The Smoking Gun Web site -- which is owned by Court TV -- has published the sworn affidavit of the then 13-year-old boy whose family sued Jackson in 1993.
England's News of the World is running with the story Sunday morning, complete with an analysis by a Scotland Yard expert on pedophilia. Indeed, News of the World details even more than The Smoking Gun, indicating that it was the boy's stepfather who uncovered the alleged abuse.
The affidavit, while not necessarily truthful, was used by the boy's family to gain an out-of-court settlement with Jackson for several million dollars.
I spoke Saturday evening with a former Jackson associate who said, "If it's true, Michael is over. But I always felt that this was a shakedown, and that it had something to do with (the boy's family) wanting money from him."
Nevertheless, the document on the Web site comes directly from the law office of Larry Feldman, who represented the boy's family in 1993. It also has a court stamp.
This certainly throws a monkey wrench into Jackson's idea, first reported on the Drudge Report, that he go on 60 Minutes to refute the documentary shown on ABC Thursday night.
More to come, rest assured. By the way, this column tried repeatedly to reach partners in the law firm of Fogel, Feldman, and Ostrov in Los Angeles over the weekend to no avail. We welcome their thoughts on how this affidavit managed to see the light of day.
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