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Illegal Jackson Tapers Indicted
Who's bad? Not Michael Jackson--at least not in this case.
Two air-service businessmen were indicted Wednesday on federal charges of secretly recording the Moonwalker as he flew from Las Vegas to Santa Barbara with his attorney to answer to child-molestation charges in November 2003.
According to the three-count indictment, Jeffrey Borer and Arvel Jett Reeves used two digital camcorders and remote microphones to tape "a professional entertainer and his attorney," who go unnamed in the court documents.
Borer was the owner of XtraJet, a luxury charter carrier, which operated a Gulfstream that carried Jackson and his then-lawyer, Mark Geragos, to their destination two years ago. Reeves was the owner of Executive Aviation Logistics, the firm that maintained XtraJet's fleet of aircraft.
The two men were charged with conspiracy, endeavoring to intercept oral communication and witness tampering in a so-called scheme that took place between Nov. 19 and Nov. 21, 2003.
The covert taping operation was widely reported at the time it occurred. A very vocal Geragos held a press conference to announce that he was launching a lawsuit against the charter carrier and vowing to "put XtraJet out of business for this."
The camera-ready attorney claimed that the taping of the so-called "surrender flight" violated attorney-client privilege in Jackson's child-molestation case. (As it turned out, Geragos was later replaced on the case by attorney Thomas Mesereau. In June, a jury acquitted Jackson on all charges.)
XtraJet officials turned the tape over to the FBI after it was discovered, and a Los Angeles Superior Court judge issued a court order barring its release or distribution.
According to the indictment, Reeves bought the camera and recording equipment from three separate electronics stores in San Bernardino County and, along with another suspect, installed them in the aircraft, acting on orders from Borer. The other suspect was not identified in the indictment but was referred to as an unindicted coconspirator.
The microphones were allegedly wedged between passenger seat cushions--all the better to pick up every falsetto utterance to come from Jackson's mouth.
After the recordings were made, Borer allegedly contacted news organizations in an attempt to sell them, per the indictment.
The XtraJet exec reportedly also instructed a suspect to lie to the FBI in April 2004 as to why the video equipment had been installed on the plane by saying that it had been set up to catch someone who had been stealing booze from the plane.
As of Thursday afternoon, neither Geragos nor Jackson had commented on the indictment.
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