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- Geraldine Hughes -

miliating body search that he was forced to undergo by the
authorities.
However, unlike Mr. Fields and Mr. Pellicano whom were
adamant about defending Michael Jackson all the way to trial,
Mr. Weitzman and Mr. Cochran immediately began talks about
settlement. Mr. Fields and Mr. Pellicano were against settling
with Dr. Chandler because they did not want him to get away
with his extortion attempt. They were confident that they could
win this case at trial. Their primary goal was to beat Dr. Chan-
dler at trial.
Mr. Weitzman and Mr. Cochran, on the other hand, were
in favor of settlement from the beginning to spare Michael Jack-
son the humiliation and pain of having his private life, which
he holds dear, splashed across the nation on every network
and cable news channel. Dr. Chandler's attorney had already
started requesting financial statements from Michael Jackson's
camp, disclosing all his assets.
The unfortunate aspect of changing attorneys and not go-
ing to trial was that all the initial investigation work that Mr.
Fields and Mr. Pellicano had dug up never made its way into
the courtroom. Mr. Pellicano had gathered incriminating evi-
dence against Dr. Chandler and Mr. Rothman which could have
won Michael Jackson a victorious outcome in court. However,
Michael Jackson was not willing to endure the public scrutiny
of his private life and affairs. It was my contention that had
Michael Jackson gone to trial, he would have won. Mr. Fields
and Mr. Pellicano had the ammunition to win!
However, Mr. Weitzman and Mr. Cochran did a marvel-
ous job in taking control of the events that caused Michael Jack-
son to return to the United States to face the charges, not as a
victim of drug addition, but as the victim of false child moles-
tation charges being launched against him. With a new team
of attorneys in place, Michael Jackson emerged with a differ-
ent attitude and outlook.

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