Is there any truth to the theory about MJ and June Chandler?

MR.CHANDLER: They won’t return my phone



20 calls. June called me once last week.



21 MR. SCHWARTZ*: Yeah.



22 MR. CHANDLER: She told me to go fuck



23 myself. Not in those words.

Jordan Chandler was born on January 11, 1980. His biological parents divorced in 1985 and he lived with his mother and her second husband, David Schwartz. From this marriage he had a half-sister. His father, Evan Chandler (born Evan Robert Charmatz) also had a second family, a wife and another son and a daughter from that marriage.

Evan Chandler had a dental practice in Beverly Hills, but he was also an aspiring screenwriter.

In 1992 Evan collaborated in writing a screenplay for the comedy movie Robin Hood: Men In Tights directed by Mel Brooks. The movie was released in July, 1993. Though officially Mel Brooks, J. David Shapiro and Evan Chandler are credited with the screenplay, who wrote what percentage of it was a matter of legal dispute among them [2; page 37]. According to June Chandler’s 2005 testimony Jordan helped his father write his part, for which Evan promised him $5,000 but he never paid it [3]. Jordan’s uncle, Ray Chandler in his 2004 book All That Glitters describes an argument between Evan and June Chandler where the woman called her ex-husband “a terrible father” for promising Jordan the money but never paying it. Evan in the book claimed that Jordan’s contribution wasn’t that big after all and that instead of giving the money to the boy directly he put it “in the bank” [2; page 55-56]. According to June’s 2005 testimony, however, Evan never paid the promised money to his son [3].

This wasn’t the only promise Evan failed to keep to his son. According to Michael Freeman, who was June Chandler’s attorney while the allegations were being formulated, Evan also promised a laptop computer to his son that he never bought [1]. And June Chandler herself in August, 1993 sued Evan for $68,000 in back child support payments though later she retracted this claim [1] [4].

In her 2005 testimony June Chandler testified that before Jackson came into their lives Evan was busy writing screenplays and did not spend much time with his son about which she complained to her ex-husband [3].


There are also several accounts of Evan Chandler having a violent temper and an abusive nature. In her 1994 article for GQ Magazine Mary A. Fischer quotes an unnamed family friend who claimed: “One of the reasons June left Evan was because of his temper” [1]. Later in the same article Fischer describes an incident that occurred in Larry Feldman’s (the Chandlers’ civil lawyer during the allegations) office in 1993. According to Fischer’s sources:

“[Evan Chandler] completely lost it and beat up Dave [Schwartz]. Schwartz, having separated from June by this time, was getting pushed out of making decisions that affected his stepson, and he resented Chandler for taking the boy and not returning him.

Dave got mad and told Evan this was all about extortion, anyway, at which point Evan stood up, walked over and started hitting Dave, a second source says.” [1]

Jordan’s uncle, Ray Chandler, in an article he wrote in 2005 for his now defunct website (atgbook.com) attempted to downplay the incident, describing it as a “a one punch fight” in the heat of an argument about the settlement money that they had not even received yet, but he does concede that Evan indeed punched Schwartz [4]. He admits to this incident in his book as well:

“Until now [Evan] had consciously subdued his resentment, but in the heat of this verbal battle he sprang from his seat and slapped Dave in the face. Several of the lawyers stepped between the two men and separated them”. [2; page 170]

In her 2004 book, Redemption, Geraldine Hughes, a legal secretary of lawyer Barry K. Rothman who first represented the Chandlers during the 1993 allegations, speaks about a lawsuit David Schwartz filed against Evan Chandler and states:

“Mr. Schwartz asserted that on July 9,1993, at Dr. Chandler’s house in Brentwood, Dr. Chandler approached him in a menacing manner with a closed fist and threatened to strike him with his hands and feet. He stated that Dr. Chandler wrestled him to the ground and began to kick him and spat on him.

Mr. Schwartz further asserted that once again while at Mr. Feldman’s office in August of 1993, there was another altercation in which Dr. Chandler punched Mr. Schwartz in his temple, causing him to lose consciousness [5; page 136].”


In a secretly taped phone conversation between Evan Chandler and David Schwartz, Evan, when talking about his then wife, “Monique” (her real name was Nathalie Chandler, but the pseudonym “Monique” was used in the transcript and in Ray Chandler’s book), says he would kill her if he ever learned that she cheated on him without first telling him:

“She’s going to go away to Cannes Film Festival next year… right? Do you know what that’s like? That Film Festival’s a fucking sex party. Next year, without me, okay? Now, if I didn’t have a chance to talk to her about my fears, my [tape irregularity], probably shoot her, or I’d divorce her.”[6]

and

“And you want to know what I told her? I told her this. I said June… “Monique,” I said, “if you ever want to sleep with somebody else or if you don’t love me anymore, if you come to me and you tell me that [tape irregularity] out of the house and fuck his brains out, I’ll love you forever, I’ll support you and wish you well. But if it’s the other way around, you fuck him first and then you [tape irregularity], I’ll kill you, period.” I said, “Those are the rules. If you want to stay with me, you gotta understand that’s the only way I can survive. That’s how I live.” [6]

It is none other than Ray Chandler who discloses in his 2005 article that “when asked in a 1994 deposition about Evan’s violence, June said that in January of 1992 she had heard of an argument between Evan and his then wife, Monique that became physical.” [4]

Though Ray Chandler in his book denied Evan’s physical attacks against Schwartz (except for the “one punch fight” in Feldman’s office) and others, and both in the book and in his 2005 article he claimed that “[June Chandler] knew of no reason why Evan presented a danger to Jordie” [4], eventually Evan’s violence peaked in an attack against his son in which he almost killed him.

On July 6, 2005 – less then three weeks after Michael Jackson’s acquittal in the Arvizo trial – Evan Chandler “struck [Jordan] on the head from behind with a twelve and one-half pound weight and then sprayed his eyes with mace or pepper spray and tried to choke him” [7]. A judge later “found that the weight could have caused serious bodily injury or death” [7]. On August 5, 2005 Jordan obtained a temporary restraining order against his father. Though the judge in this case declared he saw no proof that the defendant (Evan Chandler) displayed “a pattern of abusive and controlling behavior” [7], and with that dismissed Jordan’s request for a final restraining order, the incidents cited above, considered together, do indeed constitute a pattern.

This was not the end of Evan and Jordan Chandler’s legal disputes. On July 24, 2005 Evan Chandler filed a lawsuit against Jordan which had to do with Jordan’s trust fund. The case was dismissed in 2007.

***

Jordan’s relationship with his father seemed to be very ambivalent, while Evan’s relationship with his other children was virtually non-existent after the allegations. As we mentioned earlier, according to June Chandler’s 2005 testimony, before Jackson appeared in their life Evan did not spend much time with Jordan. During and with the help of the 1993 allegations then he managed to get custody of the boy who by 1994 was a multi-millionaire due to the settlement with Jackson.

In 1995, however, Jordan emancipated himself from both of his biological parents and for a while he went on to live with Evan’s second wife Nathalie (“Monique”) and his younger brother and sister. Nathalie divorced Evan and later married a Hollywood screenwriter, who raised Evan’s two younger children as his own. Evan did not show interest in his two younger children, he was only interested in maintaining a relationship with the multi-millionaire Jordan.

From court documents between Nathalie and Evan it appears that despite of the emancipation Evan retained some kind of mental or emotional control over Jordan, because in those documents Nathalie complained that after a while Jordan refused to talk to and meet with his younger siblings, just like their father who abandoned them.

In the lawsuit Nathalie also complained that Evan refused to work and did not provide for his minor children, nor was he available to them and was content with living off of the money of his son, Jordan. She also stated that Evan cut himself off from any other family members who disagreed with his behavior. Even his loyal brother, Ray Chandler admitted in his book, All That Glitters that Evan neglected his family after the allegations [2; page 248]. (More in the chapter entitled Evan Chandler’s 1996 lawsuit against Michael Jackson.)

This puts the portrayal of Evan as the concerned father, the only responsible adult in Jordan’s life, the only person who cared about his well-being into a perspective.

Jordan himself never publicly addressed the allegations and always kept a low profile. According to Jackson’s FBI files, when prosecutors asked him to testify at Jackson’s 2005 trial Jordan refused and he told them that “he would legally fight any attempt” to make him testify against Jackson [8]. Jackson’s attorney Thomas Mesereau said that he had witnesses whom he would have called if Jordan had testified. These witnesses were people who personally knew Jordan and according to Mesereau Jordan privately confided in them that Jackson never molested him [9].

On November 5, 2009, four months after Michael Jackson’s death, Evan Chandler committed suicide. He did not leave a suicide note. Reportedly, he died as a lonely man, stricken with serious and painful diseases. According to journalist Diane Dimond (whom Ray Chandler’s book, All That Glitters describes as Evan Chandler’s “closest ally” in the media [2; page 194]) Evan also suffered from bipolar disorder.

In his Will Evan ordered that none of his family members be advised of his death until well after his funeral. He also stated that he did not wish to leave anything to any of his three children: “For reasons best known between us, I purposefully make no provision in this, my Last Will and Testament, for any of my children or their issue.” [10]

Presently Jordan is on good terms with his mother June and he is also close to his younger half-siblings and their mother Nathalie again.

The judge found that plaintiff had proved that he and his father, the defendant, were members of the same household when defendant struck him on the head from behind with a twelve and one-half pound weight and then sprayed his eyes with mace or pepper spray and tried to choke him. The judge also found that the weight could cause serious bodily injury or death. Thus, the judge was satisfied that plaintiff had provided evidence, which if believed, would support a finding of aggravated assault. Despite that finding, the judge refused to issue a final restraining order, reasoning as follows