Michael ha sempre avuto una grande cultura

Da **Michaelforever** Lun Ott 17, 2011 11:52 am

Michaelforever Inviato: 02 Feb 2011 08:30 pm

Michael Jackson's Lawyer, Bob Sanger, Talks to West Coast Sound About the Pop Star, His Life -- and His Reading Habits

In the wake of the the untimely death this afternoon of Michael Jackson, West Coast Sound contacted the late King of Pop's longtime attorney, Bob Sanger. Sanger represented Michael Jackson for 16 years, and sat at the table with Jackson throughout the high-profile 2005 case in which the family of a boy accused Jackson of child sexual abuse. We spoke with Sanger late this afternoon.

Bob Sanger: This is what I want to say. I do think it's appropriate to speak out at this point in honor of Michael. First of all, he was a great musician and performer, and his impact on music goes on today. I saw something on television today, I forgot who it was, but I looked at it, a current star doing a music video, and thought, 'That's Michael Jackson.' You can just see where all that came from that didn't exist before he started doing that sort of thing. The beat, and the music and everything else. That's an impact that he'll have forever, or certainly for a long time. I think that what people don't appreciate about Michael Jackson was as a human being, which I got to see, was privileged to see this, because he does have a lot of people around him.

When you represent him, which I did, unfortunately - unfortunately for him that we had to do this, but you do get very close to a person, and I sat next to him for four months in the criminal case - it took a full four months, and he was there every day. But what I did learn in the years that I represented him - particularly in that last case - is that he is a very kind person. Truly from his heart. And his whole family is like that. His mother, Katherine, and his sisters, LaToya and Janet - they have their own personalities onstage and everything, but they are the kindest, sweetest people you'll ever want to meet. And his brothers are very nice; they offer to do what they can for you.

I remember having a family meeting out at the ranch, in a room out there that was nicely appointed, as everything was. And we were all going to sit down and have a big meeting. And Janet says, 'Bob, you don't have a place to sit.' I told her it was okay, I could stand, and she said, 'No, no, no, I'll get you a chair.' She walks out the door, and I figure she's going to get someone to bring me a chair. She walks in with this big wing-backed armchair that she's carrying into the room - Janet Jackson - for me to sit in. It wasn't remarkable in that it was any different that what you'd expect from anyone in that family, or from her.

They were very kind. You would go to the ranch, or a house elsewhere where we met on other occasions, and you couldn't get away without being offered something to eat or drink. And personally, and I don't mean snap your fingers and someone comes to do it, they would be very concerned and very kind and generous about everything. And Michael was the same way. He believed that one of the things he could do in life in addition to entertainment was that he could really help children. And I know that's going to immediately get some kind of sarcastic response, but it's absolutely true.

I was there at his ranch when he wasn't even there on at least two occasions when he had a giant group of kids come up. One, a bunch of kids who were from hospitals down in LA -- children's wards -- came up with their families and everything else, and another time it was disadvantaged kids with their families, they were brought up and came up on buses - he had a couple of buses - and he would bring people up and it was like they were at Disneyland. His staff was there, and at one point he had a hundred-something people on staff. They would be offering everybody candy, and something to drink, and play in the game room, and go to the movie theater. And you'd see these kids, and it was just remarkable to see these kids and their eyes so wide and being treated this way.

Did the attorney in you ever become concerned with that? Here are hundreds of strangers coming into this multimillionaire's home, and anyone of them could have ulterior motives.

Well, I don't want to get into all that.

No, no, I understand.

Well, you know what? Yeah, the attorney in me, I look at what clients do and I always wonder. But, I've got to tell you: until we saw what this last family tried to do to him, which was so completely bizarre and off-the-wall, unfounded, manipulative -- the DA was so committed to get back at Michael Jackson that they just looked with blinders at these people, and ignored the fact that they had scammed other people, and so on. But when you saw that family and looked at that, you had to say, 'Oh my god, how vulnerable' - clearly he was vulnerable. But for a family like this to be able to get the attention of a district attorney and law enforcement was just remarkable. And it just shows you how vulnerable people can be.

And I've certainly seen that in my career in representing people for the last 35 years, certainly there are cases - people are prosecuted because they're guilty, sure, but people are also prosecuted because the government can, and sometimes there are some bad motives. And I don't want to talk about the particulars of that case, but it was just so clear how vulnerable he was.

The groups stopped at that point because we were in the trial - or at least I didn't see any, because I was busy trying to save his life, basically. But prior to that when I'd see these people come in, the generosity, and the kindness - the staff was told at all times, whenever you go to Neverland, or to his house elsewhere, the staff was always instructed to be absolutely kind to everybody. The kindness ran from the top down. And it wasn't the obsequious kind of stuff. It was true kindness, and it came from the top. Michael was kind, the whole family was. And that's the stuff that people don't see. They don't understand how deep the concept of kindness ran in his family.

And the third thing was that Michael was extremely well-read.

I didn't know that.

No. Few people did. In trial - and I knew Michael, but I got to know him a lot better at the trial. The judge was doing jury selection, and it was time for break. Judge Melville said, 'Ladies and gentlemen, I want you to know that jury service is very, very important.' He's trying to convince people not to have stupid excuses to get out of jury service. All judges do this. He says, 'The jury system is a very time-honored system. It's been around for 200 years. We're going to take a break and come back in 15 minutes.

We stand up and the judge leaves, and Michael turns to me and says, "Bob, the jury system is much older than 200 years, isn't it?' I said, 'Well, yeah, it goes back to the Greeks.' He says, 'Oh yeah, Socrates had a jury trial, didn't he?' I said, 'Yeah, well, you know how it turned out for him.' Michael says, 'Yeah, he had to drink the hemlock.' That's just one little tidbit. We talked about psychology, Freud and Jung, Hawthorne, sociology, black history and sociology dealing with race issues. But he was very well read in the classics of psychology and history and literature.

That's fascinating.

He loved to read. He had over 10,000 books at his house. And I know that because - and I hate to keep referring to the case, because I don't want the case - the case should not define him. But one of the things that we learned - the DA went through his entire library and found, for instance, a German art book from 1930-something. And it turned out that the guy who was the artist behind the book had been prosecuted by the Nazis. Nobody knew that, but then the cops get up there and say, 'We found this book with pictures of nude people in it.' But it was art, with a lot of text. It was art. And they found some other things, a briefcase that didn't belong to him that had some Playboys in it or something. But they went through the guy's entire house, 10,000 books. And it caused us to do the same thing, and look at it.

And there were places that he liked to sit, and you could see the books with his bookmarks in it, with notes and everything in it where he liked to sit and read. And I can tell you from talking to him that he had a very - especially for someone who was self-taught, as it were, and had his own reading list - he was very well-read. And I don't want to say that I'm well-read, but I've certainly read a lot, let's put it that way, and I enjoy philosophy and history and everything myself, and it was very nice to talk to him, because he was very intellectual, and he liked to talk about those things. But he didn't flaunt it, and it was very seldom that he would initiate the conversation like that, but if you got into a conversation like that with him, he was there.

Do you remember the last time you saw him, or talked to him?

The last time I talked to him was right after the trial, and then he moved out of the country. I had not seen him personally, in person - I talked to him on the phone - since them. Of course, I talked to people around him, because we still took care of matters for him. But the best I can say, and I don't want to oversell my significance in his world, but I want to convey this side of him that people didn't see. I just hate - every time I hear Jay Leno or somebody take a cheap shot - and Jay Leno I think is a very funny man - but every time they take a cheap shot I think, that really isn't fair, because that's not who he is. And few people had an opportunity to really experience the kindness of him and his family. And few people really had the opportunity the have these intellectual discussions about great thinkers and writers. Freud and Jung - go down the street and try and find five people who can talk about Freud and Jung.

So I have to ask. Are you representing his estate?

No, no. I represented him up here for Santa Barbara-type matters.

And what's the status of Neverland Ranch?

I don't know the exact - I always hesitate to comment on this because I don't know exactly. It was taken over by an investor. I don't know that it was sold outright, I'm not sure exactly. But Michael - after having it raided three times by the cops to no avail for them, it shook him. He was living there up until the trial, and continued to live there during the trial, but just before the trial, they got a search warrant and went back out, allegedly because they wanted to find as-built plans for the house. And they could have asked us and we would have given them to him. They could have made a motion in court and we would have given them to him. They could have gone down to the archives and got them. But it was just an excuse to go out and raid it one more time. They roused him early in the morning, and his kids were there, and after that he said, 'I don't think I can live here anymore.' And it was a shame. He had his tree. He would go up in this tree, and he wrote some of his songs there. It's kind of like a historic place, but for him it was a very personal place.

L’AVVOCATO DI MICHAEL JACKSON BOB SANGER PARLA CON WEST COAST SOUND DELLA POP STAR, LA SUA VITA E LE SUE ABITUDINI NELLA LETTURA.

All’alba della improvvisa morte di Michael Jackson questo pomeriggio, West Coast Sound ha contattato l'avvocato storico del King of Pop.
Sanger ha rappresentato MJ per 16 anni e ha preso parte al processo del 2005 quando la famiglia di un ragazzino accusava Jackson di molestie sessuali minorili.
BS: Questo è quello che voglio dire. Penso che sia appropriato parlare a questo punto in onore di Michael. Prima di tutto era un grande musicista e performer e il suo impatto sulla musica continua ancora oggi. Oggi ho visto una cosa in TV, avevo dimenticato chi era, ma ho visto una star attuale in un video musicale e ho pensato: quello è MJ. Ti accorgi da dove viene tutto questo, che non esisteva prima che l’avesse fatto lui. Il ritmo, la musica e tutto il resto. E’ un effetto che ci sarà sempre o di certo per molto tempo. Penso che la gente non ha apprezzato MJ come essere umano, cosa che io ho avuto il privilegio di conoscere, anche se era attorniato da molta gente.
Quando rappresenti una persona, come ho fatto io, sfortunatamente per lui perché ci siamo dovuti occupare di questo, ti avvicini molto e io mi sono seduto per 4 mesi accanto a lui durante la causa penale e lui era lì ogni giorno. Ma ciò che ho imparato negli anni in cui l'ho rappresentato, in modo particolare durante l’ultimo processo, è che era una persona molto gentile, gli veniva dal cuore in maniera sincera e tutta la sua famiglia è così. Sua madre Katherine e le sue sorelle La Toya e Janet hanno una certa personalità sul palco ma sono le persone più gentili e dolci che vorresti mai incontrare. I fratelli sono brave persone, si offrono di fare per te ciò che possono.
Ricordo una riunione di famiglia al ranch, in una stanza ben sistemata e Janet mi dice: “Bob non hai un posto a sedere”. Le ho detto che non faceva niente, potevo stare in piedi e lei mi dice: “No, no ti porto una sedia”. Esce e io penso che chiami qualcuno per portarmi una sedia. Ritorna con una grossa poltrona che trasportava per me. Non risulta strano se non perchè non te l'aspetteresti da loro.
Erano molto gentili. In altre occasioni, andavi al ranch e non te ne andavi senza che non ti offrissero qualcosa da mangiare o da bere. Per me, non dico che schiocchi le dita e qualcuno arriva da te, ma si preoccupavano molto ed erano generosi su tutto. Michael era uguale. Credeva che una delle cose che poteva fare nella vita, oltre all’intrattenimento, era aiutare i bambini. So che questo susciterà qualche risposta sarcastica ma è l’assoluta verità.
Ero al ranch, quando lui neanche era presente, in almeno due occasioni e c’era un gigantesco gruppo di bambini. Una volta, un gruppo di bambini provenienti dagli ospedali di Los Angeles con le loro famiglie, la seconda, erano bambini svantaggiati con le loro famiglie. Sono venuti e andati via con i pullman. Lui aveva un paio di pullman con cui li portava ed era come se fossero a Disneyland. C’era il suo staff che era composto di circa un centinaio di persone. Venivano offerte a tutti caramelle, qualcosa da bere e andavano nella sala giochi e al cinema. Era bellissimo vedere questi bambini con gli occhi spalancati essere trattati in quel modo.

L'avvocato che è in lei si è mai preoccupato per questo? Centinaia di estranei che entrano nella casa di un multimilionario e ognuno poteva avere altri scopi.

Beh, sai una cosa? Come avvocato, guardo ciò che i clienti fanno e mi pongo delle domande. Ma devo dire una cosa: finchè non abbiamo visto ciò che questa famiglia cercava di fare a Michael, ciò che era completamente bizzarro e fuori dal comune, infondato e manipolatorio – il procuratore distrettuale voleva così tanto tornare su di lui, che ha usato i paraocchi con loro e ha ignorato il fatto che avessero infangato altre persone. Quando si trattava di quella famiglia, lui (il procuratore) era chiaramente vulnerabile, ma per una famiglia come quella, attirare l’attenzione di un procuratore distrettuale e delle forze di giustizia era notevole. Questo ti dimostra quanto la gente possa essere vulnerabile.
Certamente in 35 anni della mia carriera, ho visto casi in cui le persone erano indagate perché erano colpevoli, certo, ma c’era anche chi era indagato perché il governo poteva farlo e a volte ci sono dei brutti motivi. Era così chiaro quanto, in quel caso, il procuratore fosse vulnerabile.
A quel punto i gruppi di bambini si sono fermati, almeno io non li ho visti perché ero impegnato a cercare di salvare la vita di Michael, ma in precedenza, quando queste persone arrivavano, c’era gentilezza e generosità. Al personale veniva ripetuto sempre, a Neverland o nelle altre sue case, di essere assolutamente gentili con tutti. Tutti erano gentili, a partire dal primo e non era una gentilezza ossequiosa, ma sincera. Michael era gentile, tutta la famiglia lo era. Questo è ciò che la gente non vede, non capisce quanto profondo fosse il concetto di gentilezza nella sua famiglia. La terza cosa è che Michael aveva una gran cultura.
Poche persone lo sapevano. Durante il processo, il giudice Melville stava selezionando la giuria e nella pausa dice: “Signori e signore voglio che sappiate che il servizio della giuria è molto molto importante.” Stava cercando di convincere le persone a non trovare scuse per lasciare il servizio. Lo fanno tutti i giudici. “Il sistema della giuria è un grande onore da tempo, esiste da 200 anni. Faremo una pausa e torneremo fra 15 minuti”.
Il giudice se ne va e Michael si volta verso di me e mi dice: “Bob, il sistema della giuria esiste da più di 200 anni , vero?” Ho risposto: “Beh sì, risale ai greci”. E lui: “Oh sì, Socrate ha avuto un processo con una giuria vero?” Ho detto: “Sì, sai come gli è andata”. Michael dice: “Sì. Ha dovuto bere la cicuta”. Questo è solo un piccolo aneddoto. Parlavamo di psicologia, Freud e Jung, Hawthorne, di sociologia, della storia dei neri e la sociologia razziale. Conosceva molto bene i classici della psicologia, della storia e della letteratura.
Amava leggere. Aveva più di 10000 libri a casa e lo so perché, odio continuare a riferirmi al caso, ma abbiamo appreso che il procuratore distrettuale ha analizzato tutta la sua biblioteca e ha trovato, per esempio, un libro d’arte tedesco degli anni ’30. Si è scoperto che l’autore delle opere d’arte era stato perseguitato dai nazisti. Nessuno lo sapeva, ma la polizia ha dichiarato: “Abbiamo trovato questo libro con delle immagini di nudi”. Ma si trattava di arte e c’era anche molto testo scritto. Hanno trovato anche altro, come una valigetta che non era sua, con dei Playboy, ma hanno setacciato tutta la casa, 10000 libri e così li abbiamo visti anche noi.
C’erano posti in cui amava sedersi e leggere, dove si vedevano i libri con dentro dei segnalibro o delle annotazioni e ti posso dire che era molto istruito, soprattutto per una persona autodidatta che aveva la sua lista personale di libri da leggere. Non voglio dire che io sia molto istruito, ma sicuramente ho letto molto, mi piacciono la filosofia e la storia ed era molto bello parlare con lui, perché era molto intellettuale e amava parlare di queste cose.

Ricorda l’ultima volta che lo ha visto o ha parlato con lui?

L’ultima volta che ho parlato con lui è stato subito dopo il processo e poi ha lasciato il paese. Non l’ho più visto di persona da allora, ho parlato con lui al telefono. Naturalmente ho parlato con le persone attorno a lui perchè ci occupiamo ancora dei suoi affari. E’ il meglio che posso dire e lo voglio dire perché la gente non ha visto questo lato di lui. Odio quando persone come Jay Leno (comico n.d.t.) fanno facili battute su di lui - e penso che Jay Leno sia una persona divertente – ogni volta penso che non è giusto perché (Michael) non è così. Poche persone hanno potuto constatare la gentilezza di Michael e della sua famiglia e poche hanno avuto l’opportunità di fare discussioni intellettuali su grandi pensatori e scrittori. Freud e Jung, vai per la strada e trovami 5 persone che sappiano parlare di Freud e Jung.

Lei si occupa del suo patrimonio?

No, solo delle questioni riguardanti Santa Barbara.

E qual è lo stato attuale di Neverland Ranch?

Non lo so esattamente. E’ stato rilevato da un investitore. So che è stato venduto in blocco, non ne sono sicuro. Michael però era scioccato, dopo che era stato inutilmente ispezionato 3 volte dalla polizia. Michael ha vissuto lì dopo il processo e durante, ma prima c’è stata una perquisizione, perché pare che cercassero il progetto di costruzione della casa. Potevano chiedercelo e gliel’avremmo dato. Potevano presentare una richiesta in tribunale e gliel’avremmo dato. Potevano cercare negli archivi e l’avrebbero trovato. Ma era solo una scusa per fare un’altra ispezione. L’hanno svegliato presto una mattina, i suoi bambini erano lì e dopo questo, ha detto: " Non credo di poter più vivere qui". E’ stata una vergogna. Aveva il suo albero su cui si arrampicava e scriveva canzoni. E’ una specie di luogo storico ma per lui era un luogo molto personale.

http://blogs.laweekly.com/westcoastsound/2009/06/michael_jackson_lawyer_bob_san.php