Michael Jackson’s Father Grasps at Straws for Money

First Joe Jackson wanted Michael’s will thrown out.

Then he wanted an allowance from the executors.

Now he’s saying that the will is fake, and that Michael’s executor, John Branca, is a bad guy who should be removed. Jackson is using Brian Oxman, the attorney who claimed in a lawsuit that’ Michael owed him $1.25 million, and who was fired by Thomas Mesereau from the defense team in Michael’s 2005 trial because he was sleeping in open court.

Jackson senior doesn’t seem to get it, but I do since I was there. Michael fired Branca as his attorney in February 2003 after the uproar over the “Living with Michael Jackson” documentary. Jackson took his business to a guy named David LeGrand, who was the choice of Michael’s business partner at the time, Marc Schaffel. It was more or less the beginning of the end for Michael, his slide into legal oblivion. After LeGrand, Jackson fell into the clutches of the Nation of Islam, followed by a series of lawyers and managers. It wasn’t until right before he died last June that he re-hired Branca in an effort to right his sinking ship.

To say Joe Jackson doesn’t know what he’s talking about is an understatement. He’s also accusing Branca of trying to harm Alvin Malnik, Jackson’s confidant and co-manager from 2001 through 2003, with the Justice Department. Malnik, who tried everything to keep Michael out of trouble until he was replaced by the Nation of Islam, actually worked with Branca to keep Michael afloat during that perilous time. Of course, Joe Jackson would actually know none of this because he had little to no contact with Michael and no knowledge of his business affairs.

The ironic part of all this is that there would be no estate to fight over if it weren’t for John Branca. I’m not suggesting that he’s a saint. But it was Branca who engineered the deal for the Beatles catalog in the first place. Then he parlayed Michael’s ownership of it into the creation of Sony/ATV Music Publishing and reaped Michael $90 million cash. With that money and the catalog as collateral, Branca kept Jackson afloat financially until 2003, when the second wave of child molestation charges came through.

Meanwhile, Joe Jackson has an uphill battle. Because even if he could prove the 2002 will is invalid, the will that preceded it was just the same, only it named Branca as the sole executor. Either way, Joe Jackson will not be able to get his greedy paws on Michael’s fortune. If this were “Lord of the Rings,” Jackson would be Gollum.

Hopefully, Judge Mitchell Beckloff will see through Joe Jackson’s latest grasping for Michael’s money, and bring this to an end.