much more confident this time walking
in famous Building "F" for my "second" ever media
badge. OK. So, time for the cast of characters. On Thursday the 16th
they were as follows: (Not in order of importance by any stretch of
the imagination!)
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Diane Dimond - She is up with the cows. (Now don't even go there!) She
is first to get there and last to leave on most days. She is treated
like a type of Goddess or something around the courthouse which leads
me to believe that this is one of the reasons why she continues in her
quest. I'm not sure what to call it at this point. It's obvious that
to report the truth is not part of her thinking. Everyone runs up to
hug her. The first one was Russ, the silver headed deputy or sheriff's
person, who had his green uniform on Thursday, but changed his dress
on Friday. Then, Jim Thomas stood behind her waiting for her to turn
her attention to him. He said, "I haven't had a chance to hug you,
yet!" She whips around and gives him a big hug. Then watching Diane
and Maureen Orth do a run for each other, screeching, "Diane! Diane!"
"Maureen! Maureen!" was a site to behold! We were then asked
to go into the courtroom. I had to switch gears fast as to not lose
my focus after that.
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Now, here is something that was disturbing to me. In a case as serious
on both sides as this is, before court was called to order, Quentin
Cushner, Dawn Hobbs, and Jim Thomas were laughing at Maureen who was
talking about the civil court hearing in Santa Maria where Michael made
faces to the camera. Maureen put her fingers up like the devil above
her head. (Not a pretty picture, folks!) She made some comments that
I will not write, as they are not helpful to anyone, and they have nothing
to do with journalism - which makes my point. As Maureen shared with
me, legal stuff bores her and makes her eyes cross! My question was,
"So you're here at a legal court hearing because---------------"
But, then the court was called to order! (Dang!)
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When court began, the Defense had a video ready to show to make certain
points clear to the judge in the closing arguments over the Neverland
search. This video was played, and Diane says, "Oh boy! A slide
show!" I wanted to scream a few times during this part, because
when they went to a close up of a framed photograph of Macaully Culkin
in his famous "Home Alone" pose, there was "Dear Applehead"
written in Magic Marker. Stop the presses and alert the media!! Buzz!
Buzz! Ohhh! and Ahh over - "Whats an apple head??!!" I told
a reporter from ABC that it was a nickname that's been used forever,
and that, even when Michael called Britney for the MSG concert, she
quoted him as saying "Hi, Applehead!" I left this ABC reporter
scribbling in his note pad! Geez!!! Glad I could help.
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Also, what struck me during that video is how frightened Michael's maid,
Maria, seemed. And why shouldn't she be? There were 3 or 4 large police
officers and detectives asking her multiple questions about keys and
who, what, and where, and not giving her time to gather her thoughts.
She was very cooperative, but my heart went out to her. That just didn't
seem fair.
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Steve Cochran used this video to rebut testimony by the witnesses called
regarding why they say they didn't know that this room was Michael's
private office. The tape refuted what was said on the stand quite effectively,
I thought, since the detective asked Maria, "Whose office is this?"
She said. "His." And he said, "Michaels?" In his
testimony, he had said it never entered his mind that it could be Michael's.
But, as Steve pointed out, if it never entered his mind, why did he
ask the question?
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One kind of comical moment happened in one of the buildings where there
was a security guard mannequin, which led the officers to believe that
this must be the security building. Steve said they were looking for
monitoring equipment, hence, the speculation over the 6 plasma televisions
which turned out to be SIX PLASMA TELEVISIONS!
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Many in the media, of course, have never been inside Neverland (present
company excluded! LOL!) . When they heard the music that Michael has
playing outside, the Warner Brothers toon music, and saw the Spiderman,
they almost knocked each other out of their seats straining their necks
to get a peek inside the home of the most famous person in the world.
That angered me, too. Michael shares his home by invitation, and the
press was not invited!! (My opinion)
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Now an uplifting conversation was one I had with Jayne Velez-Mitchell.
(Yes, you're reading this right - uplifting!) She commented on how stressful
it must be that the only thing the Jackson family can do to counter
such things as the Chandler book is to wear white and show support!
She asked me if I could be objective about this, and I said, "Of
course!" I promptly had someone fax me the press release on Chandler
that was written here and I shared it with her the next day after court.
So we shall see if anything comes of that. I was told by a source that
Jayne contacted Ms. Hughes recently, so now she has a little more background.
I thanked her for holding up and commenting on the Mary Fischer interview,
and said she was the only one I've seen to bring that up at this time.
She said she's tired of the same old opinions, and would love some objective
view points.
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One interesting point - During a break in the day, while I was taking
an eye siesta, I heard someone ask Diane's producer why he wears fatigues
all the time. He explained, "when your Diane Dimond's producer,
you have to be ready for battle." (Please!!!!!)
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I haven't read the un-redacted phone conversations that were released
while I was gone, but I have a little inside information on that. The
judge said they would have to redact one name because it was said over
and over and over and over again. HMMMM!
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It sounded like the defense is quite angry at the recent media blitz
that Chandler went on and they were almost put in the position of asking
to respond after evaluating each media event!!
On the release of Tape #109 (G-mama's interviews on the Insider) the
judge brought out that there were only 3 places that could have been
responsible for the leak, the Prosecution, the Defense and the Sheriff's
office. I looked over at Mr.Thomas. I couldn't help myself.
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The defense requested the 1993 evidence, but Sneddon said, "Well,
we dont know if that's coming in yet." The judge ordered it to
be turned over, ALL of it. The judge agreed that the Prosecution has
had more than enough time and should be ready to go to trial now. He
said there may be a time when he says no more search warrants will be
granted. He wants this to go onJan.31. That's when Sneddon said he wasn't
going to apologize for more search warrants because, when leads came
in. he is going to follow them, and that he was going to do what he
needed to do for his client!! (Huh?)
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The judge put in a deadline for all this, Steve Cochran got up to say
a few more things, and then the judge said jokingly, "What? You
think I'm not doing a good enough job for you?" Melville was more
or less telling Sneddon to put up or shut up. Steve Cochran is a passionate
fighter for Michael. I enjoyed watching him work. (Hush, MsTenda!) He's
a wonderful advocate. The court ended for the day at lunch, so I went
back to my hotel.
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This is where I pick up with Diane again. I was sitting in the lobby,
minding my own business (really!), and Diane comes down with that dad-gum
cell phone to her ear again. She's inviting Maureen Orth for drinks
with her and another person. Does anyone want to guess who the 3rd person
was? Yes, your right! None other than Jim Thomas! I will say no more.
After that I went to bed, as I knew tomorrow, the 17th, was going to
be a big day!!
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Stay tuned for my 17th reflections coming next!
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