Leaving Neverland: 5 shocking moments from Michael Jackson child sex abuse documentary
The precaution was not unwarranted. Reed’s film follows two accusers, Wade Robson and James Safechuck, as they describe intense and graphic acts they say Jackson committed against them, as well those they say the pop icon coached them to commit on him.
DJ Iroc indicted in NY State sex abuse case
by matt donnelly, Star Online
Signs in support of Michael Jackson are seen outside of the premiere of the "Leaving Neverland" Michael Jackson documentary film at the Egyptian Theatre on Main Street during the 2019 Sundance Film Festival, Friday, Jan. 25, 2019, in Park City, Utah.
LOS ANGELES (Variety.com): After a week of turbulent anticipation, Dan Reed’s Leaving Neverland made its Sundance debut at Park City, Utah’s Egyptian Theatre on Friday (Jan 25).
Moments before the screening began, festival director John Cooper informed the packed house that healthcare providers supplied by the state of Utah were standing by to offer counsel for those distressed by the film’s “explicit descriptions of sexual abuse”.
The precaution was not unwarranted. Reed’s film follows two accusers, Wade Robson and James Safechuck, as they describe intense and graphic acts they say Jackson committed against them, as well those they say the pop icon coached them to commit on him.
Robson met Jackson through a dance competition at age five, and said the sexual abuse began when he was seven.
Jackson consistently and wholly denied any wrongdoing when alive, saying he would never hurt a child.
There were many difficult moments in the nearly four-hour screening.
Here are a few that jumped out. (Warning: some of the following descriptions are graphic.)
Mock wedding
Safechuck said Jackson wielded his own childhood interests against him during their relationship.
At the time a pre-teen, Safechuck had an affinity for jewellery. Jackson would take him to various stores and luxury counters and have him sample different accessories.
Safechuck said Jackson would tell salespeople that the gift was for a woman, but Safechuck’s small wrists and hands were helpful for sizing.
Jackson purchased a gold band lined in diamonds for Safechuck, the latter said, and gave him the gift in a “mock wedding” ceremony. The pair crafted their vows together, Safechuck said.
Love faxes
At the height of their “friendship”, as Jackson’s relationships with young men were often called, Jackson bought Robson a fax machine.
It was hot tech in the late 1980s, and allowed Jackson to send yards of messages that read like love notes – or the fan mail the “Smooth Criminal” singer was accustomed to receiving.
“I love you little one,” one faxed note allegedly from Jackson to the seven-year-old dancer said. “Make me happy and be the best”.
Similar notes were shown in a rapid-fire montage, and included drawings Jackson did of himself as mementos for young Robson.
“The living room would be covered in faxes,” Robson’s mother, Joy, said in the film.
Neverland was a giant bed
While many to this day paint Jackson’s spread, Neverland Ranch, as a testament to childlike spirit – and a personification of his once-absurd wealth – Leaving Neverland gives a different kind of tour of the famed space.
As I have mentioned in the past, I am convinced that that 'child-like spirit' was really a consequence of having started smoking pot before he was even 10 years old, thanks to his brothers. Pot causes serious effects on young minds, and one of those effects can be a complete cessation the maturing process. I have observed this in many people over several decades, and it seems blatantly obvious that this is what happened to MJ. He simply never grew up. Most people who knew him have said that very thing. What they don't say is that his chronic use of marijuana is what prevented him from growing up mentally and emotionally.
Virtually every structure on the grounds had hideaways with beds or privacy nooks.
Safechuck said, at the height of Jackson’s alleged abuse, they used many locations around the ranch where Jackson would molest him.
This includes a locked, private box in Jackson’s movie theatre that used one-way glass so no one in the theatre seats below could see inside.
Neverland’s train station had a hidden attic with a bed. One section of the flat yard was lined with teepees. Both locales were sites of abuse, said Safechuck.
Oral sex games were played in the pool and jacuzzi. The list goes on, and as the photos of each location ticked by, disgusted groans in the theatre grew louder.
Destroying evidence?
A few years after Jackson’s highly publicised 1993 child sex abuse case, the singer reconnected with 14-year-old Robson – who said he’d experienced a considerable growth spurt and was then as tall as Jackson.
Still, the sexual abuse occurred one last time, Robson said, as Jackson rehearsed for his HIStory World Tour the following year in 1997.
He invited Robson to a Los Angeles hotel, in their first encounter in years, and attempted to anally penetrate the 14-year-old, Robson said. The act became too painful and Jackson relented, he said.
The next day, a private secretary of Jackson’s demanded Robson come to him right away at the LA dance studios where rehearsals were taking place.
Robson said Jackson asked him what happened to the underwear Robson was wearing during their night together, and that if any blood was on the garment, Robson needed to get rid of it.
Robson complied, and indeed found his underwear bloody. He disposed of them in his condo’s garage dumpster.
Drills
Safechuck said, in his early years at the height of the alleged abuse, the superstar created a series of failsafes to avoid getting caught in the act.
Bells lined the series of doors leading to Jackson’s master suite walk-in closet, where a blanket would be spread on the floor and the doors shut, he said.
Safechuck also said while on tour or traveling the world, he and Jackson would have “drills” of getting their clothes on as quickly as possible.
Leaving Neverland airs this spring on HBO. – Variety/ Reuters
His resume and production credits: Diddy, Notorious B.I.G., DMX, Jay-Z, Mase, Big Pun, & longtime touring DJ for Alicia Keys
By Kenneth C. Crowe II
TROY – A Rensselaer County grand jury indicted a well-known hip-hop disc jockey on 14 counts of sexually abusing two children in a city residence, according to papers filed with county court Friday.
Brian O. Angelo, known professionally as DJ Iroc, was indicted for incidents that allegedly occurred between June 1 and Aug. 31 2005, in November 2006 and from Jan. 1, 2007 to Dec. 31, 2008, according to the indictment. State Police said that at the time of the abuse, the children ranged from age 8 to age 14.
An April story in the Times Union said, “His resume and production credits read like a who's who of NYC and national hip-hop: Diddy, Notorious B.I.G., DMX, Jay-Z, Mase, Big Pun. In addition, he's the longtime touring DJ for R&B superstar Alicia Keys.”
Angelo was accused of first-degree course of sexual conduct, a felony, involving an 8-year-old child between June 1 and Aug. 31, 2005, in a Seventh Avenue residence in North Troy.
He also was charged with two counts of felony first-degree criminal sexual act, three counts of felony first-degree sexual abuse and three counts of misdemeanor forcible touching and a single misdemeanor count of endangering the welfare of a child.
The grand jury also accused him of first-degree criminal sexual act with this child in November 2006.
The indict also charges Angelo from Jan 1, 2007 to Dec. 31, 2008 with a single count of first-degree sexual abuse for an indictment involving a child younger than 5- to 7-years-old, as well as misdemeanor counts of forcible touching and endangering the welfare of a child.
Angelo was arraigned by the County Judge Debra J. Young and sent to the county jail without bail pending his next court appearance, State Police said.
State Police said the Colonie police, Rensselaer County District Attorney's office and the START Children's Center in Rensselaer County assisted in the investigation.
A DOJ office with limited reach to probe handling of child sex abuse case involving New York millionaire Joseph (Jeffrey) Epstein
Billionaire financier Jeffrey Epstein appears in custody on July 30, 2008, in West Palm Beach, Fla. On Wednesday, Feb. 6, 2019, the Justice Department announced it has opened an investigation into federal prosecutors’ handling of a plea deal in which Epstein avoided potentially severe penalties for sexually abusing teenage girls in favor of a relatively light state conviction. (Uma Sanghvi / Associated Press)
No idea where the "Joseph' in the title came from. I hope it's not a statement on WAPO's quality control.
By Matt Zapotosky,
Washington Post
WASHINGTON – The Justice Department office that handles employee discipline has opened an investigation into whether attorneys committed “professional misconduct” in allowing a well-connected millionaire to spend just over a year in jail to resolve allegations that he molested dozens of young girls.
The department revealed the investigation Wednesday in a letter from Assistant Attorney General Stephen Boyd to Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., who has questioned how the department handled its inquiry of financier Jeffrey Epstein.
Epstein’s case had been the subject of an investigation by the Miami Herald, which detailed how then-U.S. Attorney Alex Acosta, now President Donald Trump’s labor secretary, shelved a 53-page indictment that could have put Epstein behind bars for life.
Epstein, who counts among his friends Trump and former president Bill Clinton, assembled a high-powered legal team to address the allegations he faced. Ultimately, he pleaded guilty in 2008 only to state charges of soliciting prostitution. Victims told the Herald they felt betrayed by the arrangement.
The department’s newly announced investigation is likely to be of limited consequence. According to Boyd’s letter, it is being handled by the Office of Professional Responsibility, which explores allegations of employee wrongdoing. The office’s findings, at worst, typically result in employees being fired, and they are not usually made public, though Boyd wrote to Sasse that the office would “share the results with you at the conclusion of its investigation as appropriate.” It is possible, even likely, the investigation could drag on so long that Acosta, already outside the Justice Department, would by then be out of government entirely.
In a statement, Sasse said: “The victims of Epstein’s child sex trafficking ring deserve this investigation – and so do the American people and the members of law enforcement who work to put these kinds of monsters behind bars. Parents should be grateful for the men and women at the DOJ who are committed to transparency and accountability and for the soon-to-be Attorney General who is committed to pursuing justice.”
A representative for Acosta, who did not respond to requests for an interview for the Herald’s investigation, did not immediately return a message seeking comment for this report.
Martin Weinberg, an attorney for Epstein, said in a statement that Epstein’s plea was “fairly negotiated by experienced teams of attorneys representing each party.”
“It was anything but a sweetheart deal,” Weinberg said. “And it was carefully and fully reviewed not only by senior prosecutors within the Southern District of Florida Office but also at multiple levels of the Department of Justice in D.C.”
The government, he said, “avoided litigation risks including the risks of an acquittal and Mr. Epstein went to jail, served a period of probation, lived up to each and every obligation under the Agreement, and has fully conformed his conduct to the law for well over 10 years.”
Epstein had his own suite in jail and was allowed out everyday to go to his office to 'work'. Don't know why anybody would think that's a sweetheart deal? Sheesh.
The Mother of 6ix9ine's Child Alleges the Rapper
Physically and Sexually Abused Her
Rich Juzwiak
Sara Molina, ex-girlfriend of rapper 6ix9ine and the mother of his three-year-old daughter, has claimed multiple instances of physical abuse and at least one of sexual abuse in an interview with the Daily Beast.
Molina claims that during a trip to Dubai in October, 6ix9ine, who also goes by Tekashi 6ix9ine and whose birth name is Daniel Hernandez, “started beating me for two hours straight,” during a dispute regarding her communication with his then-manager Kifano “Shotti” Jordan.
“He punched me so hard in my right ear I thought I was deaf,”said Molina, who also claimed that the rapper kicked and choked her. Prior to that, she says, he admitted he’d had sex with “more than 70 other women in the past year, resulting in multiple pregnancies,” and “had acquired multiple STDs.”
Molina says that after a period of sleep following the beating, “He woke up, forced me to have sex with him. I cried.”
Molina, who provided multiple pictures of her marked and swollen face to the Beast, said she was covered in bruises as a result of the abuse, and that her eyes were swollen and blackened.
She also described an incident in April, in which 6ix9ine beat her in a car in front of her daughter. She said in August, after she asked him about a stripper he supposedly had been hanging out with, “He dragged me by my hair and slapped me in my face,” causing a black eye, she says.
Additionally, the following month:
...Tekashi issued from long distance eviction orders that landed Molina and their daughter on the street in early morning darkness. She ended up back in Williamsburg at a hotel, and that saved her and Saraiyah from being at the apartment when federal agents and cops raided it several days later.
Previously, the rapper pleaded guilty to use of a child in a sexual performance in 2015 for appearing in and posting various videos of a 13-year-old engaged in various levels of sex (in one, according to Assistant District Attorney Sara Weiss at 6ix9ine’s sentencing in October 2018, 6ix9ine was seen fondling the breasts and smacking the butt of the 13-year-old, who was being penetrated by two adult males at the same time—orally and vaginally). He avoided prison time in that case, but is currently in jail on multiple counts of racketeering, conspiracy, firearms offenses and narcotics trafficking. He pleaded guilty to all nine of them last month and, according to TMZ, will be sentenced in January 2020. According to Rolling Stone, he faces 32 years to life in prison.
Which just goes to show you that you don't need a brain to be a rock star, or morals either.
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