David LeGrand, a former lawyer for Michael Jackson testified Thursday that the men who took over Jackson’s management diverted nearly $1 million of the star’s money and for their own benefit, he believed.
LeGrand was called by the defense to show that Jackson is the victim of a conspiracy by his associates who are also the same men the prosecution claims conspired with Jackson to hold his accuser and his family captive to get them to rebut a damaging TV documentary. The defense has tried to show that there was no captivity conspiracy and that the associates’ actions were for their own financial gain.
“I became suspicious of everybody,” LeGrand said of Jackson’s associates. “It seemed everybody wanted to benefit from Michael Jackson in one way or another.”
LeGrand’s statements are very similar to the testimony of Jackson’s ex-wife Deborah Rowe, who claimed her husband was a victim of “opportunistic vultures” in his inner circle. Mr. LeGrand said he was brought in to straighten out several transactions involving Jackson when he met Ronald Konitzer and Dieter Wiesner, two of the unindicted alleged co-conspirators. But he was fired within two weeks after writing Konitzer a letter asking him to account for $965,000, he said.
LeGrand also said he met the accuser’s mother at Jackson’s ranch at least once and she “seemed satisfied to be there.” He said her children were running through the house “having a pretty good time.”
Deputy District Attorney Gordon Auchincloss suggested, during cross-examination, that Mr. Jackson panned with his inner circle how to respond to the negative fallout from the “Living With Michael Jackson” documentary after it aired.
LeGrand said that Jackson was concerned, but not about the same things as everyone else. “He seemed very concerned about blurring the images of his children (on the video) and enforcing his agreement with Mr. Bashir to view and edit the video before it was aired," he said.
Asked if Jackson was worried that the documentary would not be positive, Mr. LeGrand said, “Mr. Jackson didn’t use the word positive. He expected accuracy, sincerity.”
After LeGrand’s testimony, Judge Rodney Melville issued a stern warning that former Jackson attorney Mark Geragos must obey a defense subpoena and take the stand Friday morning. “That’ll give me time to get the warrant out when he doesn’t appear,” Melville said after discussions over when Geragos could testify in the midst of commitments to other cases. A Geragos colleague said he would inform Geragos and judges in courts where the attorney has appearances scheduled.