Re: Frank Tyson (co-conspirador) defiende la inocencia de MJ en la cadena de TV ABC (V.O)
Transcripción de la entrevista, gracias a TSColdMan, del MJJForum:
Frank Tyson Interview with Cynthia McFadden
Primetime Live (June 2nd, 2005)
Transcript provided by TSColdMan
[INTRODUCTION]
ANNOUNCER: ...He grew up around Michael Jackson. Slept in his Neverland bedroom dozens of times. He even knows the accuser. The jury never heard from Frank Tyson , but you will. Tonight, the mystery man who is one of Jackson's closest friends.
[CLIP]
TYSON: for me to watch every single day. "Frank Tyson threatened to kill this family." "Frank Tyson wants this family disappeared." Like I'm Frank Tyson from Jersey from "The Sopranos"? Come on, man. That's crazy.
[END CLIP]
....
[END INTRODUCTION]
ANNOUNCER: Up next -- once he was just another little boy in Michael Jackson's life. Then, one of his closest friends and confidantes. Now breaking his silence for the first time ever about Jackson's accuser.
[CLIP]
TYSON: I've had so many opportunities, millions of dollars.
MCFADDEN: Why talk now?
TYSON: I know him.
[END CLIP]
ANNOUNCER: When "Primetime" returns, the Michael Jackson jury never heard him, but you're about to. The mystery man who has long been one of Jackson's closest friends.
[CLIP]
MCFADDEN: The accuser's mother said that you were the worst of all of them.
TYSON: I'm the liar... She's got to look in the mirror, and she will see who the liar is.
[END CLIP]
ANNOUNCER: "Primetime" continues after this, from our ABC stations.
...
ANNOUNCER: "Primetime" continues. Now with Cynthia McFadden.
MCFADDEN: We now turn to the Michael Jackson trial just wrapping up. You recognize Jackson, of course here in calmer times. The other face in this portrait is likely unknown to you. But Frank Tyson is thought to be one of Jackson's closest friends. They met when Tyson was just 5 years old. And he's admittedly slept in Jackson's bed. For more than two decades, Frank Tyson has never spoken publicly about their relationship, until now, despite numerous financial offers.
[INTERVIEW]
MCFADDEN: He has stood by Michael Jackson for 20 years. His loyalty never in question. His dedication, total. He is a man prosecutors call threatening, and Michael Jackson calls a friend. Today in closing arguments, prosecutors called Frank Tyson Michael Jackson's closest associate. A man they say used chilling tactics to help Jackson cover up his relationship with a cancer-stricken, 13-year-old boy.
MCFADDEN: You are at the center of these allegations against Michael Jackson.
TYSON: So they say.
MCFADDEN: According to prosecutors, Tyson was willing to go so far for his friend, Michael Jackson, that he allegedly conspired to kidnap the accuser and his family, hold them hostage at Neverland, and take them all out of the country to Brazil. Prosecutors even alleged that Tyson was so desperate to keep the family quiet that he literally threatened to have them killed.
MCFADDEN: The indictment states that between February and March of 2003, you threatened the accuser telling him, quote, "I could have your mother killed," end quote.
TYSON: No, Cynthia. I would never say that. It's not me. And that's what's so frustrating for me to watch every single day. "Frank Tyson threatened to kill this family." "Frank Tyson wants this family disappeared." Like I'm Frank Tyson from Jersey from "The Sopranos"? Come on, man. That's crazy. I'm not that person.
MCFADDEN: But Tyson is a person in a position to know a great deal about Michael Jackson. At the very height of Michael Jackson's fame when "Thriller" was the best-selling album in the world, Frank Tyson , a small boy from a middle-class home in New Jersey, stepped into his own kind of Neverland. He was just 5 years old when his father, who worked with VIPs at this hotel in New York, brought him to meet Michael Jackson.
TYSON: My father says, "we're going to meet Michael Jackson." I'm like, "Okay. Who is Michael Jackson?"
MCFADDEN: Michael Jackson started calling Tyson 's father. And before long, Jackson and the young boy had formed an improbable friendship.
MCFADDEN: In fact, in some ways, your family became his family?
TYSON: In certain ways, yes. Many ways.
MCFADDEN: Tyson's exuberant Italian family embraced the superstar, including him in every Christmas and Thanksgiving for the past 12 years. Jackson even called Tyson's grandmother, Grandma.
MCFADDEN: He comes to your house and stays at your house.
TYSON: Yeah, he does.
MCFADDEN: What was that like?
TYSON: It was funny, he used to come visit, whenever he comes to New York, when we were kids. He used to come out like, 10:30 at night or 11:00 at night. A knock on the door, and all of a sudden he'd just come and surprise my family.
MCFADDEN: After a while, Frank and his family began taking trips to see Jackson in Neverland. And like other boys before and after, sometimes slept in Jackson's bed.
MCFADDEN: So how did it happen the first time that you spent the night in his room? What happened?
TYSON: What happened? You really want to know?
MCFADDEN: Yep.
TYSON: My brother and I slept on the bed. He stayed on the floor. That's what happened.
MCFADDEN: So were your parents at all concerned about your spending the night?
TYSON: Never. There was no reason to be concerned. There was no reason to be concerned. There was no cuddling or nothing like that. It wasn't like that. It was like sleeping with your college roommate.
MCFADDEN: But if those were innocent days, they would soon be lost in a swirl of allegations against Jackson. In 1993, the singer was accused of molesting a 13-year-old boy. Jackson turned to the 14-year-old Tyson and his family for support. Flying them around the world as he continued on tour. They often went out in public with Jackson, seen here in disguise. The 1993 charges were settled for a reported 20 million dollars. It was around this same time that Jackson admitted an addiction to painkillers.
MCFADDEN: I just wonder, since you acknowledge, since we know that Michael Jackson did have a drug problem, an addiction to painkillers, whether that changes your idea about whether or not all of his behavior with kids was appropriate. I mean, one wonders and worries.
TYSON: No. I have seen him in different states. And even when he was in those states, Cynthia, he's never given me an indication that he is interested in boys, or sexual attraction to boys. It's the complete opposite.
MCFADDEN: So even under the influence of narcotics?
TYSON: Even under the influence. He's not like that, Cynthia. It's disgusting. He's not a pedophile.
ANNOUNCER: When we continue, what Tyson says really happened that first night. The current accuser slept at Neverland in Michael Jackson's bedroom. And who he says pulled up the porn on the Internet. He was there. When "Primetime" returns.
[COMMERCIAL BREAK]
MCFADDEN: Focus for a moment not on the screaming crowds, not on the superstar with the mask, but on the young man standing next to him. Backing him up as he has for most of his life. As you will hear, Frank Tyson is either part of what prosecutors call a continuing cover-up, or he is telling a powerful truth.
MCFADDEN: As we sit here today, Michael Jackson stands accused of multiple counts of sexually molesting a child. You know the accuser?
TYSON: I do know the accuser.
MCFADDEN: Tell me about him.
TYSON: He was from the street, this kid.
MCFADDEN: It was at Neverland that Frank Tyson met the boy who now accuses Jackson of molesting him. Tyson would meet the boy and his mother many times.
TYSON: He's not, like, a shy little boy. He is a tough kid. If anyone pushes him the wrong way or touches -- he used to be the first one to push you back. He would be the first one to knock Michael out and say, "to hell with this. I'm not doing this."
MCFADDEN: Prosecutors allege Jackson molested the then 13-year-old boy, relaxing him with wine he called Jesus Juice. But Tyson says the first time the accuser and his younger brother slept in Michael Jackson's bedroom, it was actually the boy's idea.
TYSON: They came to Michael. "Michael, could we stay in your room? Michael, could we please stay in your room?" And Michael takes me aside and says to me, "Frank , if they're staying in this room, you're staying in this room, too." And you know what? I actually stayed in his room, the two kids slept in the bed. There was Michael on the floor here, and I was on the floor here.
MCFADDEN: See, but Frank, this is what doesn't make sense to those of us on the outside. This is a huge estate, plenty of bedrooms, plenty of rooms for everybody. Why are you guys sleeping on the floor, and why are two kids sleeping in his bed? That doesn't seem odd to you?
TYSON: No. It's like having a sleepover with a bunch of friends, all in one room, watching movies, doing this.
MCFADDEN: But this time the sleepover involved a 44-year-old superstar and a 13-year-old boy. Who, along with his brother, claimed that Tyson showed them that very night pornography on the Internet. Tyson says that's a lie. He says he and Jackson were out of the room when the boys found the pornographic site.
TYSON: The first thing, :Frank, Michael, look what we found!"
MCFADDEN: They found the porn sites?
TYSON: They found the porn sites. In fact, Michael brought me aside. Said, "Frank , they can't do that. Not with me in this room. I do not want this coming back on me."
MCFADDEN: So what happened?
TYSON: So, we took them off the porn site.
MCFADDEN: The allegations are that Michael Jackson drinks wine out of Coke cans and that he then gave the kids both wine and hard liquor. Were you ever present when Michael Jackson gave either the accuser or his brother alcohol?
TYSON: Michael Jackson has never given anybody, or forced alcohol on anybody. He would never do that.
MCFADDEN: So the portrait painted of inside Michael Jackson's bedroom as a place where he brought young boys, introduced them to pornography, sometimes molested them, and gave them booze is --
TYSON: It's completely untrue. Completely untrue.
MCFADDEN: You went to a bank and cashed a million dollar check from Michael Jackson. It's been suggested that that was your payoff.
TYSON: I wish it was. I have nothing. In the bank. You can go check my accounts. No, there's no payout for Frank Tyson of a million dollars.
MCFADDEN: Tyson says he was merely cashing a million dollar money order for Jackson, and that he gave all the money back to Jackson, keeping none of it for himself. So let's just be very clear. Did you ever hold the accuser or his family hostage at Neverland?
TYSON: Cynthia, no. There was no such thing as keeping a family hostage or a conspiracy. This is something that the prosecution and this mother created. We weren't keeping this family hostage.
MCFADDEN: The accuser's mother says that you planned to put her in a hot air balloon along with her family. [Frank laughs] That one makes you laugh?
TYSON: It does make me laugh because, who's going to put anyone in a hot air balloon and make them disappear? She could have come up with a better one than that.
MCFADDEN: And where do these allegations come from?
TYSON: I honestly believe, Cynthia, that this mother is delusional. And I think her lies became her truth. This is a family and a mother who would do anything to any extent to get any type of fame, even to this extent.
MCFADDEN: And what does Frank Tyson think of the young boys who claimed they were abused over the years by Jackson?
MCFADDEN: Are all the boys lying?
TYSON: Yes, they're all lying.
MCFADDEN: It never seemed odd to you that Michael Jackson always seemed to have a special boy who was his friend, always of about the same age, sort of the 12-year-old to 14-year-old age, many of them looked very much alike. Dark eyes, dark hair. Never occurred to you that there was a pattern here?
TYSON: No, there wasn't a pattern. It's what you're trying to create that's not real. It's not a pattern of him. Like special little boys. No, I was his friend for over 20 years. Am a pattern, too? No. I've been -- am I still his friend? Yes.
MCFADDEN: Well, there would be people who would say you would fit the pattern, very much.
TYSON: I would fit the pattern?
MCFADDEN: Look at the pictures of the 1993 accuser. Look at the picture of the present accuser.
TYSON: I'm going to tell you something. If Michael Jackson ever laid a finger on me, I would not be in this chair right now.
MCFADDEN: And what about Frank Tyson 's own little brother now 14, who Jackson reportedly calls Baby Rubba? Tyson says he also sees nothing wrong with him sleeping in Michael Jackson's bedroom.
MCFADDEN: Do you want to say to your little brother, "you know what? Not such a good idea?"
TYSON: No. If I felt uncomfortable, don't you think I'd be the first one to stop it?
MCFADDEN: Today Frank Tyson is involved in the music industry himself. He is currently producing a tribute concert to Patti Labelle. He says he's learned a lot from Michael Jackson, but wants to make a career on his own. He says so many lives have already been destroyed by this case. He worries now about the fate of the man he's admired since he was 5 years old.
TYSON: What's not to be worried about? It's a scary thing. This is serious. His life is on the line. He's got three beautiful children at home. His kids adore him. If anything happened to him, I'm scared.
MCFADDEN: Frank Tyson says he and his family have been closely in contact with Jackson throughout the trial. The case is expected to go to the jury in the next day or so.
[END INTERVIEW]
