MJ

Sex guru rabbi gets passed over
The Observer, Sunday 5 September 1999

For an orthodox Jewish rabbi, Shmuel Boteach has an unorthodox way of doing things. The New York-educated cleric drinks vodka, allows non-Jews to join his Oxford-based debating society and sees nothing wrong in using Playboy magazine to push his ideas on ‘kosher’ sex. He is also on first name terms with Mikhail Gorbachev and former Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres.
But this weekend it is not Boteach’s radical approach to spreading Hasidic Jewish teaching that is shocking British Jewry so much as allegations about the activities of his Oxford University L’Chaim Society and its associated charitable trust.

L’Chaim is Hebrew for ‘to life’. And according to the 32-year-old rabbi’s detractors, Boteach – ‘Shmuley’ to his friends – has taken the society’s philosophy too literally.

Last week the Charity Commission froze the trust’s bank account, citing concerns about ‘the application and control of the charity’s funds’.

The commission wants to question trustees about payments to meet the mortgage on Boteach’s £400,000 home in north London. The Observer has also learnt that Boteach and his family have the run of a large house in Oxford, albeit thanks to the generosity of an unnamed Israeli benefactor.

Perhaps most damaging are reports of widespread staff disaffection with Boteach’s management style amid allegations that while fund-raising for Jewish causes he has been using employees of L’Chaim to promote the financial interests of major donors.

According to documents obtained by The Observer, in June 1997, Boteach’s then executive assistant at the L’Chaim Society, Esther Flint, wrote to Rabbi J. Gutnick, a multimillionaire, in Melbourne, Australia, offering to help him in ‘developing awareness’ in Britain of his mining projects. The letter began: ‘I understand that a significant element of the job is devoting time to promoting your companies to the financial markets of UK and Europe. Therefore Rabbi Boteach thought it pertinent I contact you in order that I may introduce myself.’

Soon after, Flint resigned. Boteach acknowledges that Gutnick, who made his fortune in gold mining, was a key donor but claims Flint’s offer was never taken up. ‘There was no question of a tit for tat arrangement,’ he told The Observer .

The Charity Commission is pressing ahead with a formal investigation and has asked to meet the trustees this week to clarify a series of transactions – including cheques drawn on the trust’s account for Boteach’s salary and payments for this year’s fund-raising dinner and a car pool for L’Chaim employees.

Boteach says L’Chaim’s trustees took legal advice before setting up the trust account to meet the mortgage payments on his London home and were assured that it conformed to charity regulations. He maintains that the house was being used for fund-raising dinners and charity-related work.

According to Boteach, the investigation is little more than a ‘witchhunt’ got up by his enemies in the Jewish establishment who have always disapproved of his talent for self-promotion. But former employees tell a different story, claiming his private face is at odds with the engaging image he presents in the media and on chat shows like Oprah Winfrey’s.

They say Boteach makes impossible demands on staff and when they fail to meet expectations they are sacked or persuaded to resign. In one two-year period, Boteach dismissed six directors of the Oxford society, accusing each of gross misconduct. The allegations were strenuously denied and one former director is now threatening to sue for libel over alleged comments Boteach made to the chairman of the trust’s governors, Michael Sinclair.

As long as Boteach attracted speakers like Gorbachev, Peres and Diego Maradona to Oxford, and the donations continued to pour in, he continued to enjoy the confidence of the trustees. By 1995 the turnover from L’Chaim events was £183,000 – far more than any other Oxford student society – and two years later donations to the trust totalled £450,000.

But by now the university proctors were becoming concerned that L’Chaim was being run as a business and no longer complied with the membership rules for a student society. As a result, Boteach wound down L’Chaim’s Oxford activities and began spending more time in London.

By 1998 he was riding high. His first book, The Jewish Guide to Adultery, giving Talmudic advice on how to improve one’s marriage, had been serialised in the Daily Mail and he had just sold his second, Kosher Sex , to Playboy for a reported £200,000.

Then, last April, Katrin Levy, a journalist on a north London Jewish newspaper, began to investigate reports of staff disenchantment. Instead of publishing her findings she decided to show them to the paper’s proprietor – Michael Sinclair, chairman of L’Chaim’s board and Boteach’s boss. ‘By going to Sinclair I hoped he would investigate the allegations and act on them,’ says Levy.

The next day Levy was told to hand her documents back to Boteach. She refused and went to the police, who passed the documents to the Charity Commission, triggering this week’s events. Levy subsequently left her job.

Sinclair declined to comment to The Observer. Instead, the trustees issued a statement claiming the allegations were ‘utterly without foundation’ and the society had done ‘absolutely nothing wrong’. But the damage to Boteach’s reputation may have already been fatal.

Yesterday the Chief Rabbi’s office told The Observer that although Boteach had been invited to participate in an end of Sabbath prayer service at the prestigious New West End synagogue in central London, he did not possess the appropriate United Synagogue rabbinical ‘practice certificate’.

Boteach said: ‘This is an ongoing attempt to silence individuals like myself who have never been accepted by the mainstream Jewish establishment.’

source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/1999/sep/05/theobserver.uknews1

Stevie Wonder with John Legend “The Way You Make Me Feel” Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame 25TH Anniversary Performance.

Whitney Houston  Moscow 09/12/09

November 30, 2009 | 7:08 am

Prosecutors and police investigators don’t expect to file charges in connection with Michael Jackson’s death before 2010, law enforcement officials told The Times.

The officials said there is such much evidence to review — some of it complex medical data — and that they have sought the help of outside medical experts.

A decision on whether to file criminal charges is “months rather than weeks away,” one source said.

Dr. Conrad Murray, Jackson’s personal physician who provided him with the anesthetic propofol that coroner’s officials say killed the pop singer, has been identified as a suspect in a manslaughter investigation in search warrants and remains the focus of the probe.

The investigation has resulted in large quantities of information that need to be carefully reviewed not only by LAPD detectives, but also prosecutors and some outside medical advisers before a final decision is made on how to proceed in the case, according to sources familiar with the investigation. They spoke to The Times on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing.

With no suspects in custody, those familiar with the probe compare the Jackson case to the investigation of music producer Phil Spector, which took more than a year before prosecutors decided to file charges.

Murray has denied repeatedly any wrongdoing and insists he gave then-appropriate medical aid when he found Jackson’s distressed and not breathing. His attorney has stressed that Murray is fully cooperating with authorities.

The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office already has had Murray’s girlfriend Nicole Alvarez testify before a grand jury panel, according to sources.

The Los Angeles County coroner’s office determined that Jackson died from “acute propofol intoxication” combined with sedatives and labeled his death a homicide.

The complexity of the medical evidence in the case has lead LAPD Robbery Homicide Division detectives and a prosecutor who is virtually embedded with them to seek several medical opinions in addition to the coroner’s officials’ on Jackson’s death, according to two sources.

Murray, 56, told detectives that he administered the anesthetic propofol and other medications to Jackson before the pop star’s death June 25, according to search warrants in the investigation. Five bottles of the anesthetic were purchased in Nevada from Applied Pharmacy by Murray, who had it shipped to California, according to search warrants in the investigation.

Some of those bottles were found in Jackson’s rented Holmby Hills mansion, according to search-warrant affidavits. Propofol is usually used in medical settings by anesthesia professionals to make patients unconscious for surgery.

The physician told police Jackson was dependent on propofol to sleep and that he was trying to wean the singer off the drug.

Murray last week went back to work at his Houston medical office.

– Richard Winton

source: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009/11/decision-on-criminal-charges-in-michael-jackson-case-not-expected-until-next-year.html

16th November 2009
The physician being investigated in Michael Jackson’s death reached an agreement Monday in a separate child support case that kept him out of a Nevada jail.

Prosecutors in Las Vegas had sought an arrest warrant for Dr. Conrad Murray after he failed to appear for previous hearings before Family Court officers attempting to collect unpaid child support for a California woman and her 11-year-old son dating back to October 2008.

With Murray at his side, defense lawyer Christopher Aaron paid $700 cash in court and promised Murray would pay another $303 to the woman, who submitted a letter to the court saying she was willing to forgive the $15,500 Murray already owed if he began paying $1,003 a month.

The woman, Nenita Malibiran of Santa Clara County, Calif., did not attend the hearing and did not immediately respond to a telephone message seeking comment.

The arrangement surprised Clark County Senior District Court Judge Gerald Hardcastle, who briefly questioned Murray about whether the woman had been coerced into what the judge called “a pretty magnanimous act.”

Murray said she had not. Prosecutor Gerard Costantian said he spoke with the woman and was convinced the act was voluntary.

“It strikes me as unfair,” the judge said. “But having said that, it’s her money.”

At the prosecutor’s request, Hardcastle set a Jan. 4 status hearing and told Murray he must appear in person to ensure he has been making monthly payments.

Aaron credited Malibiran afterward with giving Murray a break while he’s a focus of the Jackson death investigation.

Aaron has said Murray, a cardiologist, had been unable to pay because he had to close his medical practice and move due to threats following Jackson’s death June 25.

The lawyer said Murray was “unemployed and unemployable,” and the money paid Monday came from unidentified benefactors. (?????)

“He’s not a deadbeat,” Aaron said. “She waived it today because she understands his circumstances.”

Costantian said he had been prepared to ask the court to find Murray in contempt and jail him unless he could demonstrate an inability to pay. Any reduction in Murray’s monthly child support obligation will have to be approved by a California court, he said.

Click on the links below to watch the hearing:-
Part 1

http://www.tmz.com/videos?autoplay=true&mediaKey=e0470575-cad1-469e-8ae5-4cce7c0ee18c

Part 2

http://www.tmz.com/videos?autoplay=true&mediaKey=4a0a1b67-8a54-4405-8f1e-83f0244f8a29

http://www.tackfilm.se/en/?id=1259445159468RA97

Even if it’s a fake, because you can put your our photo and be a HERO, WE DECIED TO PUBLISH THIS LINK BECAUSE THE MESSAGE IS PRETTY CLEAR.

WHAT DOU YOU THINK?

PS: MANY THANKS TO  THE PERSON WHO PUT MICHAEL’S PHOTO, AND  TO THE ONE WHO SENT US THE LINK.

The trials of Michael Jackson

very interesting book about Sony.

This is the original photo from the TII rehearse

And this is the one that you can see in the booklet

what do you think?