Re: The Hoax Theory - Discussing Errors, Inconsistencies, Observations and other theories
John Branca 2003-2006
Enough is enough. I have seen blogs everywhere that maintain that John Branca was fired by Michael Jackson, never to be rehired again. Had any one of them bothered to delve deeper than their "one-source-research", they would realize that John Branca was both fired and rehired by Michael Jackson in 2003, and worked for him until 2006. This blog covers the timeline of 2003 through 2006, and the professional relationship between Jackson and Branca.
I am only going to cover the firing of John Branca in a limited manner in this blog, because it would be repetitive. My other blog with regard to Branca's firing by MJ is here. In that blog, it is already established that Michael Jackson began to have doubts about John Branca's loyalty and believed that Branca may have been funneling MJ's money into offshore accounts. Jackson fired Branca and replaced him with Las Vegas attorney, David LeGrand. The infamous letter that has circulated the Internet thousands of times dated February, 2003, can be seen here. In the letter Jackson asks Branca for "all of my files, records, documents, accounts for myself and all companies I own or control which may be in your possession. You are to deliver the originals of all such documents to Mr. LeGrand immediately.
He will arrange copies to be returned to you."
After the investigation, Michael must have realized that John Branca did not embezzle any money, because in November of 2003, Branca was once again Michael Jackson's attorney. In November of 2003, Neverland was raided by the Santa Barbara Police Department. On November 19, 2003 a New York Times article regarding the raid stated that "John Branca, Mr. Jackson's lawyer, did not return a phone call seeking comment."
On December 25, 2003, Michael Jackson did an interview with Ed Bradley on 60 Minutes, to deny the molestation charges against him. There was a lot of drama that ensued over this interview. CBS refused to air the special "Michael Jackson's Number Ones" until there was a public denial of the charges by Jackson. This was when an offer was made to CBS to do an interview with Ed Bradley. Dieter Wiesner took the credit for contacting and making the deal with 60 minutes, but an MTV article dated January 4, 2004, states that "lawyer John Branca and...Charles Koppelman negotiated the interview with CBS in exchange for the network putting Jackson's 'Michael Jackson's Number Ones' back on its programming schedule." Roger Friedman's article dated December 31, 2003, states that the Bradley interview emanated from MJ's advisors, John Branca and Charles Koppelman. Part 1 of the 60 minutes video can be seen below. There are several parts to the interview, part 2,part 3 and the transcript. Although it breaks my heart to hear Michael talk about this ordeal, it was imperative that Michael's side of the story was heard. According to several sources, John Branca negotiated this deal with CBS, in late 2003.
So it is safe to believe that Branca was working for Michael Jackson in 2003, only months after he had been fired. In January of 2004, a group of Michael's advisors met at the Beverly Hills Hotel to plan their strategy for their employer and show their support through solidarity. Michael's senior advisor at the time, Charles Koppelman, stated that "it so happened that we were all in the same place, and thought it would be great to sit down together." This same article reported that despite the rumors, "John Branca, one of the singer's business attorneys, stated 'Michael is in charge.'" Below is a picture of that meeting. Branca can been seen at the table, on the left.
In April, 2004, the Los Angeles Times wrote an article which I could only access when I paid for it. However, this article was written when Michael was gearing up for the trial. Many were counting on the downfall of Michael Jackson, as most of us realize now. Yet, the LA Times states that "Jackson's longtime attorney, John Branca says it would be a mistake to count him out. Michael was counted out once before, when the Jackson Five lost popularity and came back bigger than ever, Branca said. Michael speaks to a worldwide audience like no other artist in history."
In October of 2004, the New York Post stated that "the role of Jackson's long time lawyer, John Branca, have been greatly diminished to make way for Brian Oxman and Thomas Messereau." We have to take this statement with a grain of salt. First, the source is the NY Post. Secondly, the statement is ridiculous. John Branca is an entertainment attorney, not a criminal defense lawyer. Branca's specialty is entertainment law and publishing rights. Oxman and Mesereau were brought in for Michael's criminal defense, and therefore did not diminish Branca's role as Michael's entertainment lawyer. However, the Post does maintain that Branca was employed with Michael Jackson as of Oct. 2004.
Logic would tell us that since Branca covers the entertainment legalities of Michael's life, we would not hear a lot about him in early 2005, while the molestation trial was going on. Most of the articles are exploitative in nature regarding Michael Jackson in early 2005. There are few that are objective. A Times Online article maintains that Branca was advising Michael Jackson in early June of 2005 regarding the ATV catalog. The article states that Michael "is being advised in the matter by John Branca, a well-known music industry lawyer, and Charles Koppelman..."
After Michael's acquittal in 2005, he was sued by the scam artists, Prescient. The financial group Prescient claimed that they helped Michael to find a way to refinance his loans and sued him for $48 million; the claim turned out to be false. Newsday, dated July of 2005, stated that "John Branca, a lawyer representing Jackson, could not be reached for comment." In December 2005, while Michael was in Bahrain, refinancing occurred again, and the Daily News reports that John Branca, Michael's attorney, could not be reached for comment.
And so we arrive at the beginning of 2006. At this point, we have established that Branca was fired in early 2003, and rehired in late 2003, and worked for Michael Jackson until the end of 2005. Since it is late and early 2006 is complicated with regard to the Jackson/Branca working relationship, I will continue this tomorrow.
There are a lot of blogs and articles that seem reliable, but they are not. Again, I urge MJ fans to
dig deep before passing judgement on Michael Jackson's business partners and friends.
Posted by Michael Jackson: And Justice for Some at 11:52 PM
http://mjandjustice4some.blogspot.com/2010/07/john-branca-2003-2006.html
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