Michael Jackson's parents Joseph and Katherine say: 'Latoya is still lying - there are people trying to destroy our son … we love him.'

Jet, Jan 10, 1994 by Robert E. Johnson

Although lies may harm the reputation, they cannot hurt the character. Lies are opinions--what others think of you. Character is a fact--what you are.

Michael Jackson's parents Joseph and Katherine Jackson understand the difference. That is why they are seething with anger as they watch TV and personalities of the press prod people--many of them pretenders--to come forward and say anything that purports to support charges that their megastar son sexually molested a 13-ear-old boy as alleged in a lawsuit filed by the boy's father.

"We're out here fighting them!" the father of the "King of Rock, Pop and Soul" said upon answering JET's recent long distance conference call to the family's mansion in Encino, CA.

He said, "There are people trying to destroy our son ... We love him and we support him."

Echoes of recent angry accusations by LaToya, the daughter whose career as a recording artist was launched by Joseph and her first album, LaToya, produced by Michael (JET, July 31, 1980), still reverberated in the mind of her mother.

Tempering her remarks that ranged from rage to resentment to compassion, Mrs. Jackson said: "I'm going to tell you something which was never brought out and all these people know it--especially these White people. That's not LaToya talking. That is Jack Gordon (LaToya's husband) ... I think he has brainwashed LaToya and when LaToya gets up there (on TV) she is like a crazy person. She is not the same girl."

Her husband agreed and allowed: "He's manipulating her and he's doing everything he possibly can to get into her family and keep the family all messed up... All these accusations she's making never happened. None of this. That's why we didn't understand it ... It's like a different LaToya," he said in referring to the TV interviews she gave in Israel and in a TV interview with "Today" co-host Katie Couric.

With apparent sadness but with conviction, Mrs. Jackson asserted: "What that I think is this. He has brainwashed LaToya because I know what she is saying is not true. Other people out there don't know this, but I know." She continues: "It's just hard to take when you got a daughter out there saying these things. People will say, ~Well, she is part of the family and she's not going to lie on the family.' But my daughter is out there lying. I think that she thinks she is telling the truth because she has been so manipulated and brainwashed."

Joseph hastily stated that he has good reasons to agree with his wife's assessment of the man they tried to persuade LaToya not to marry. "This guy has got a record a mile long," he said referring to law enforcement reports of Gordon's criminal activities. Even when he beat LaToya (JET, May 10, 1993) and made headlines, she refused to press charges against him. Instead, she continued her verbal assault against her family, accusing Mrs. Jackson of remaining silent about her (LaToya's) claims that both Joseph and Michael are child abusers.

Neither abused children, Mrs. Jackson emphasized. "And for LaToya to get out there and say that I called him (Michael) a faggot was ridiculous. That made me so upset, I told Joseph if I could have gotten to her I would have slapped her down for telling a lie like that on me ... Michael is not gay and she knows that, too!"

Mrs. Jackson recalled: "Latoya was 32 years old when she left home, and if things were going on like that why didn't she leave? She could have left when she got 17 or 18 years old."

It still bothers Mrs. Jackson when she thinks of, perhaps, LaToya's unkindest accusation. In a recent interview, LaToya insists that if her mother "were to tell the truth, Michael would drop everything and she would probably be out on the street." (JET, Dec. 27-Jan. 3, 1994).

The truth is that the mansion is a gift from Michael to his mother, but it almost became the property of LaToya. Mrs. Jackson explains:

Although the deed to the mansion was in her name, she was advised that a lawsuit against Joseph could put the property in jeopardy if he lost the court action. Under California property laws, he would be considered owner of half of the property. So Mrs. Jackson quitclaimed the deed to LaToya with an understanding that she would quitclaim the property back to her when the case was settled.

"She never gave it back," Mrs. Jackson confided. "And when I asked her about it, she stated that she wouldn't return it because "you all aren't treating Jack right. The man can't even walk down the street. He's looking back thinking that you all are trying to kill him."

However, when the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) recently placed a lien against the deed to collect $473,000, neither LaToya nor her husband Jack could pay the bill. "Michael bailed her out of trouble. He paid the taxes and took back the deed," Mrs. Jackson said.

The fact that Michael had returned the property to his mother as a gift caused her to wonder why LaToya told the media that she was only defending Michael--along with Joseph and their son, Jermaine--because they feared that he was "going to throw us in the streets."