Jackson ‘Barely Able to Function,’ His Lawyer Says

Michael Jackson, who ended his world tour last week and promptly dropped out of sight, is so addled by his addiction to painkillers that he is “barely able to function adequately on an intellectual level,” one of his lawyers said Monday.

But Jackson’s attorneys insisted that the entertainer is not fleeing allegations that he sexually molested a 13-year-old boy. They added that Jackson expects to return to the United States after he completes a six- to eight-week drug treatment program at an undisclosed facility outside the country.

“This is his home,” Bertram Fields, one of the lawyers, told reporters at a Century City news conference. “He’s coming back. . . . He doesn’t intend to desert the United States.”

Neither Fields nor Howard Weitzman, Jackson’s criminal attorney, would disclose the singer’s whereabouts, saying they hoped to keep the location a secret so he could enjoy some privacy while he recuperates from the addiction to painkillers. Fields added that the drug rehabilitation program was chosen because it would expedite his recovery, not because it puts him beyond the reach of U.S. authorities investigating allegations that he fondled, masturbated and performed oral sex on a boy over a period of months.

The lawyer for the alleged victim was skeptical.

“The Betty Ford Clinic (in Rancho Mirage) is probably the greatest and most renowned drug clinic in the world,” Larry R. Feldman, who represents the boy in a lawsuit against Jackson, said in an interview. “Why would someone who really wanted help not come back to what is essentially his hometown and instead flee to Europe?”

No charges have been brought against Jackson, and there is no warrant for his arrest.

Jackson was last seen publicly in Mexico and was scheduled to perform Sunday in Puerto Rico. Fields said the cancellation of the tour cost the entertainer millions of dollars.

Since canceling his tour, Jackson has disappeared from public view, touching off an international media hunt for one of the world’s most recognizable figures.

After reports surfaced that Jackson had passed through London, tabloids there speculated that he was checking into an exclusive drug-treatment facility in that city. On Monday, a flurry of photographers frantically jostled for position when a limousine pulled up in front of that facility and a man resembling Jackson jumped out. It turned out that the man was a Jackson look-alike sent by a local television station.

The situation was just as frantic in France. Early Monday, a hotel manager at a chic ski resort in Avoriaz in the French Alps confirmed that Jackson was staying at his hotel.

The Reuters news agency telephoned area residents, who recalled seeing a helicopter and a black limousine in the resort area Sunday, but did not remember seeing Jackson. Then, a few hours after saying that Jackson was a guest at his hotel, the same manager said the singer was no longer there.

“He was, in effect, in our hotel,” the hotel manager told reporters. “But he is no longer there. We have other hotels in France.”

At Monday’s Century City news conference, reporters repeatedly tried to ferret out clues to the entertainer’s whereabouts. But the lawyers stood firm.

Fields would only say that Jackson was in a “professional-care facility,” declining to say whether it was in Europe or elsewhere. “Somewhere on this Earth?” one reporter persisted. “Don’t give anything away, Bert,” Weitzman warned his colleague as reporters laughed. Heeding that advice, Fields responded: “I do not concede that.”

With the case attracting worldwide attention, 118 reporters, photographers and video camera people attended the news conference at the J.W. Marriott in Century City. Extra hotel staff--from security guards to catering workers--shepherded the event, watching as reporters streamed into the hotel’s Grand Salon.

Los Angeles Police Department officers helped direct traffic while Jackson’s security people helped whisk the lawyers and private investigator Anthony J. Pellicano in and out of the hotel.

Despite more than a half an hour of sometimes animated and graphic questioning, neither Weitzman nor Fields offered many new details on the molestation investigation. Instead, they reiterated several times that the singer denies the allegations against him, and they stressed that his tour was ended reluctantly only after some of Jackson’s associates and closest friends, including Elizabeth Taylor, urged him to seek immediate treatment.

Fields, who was with Jackson in Mexico City, said the entertainer’s addiction was becoming increasingly obvious to those around him during the closing days of the tour. Without intervention, Fields said, Jackson’s life would have been in danger.

“They were very, very heavy-duty drugs, very, very strong,” Fields said. “It doesn’t take much, when you’re talking about a heavy-duty painkiller, to be a massive amount.”

Fields added: “He was barely able to function adequately on an intellectual level. I’m not going to talk about his individual symptoms, but they were manifest.”

While Jackson’s lawyers described the entertainer as gripped by his addiction to the drugs--which they would not identify--others who saw Jackson last week said he did not show any obvious signs of addiction.

Howard Manning, a lawyer representing three songwriters who say that Jackson appropriated portions of their songs without crediting them, said he and other attorneys met with Jackson to take his statements in that case last week in Mexico City. Jackson spent several hours on Monday and Wednesday being questioned by his lawyers and by the attorneys for the songwriters, Manning said.

“We finished the questions that we wanted to ask, and he answered them,” Manning said. “We had taken a deposition from him in 1989, so we were familiar with his manner. He’s a bright guy. He responded to the questions.”

Fields said he had advised Jackson against giving the videotaped statement in the copyright case because he did not believe Jackson was capable of handling it. But, Fields said, he and other lawyers were concerned that the judge would refuse to grant a delay in the trial, which is set to begin Dec. 7.

In addition, Fields maintained that the videotaped questioning of Jackson had to be halted because the singer was unable to continue. Manning disputed that: “I would disagree totally with what Mr. Fields said,” Manning said after the news conference, which was carried live on television.

With a judge set to hear Jackson’s request to delay action in the boy’s lawsuit next week and police pressing forward with their investigation, Jackson’s legal woes show no signs of abating.

Sources familiar with the investigation say the boy has provided police with a physical description of Jackson, including the singer’s genitalia. Two sources said police have that description and added that, as part of their investigation, they could attempt to search Jackson and see if the description matched the one given by the boy.

Feldman, the boy’s lawyer, declined to comment on what his client told police.

Although one source said police secured a warrant to search Jackson personally, police would not confirm that and would not say whether the boy’s description is accurate. Cmdr. David J. Gascon, a Police Department spokesman, said he could not comment on the case, except to confirm that there is an ongoing criminal investigation.

Weitzman, who represents Jackson in the criminal matter, said at the news conference that he had heard rumors of the boy’s statement to police, but added that he was unaware of any warrant to search his client. Asked whether the boy had ever seen Jackson naked, Weitzman shook his head in amazement.

“You gotta be kidding me,” he said. “Mr. Fields is going to have the opportunity to depose this young man at the appropriate time. And we’re not concerned about those issues in this case. We don’t believe it. Period.”