How to tell a TRUE testimony from a FAKE one

UPDATED 30.07.10

I’ve read about the heinous crimes of child molestation by clergymen and feel completely sick now.

Besides the devastation of all that evidence and its horrendous details, it somewhat dismayed me to see that some of these men’s ways looked similar to what Michael Jackson was accused of. This made me wonder in real despair whether it is possible at all to tell a lie from the truth and draw a clear line between a real child abuser and an innocent man, if the circumstances of their relationship with children are more or less the same.

The situation looked to me completely hopeless but only until I read the testimonies of real victims. 

The several hours of this horrific reading left me in a kind of a stupor with the blood throbbing in my head, the heart pounding madly and me staring blindly at the wall. Twenty or thirty years after the actual events the survivors of child abuse are describing their horrible experience in such a way that it makes you feel every little bit of their horror, confusion, fear, shame and guilt as if all this was happening to you, not them…

And this was when I recalled the evidence which Jordan Chandler’s side presented as ‘proof’ of misconduct on the part of Michael Jackson – Jordan’s Declaration of December 28, 1993 and his Interview with psychiatrist Dr. Richard Gardner on October 6, 1993.

I suddenly remembered that when reading them for the first time I couldn’t help thinking that for a 13-year old ‘victim’ Jordan sounded remarkably, even superhumanly calm and composed. Only three months after the alleged relationship was over he was narrating his story in an amazingly quiet and matter-of-fact way, dividing the ‘relationship’ into various stages, reflecting on this and that and calmly correcting himself as regards the dates, locations and what did or didn’t take place there.

There was something terribly wrong about his story and something terribly missing there, and after reading the testimony of REAL victims I realized what it was – the emotions, yes, those gut-wrenching emotions which non-victims cannot imagine and cannot fake no matter how hard they are trying to do it.

The real testimonies show that despite all the children’s love for their would-be abusers (most of whom were revered by the children and their parents before the unfortunate events) none of the victims liked it when they were sexually approached by those men.

No, it was completely the other way about – the children were perplexed, bewildered and horrified. They felt that something totally strange, unusual and incomprehensible was happening to them. True, they kept silence about the experience as they felt shame and guilt for their own behavior, poor things, but ALL of them fought their accusers like mad, resisted their approaches and did everything possible within a child’s power to avoid meeting them again.

What a stark contrast with Jordan Chandler!

But I see that you are thinking that emotions are something which can be easily suppressed by will power or forgotten by distracting oneself in this or that way? NO WAY.

Emotions are so sticky to one’s memory that even after some 20 or 30 years the feelings of the abused victims will still be so intense that many of them prefer speaking of themselves in the third person only (he, she, John, Belinda) in order to dissociate themselves from the unfortunate boy or girl they were in their distant past.

In short after seeing testimonies of real victims I have started doubting more than ever the credibility of Jordan’s revelations to his psychiatrist or the official statement he made on Dec.28,1993 (a week after Michael declared his innocence in that via satellite statement). The easy and matter-of-fact manner in which Jordan is narrating his story there is absolutely stunning.

I really need to repeat what amazed me beyond measure and it was the fact that Jordan showed COMPLETE LACK OF EMOTION when telling the story of his alleged abuse.

Despite all the graphic details he describes in his interview Jordan sounds totally devoid of any feeling, which is absolutely – I repeat – absolutely impossible in the case of a real victim. Even if children like him did not fully comprehend what was going on with them they were still frightened out of their guts by what was going on and devastated by having to deal with this terrible secret all on their own.

However when you read Jordan’s interview with psychiatrist Dr. Richard Gardner you will probably think that Jordan is just an aloof outsider or someone taught or rehearsed to say all those things none of which bother him too much. 

In fact he cannot even remember when the alleged molestation took place though the events he is describing allegedly took place only several months before that. Though he is talking to the psychiatrist in  October he cannot even remember whether it was summer or spring (though in July that summer Jordan was already staying in his father’s home).  He can more or less place the “molestation” scene only when he recalls a real fact from his life – which was the need to read a book for the finals. Over here he remembers everything – the title of the book and that he received all As for it:

RG: “And how long were you at Euro-Disney?”

 JC: “I don’t know, a week or two at most.”

RG: “Was this during the summer?”

 JC: “I don’t know. No, wait, no actually now that I remember, up ‘til now, nothing was past the summer now that I remember, because – – ”

RG:  “So, Monaco was before the summer?”

 JC:  “Everything.”

RG: “Euro-Disney was before the summer?”

 JC:  “Yes, everything.  Now I remember because I had a book to read for finals.  It was called  To Kill A Mockingbird….

RG: “By the way, if this was before the summer, this is the school time. When you’re in all these other places, what’s going on with school?”

JC: “Well, I managed to still get all As; I brought my book with me.”

And over here Jordan Chandler doesn’t remember even the year of alleged molestation and sounds as emotional as a cold fish:

J:     I believe it was after the summer. After the summer of ’92 but not…
RG: We’re in ’93.
J:     Right. So it was before, like, I believe I had a break in school in February.
RG: When was the first hug?
J:     I don’t know.
RG: Do you have any idea?
J:    No.
RG: Was it before the summer of ’93?
J:    I would think early May, middle May.
RG: What’s the next step?
J:     Let’s see, I think the next step was…
RG: What thoughts were on your mind [at that moment]?
J: I thought, it’s weird. It’s like it didn’t feel right but yet it felt good.
RG: Do you feel guilty?
J:    Yeah. I regret doing it.
RG: What about fears? Any fears of any kind?
J:   No.
RG: You have no fears?
J:   Maybe of cross-examination but that’s all. I have nothing to hide.

So Jordan Chandler completely misread what kind of fears the psychiatrist was talking about. He thought they had to do with being confused by a cross-examination in court or hiding something – which is quite a tale-telling mistake on his part. In comparison with the panicky way real victims talked about their abuse Jordan completely missed the point of the question and his words in general sounded too much sterile and too much of a lie.

Whether the lie was deliberate or implanted into Jordan’s memory through that sodium amytal drug which we’ve all heard so much about, does not really matter. The only thing that matters is Jordan’s complete lack of emotion while he was telling his story.

Fake stories or artificially implanted false memories are simply incapable of conveying the genuine and intense emotions experienced by real victims of abuse and their lack betrays their fabricated nature. Psychologists say that it is possible to induce people to have artificial emotions under the influence of some drugs or hypnosis (for example), but only in case these people have ever experienced these emotions before and are told under hypnosis that when they wake up and speak about the scene of alleged “molestation” they will be panicky and feel like throwing up. Otherwise they will simply not know what they are supposed to feel when describing that scene.

Jordan showed not a single sign of any emotion, except probably boredom. Please compare it with how really abused children feel. Wishing to spare you the details of their horrifying testimonies I will reproduce here only the emotions they experienced in the cases similar to those described by Jordan. And then you will see what makes a TRUE testimony of an abused child different from a FAKE one:

… I was totally shocked and scared… totally confused by what had just happened.

… I was terrified about it and I could not believe what was happening to me. When everyone got up the next morning I told my friend I was feeling sick and wanted to go home. I was terrified of what might happen if I’d stay another night in that cabin. My adolescence was ended that night in the cabin by the river. Not only was I robbed of my youthful innocence that night, I was robbed of something more precious, my faith.

…All of my trust, love, self-respect and self-image were destroyed at that moment.

… The depression started with the first abuse and still continues. My self-esteem was shot. Many things happened to me after the abuse that I didn’t understand. I suffered from depression, a suicide attempt, alcohol and problems with authority.

… When doing it I felt like throwing up. I told him I didn’t feel comfortable doing that.

… I have very powerful memories of the abuse. When he did it I became petrified. I didn’t understand what was happening. I was in such a state of shock I didn’t say anything to anyone about what had happened to me.

… I wanted so desperately to be heard. I wanted someone to listen to me. I wanted someone to help me. I wanted to break the silence and despair that was killing me. I wanted someone to hear my story.  I find it easier to tell my story using the name John. I can revisit my pain and not hurt myself again.

… I remember him doing things to me that had never been done to me before. I did not know what to call it. He told me it was ok, it was part of growing up, it was normal. This left me confused questioning in my own mind how could this be? How could we do this? Does he think about it when he is saying mass? I wondered if he told anyone. I was confused. I was afraid. At the time, I told no one, but then again, I did not know how to talk about it or what to say. I became less active in the church, but then again I got a job, so that was the excuse. I went to mass, but stood in the back. I would not go to communion to him because it did not feel right.

… I was conscious of what was happening. I was terrified, I couldn’t move! I felt very humiliated…Throughout all of these terrible events I was too emotionally scared to call home. Throughout the trip I was very scared, puzzled and confused but I felt that if tried to get any help, he would get very angry. I had to push him away forcefully. I felt sick and embarrassed… I was afraid of what would happen and tried to use excuses to go home to get ready for school…. I would resist as much as I could…. I would struggle very hard to get him to stop but he would not listen. I never said anything in those times because I was so frightened.

…  Sleeping during the night was difficult, often times I would wake up because his hands were touching me. My initial response to this experience was one of nausea and confusion.  As the abuse continues over time, young vulnerable victims of priests wonder: “where can I go with this, who can I trust, I am so sad, I’m angry, I don’t know where to turn.”

… I pushed him off and ran away from him. I ran out of his room, down the stairs, out the rectory door and into the street. I was so scared that I didn’t look before I crossed the street and I was hit by a car… I never spoke to him again.

None of this is found in Jordan’s conversation with a psychiatrist.

Funny that the only strong emotion Jordan did feel during that interview was when the psychiatrist asked him about a subject which was really touchy for him. It was then that all his confidence and calmness were gone and his voice trailed off into something completely inaudible and he felt so embarrassed that the discussion was interrupted for a break:

RG: Most kids around your age start to masturbate by themselves usually without any kind of experience with another person.[ ] Have you continued to do it?
J:    I did, I believe, six times after the end of our relationship.
RG: And not since?
J:     And not since.
RG: Okay, why did you stop?
J:     I didn’t (inaudible)
RG: That’s it. Let’s separate the feeling from him.
J: (inaudible)
(inaudible)
RG: Let’s do this. Let’s take a break for about ten-fifteen minutes and then we’ll continue. So you stretch your legs. [ ] Okay, so let’s interrupt.

*    *    *

A co-advocate of Michael’s innocence Louise has offered a continuation to this post in the form of a language analysis which I am posting here as a postscript.

She says:

“I will use some of the testimonies published in the article “How to tell a TRUE testimony from a Fake one” and will add some new ones and Jordan (Jordan’s talk to Dr. Gardner) and Gavin (at the court)’s testimony as well. All samples will be anonymous.

After presenting 7 samples, I will study the language used in all of them and then we’ll see if we can draw some conclusions.

Here are the 7 samples:

1 … Every day and life in general [are] like a trial. I have been the victim of one of cousins who molested me … I know well how it feels when you are afraid of yourself, of the questions without any answer. I wonder often if my reactions to different feelings are caused by what he did to me. Would I act differently if this had not happened to me? The fear of being like him …

2 From the age of 9 until 15, I have suffered my mother’s boyfriend who first molested me and then penetrated me. Now I am 41 and all my issues are there. I cannot have children of my own, I cannot have a normal sexual life (once a month it’s already too much). Having the courage to carry on it is good but to be able to live the life is better if someone knows how to do it.

3 In phase one nothing happened… Let’s see, I think the next step was, I had an erection and he rubbed up against me and that was it… And he did, he did as well… We were on top of each other… Several things happened. One, he grabbed my butt; put his tongue in my ear… The next step, we went back home to LA and he continued doing the things I hadn’t stopped him from doing… we were alone and we took a bath together. That was the first time we ever saw each other naked… so he continued that for, like, a lot of the trip. And he kept on saying, ‘Tell me when you’re ready and I’ll do it for you.’ because up till then I had never masturbated or anything. And I had never, ever, indicated to him that I was ready, like, to be masturbated. And I guess that wasn’t according to his plans, and so, one time he just reached over and said, “Okay, just tell me how this feels.’ And he put his hand on my shorts and he said, ‘Now doesn’t that feel good.’ And he rubbed up and down. And I said ‘Yeah.’… I had a book to read for finals… Well, I managed to still get all As; I brought my book with me… he was masturbating me… I masturbated him…

4 Do you remember November month? November is cold, rainy and sad. It’s all I remember about November. When it comes, I want to bury me in a corner until March. Do you remember November month? I do. I was on the third floor, going to you classroom. Do you remember the corridor? On the left, there were five or six cupboards. On the right, there were the stairs leading to the second floor. It was too narrow and dark. Suddenly, you showed up. You walked to my direction. Do you want to know what I saw with my young eyes? Do you want to know what my small body felt? Do you want to know what was in my head at that moment? I am offering it to you. You did not say hello to me. You did not look at me. But when you came close to me you grabbed me and you put your hand between my thighs, the thighs of a child. You put two of your fingers and forced them into me through my trousers. You wanted put them inside me, did not you? Inside a child was not it? You pushed and pushed until I was hurt yes it hurt me. You pulled you back and went away. I could not walk. I stopped walking. “He did not say sorry” … But at that time I was too depressed at school. … Every time you came close to me, I was so tense. When you put your hands on my shoulders, in my hair, I stopped breathing and talking. My heart beat fast. The victim’s trauma towards his or hers attacker. … After the end of school trip, my strange psychological suffering began ….

5   We were laying on the bed and he told me – he told me that men have to masturbate – well, males have to masturbate or else they won’t be able to like – – like be normal, they’ll always be like unstable, because they have to … He told me if I knew how .. I said no … He told me that he wanted to teach me … So we were laying in the bed, and then he started rubbing me … He put his hand down my pants and he started rubbing me … He was masturbating me … Probably five minutes or something like that …

6  … I pushed him off and ran away from him. I ran out of his room, down the stairs, out the rectory door and into the street. I was so scared that I didn’t look before I crossed the street and I was hit by a car… I never spoke to him again.

7  … Sleeping during the night was difficult, often times I would wake up because his hands were touching me. My initial response to this experience was one of nausea and confusion. As the abuse continues over time, young vulnerable victims of priests wonder: “where can I go with this, who can I trust, I am so sad, I’m angry, I don’t know where to turn.

Let’s look at the vocabulary used in every sample:

1. every day and life are like a trial, victim of molestation, how it feels, afraid of oneself, questions without answers, reactions caused by what he did to me, fear.

2. suffered molestation, penetration, issues not solved, cannot have children, cannot have a normal sexual life, have the courage to carry on.

3. phase one, progress, let’s see, the next step was, had an erection, rub against me, on top of each other, several things happened, grabbed my butt, put his tongue, the next step, continued, took a bath together, the first time we saw each other naked, had never masturbated up till then, put his hand, rubbed, I said “Yeah”, had a book to read for finals, managed to get all As, brought the book with me, he masturbated me, I masturbated him.

4. remember November, cold, rainy and sad, all I remember, to bury me in the corner up to March, go to the classroom, the corridor narrow and dark, suddenly showed up, in my direction, I saw with my young eyes, my small body felt, in my head, did not look or say hello, came close, grabbed me, put your hand, between my thighs, the thighs of a child, forced your fingers through my trousers, pushed and pushed, was hurt, it hurt me, went away, could not walk, stopped walking, did not say sorry, too depressed at school, came close, was so tense, put your hand on my shoulder, stopped breathing, heart beat fast, the victim, trauma, attacker, strange, psychological suffering began.

5. lay on the bed, men have to masturbate, like normal, like unstable, said know how, I said no, want to teach me, so lay in the bed, masturbate probably five minutes, rub, put his hand, down my pants.

6. pushed him off, ran away, ran out, down the stairs, out the door, so scared, didn’t look, hit by car, never spoke again

7. sleeping difficult, wake up, touch me, nausea, confusion, abuse, vulnerable, victims, wonder, sad, angry, where to turn, where to go with this.

Conclusion :

Comparing these samples to each other, we note that the third and the fifth ones are different from the five others by lack of emotion. One would say robots are speaking in 3 and 5. The only verbs expressing an emotion are “not to like” and “not to want to do it” (if we speak of the whole of the text). There are very few adjectives in these two passages.

The choice of the verbs is also important. In the first two extracts we read: “to be victim of somebody’s molestation”, “to suffer somebody’s molestation” while in the third and the fifth, we have “to masturbate somebody”.

Compare this sentence “Sleeping during the night was difficult, often times I would wake up because his hands were touching me” with “He put his hand in my short / pants”. The first one makes us to shiver. We feel the suffering of the person; we feel almost these hands that touch. On the other hand, the second one resembles a youthful sexual activity tale.

While samples 3 and 5 are almost neutrally expressed, the others are full of strong emotions: fear, rage, hate, despair… People speak using words like: vulnerable victims, the abuser, the abused…

Jordan vs. Gavin Arvizo:

You will find Jordan’s conversation with Dr. Gardner here: http://michael-jackson-facts.yolasite.com/jordie.php. Gavin’s court testimony is here: http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/0215053accuser1.html.

The first important thing to notice is that Gavin says almost the same as Jordan. Indeed, Jordan’s lies are the model that had been followed closely by the other accusers. After all, the father and the son helped by their lawyer, their psychiatrist and Sneddon succeed together to fill up their pockets with several million dollars. Consequently, they were the best example to follow. Therefore the Arvizo also engaged the same lawyer and the same shrink. Surely, they had lots of dreams about all the wonderful dollars that they could get from Michael. But this time, MJ had learnt his lesson.

A true victim of sexual abuse rarely forgets the place of the crime as well as the dates. When reading the two kids’ lies, we notice that the places are apparently clear in their tales but the dates create issues. Jordan was mistaken several times and he was not always able to correct his mistakes. Gavin is even more ridiculous. Sneddon & Co decided to place the dates of the so-called abuse two weeks before the airing of Bashir’s treachery. But when they discovered that Michael Jackson had alibi for this period of time, they moved the dates to weeks after the airing of the film.

In his talk with Dr. Gardner, Jordan has admitted that he loved Neverland and other places where he proclaimed that the sexual abuse took place. He wanted to follow Michael Jackson to his tour even after the accusations had been made. A true victim of sexual abuse flees his / her abuser and hates the places of the crime.

A true testimony of sexual abuse is often precise. The terms are clear and the victims talk without hesitation. During his talk, Jordan has used 40 times the expression “I don’t know”. Gavin is even vaguer. He repeats himself several times and the expression “I don’t know” comes back constantly. The member of jury judged Gavin’s words and his appearances not like a true testimony of sexual abuse.

Often the victim of sexual abuse suffers for the rest of his life. Some of the victims succeed to have a bearable life only after several years of therapy. At the end of his talk with Dr. Gardner, Jordan said that he had found himself a girlfriend. He also mentioned that he was good at school and could still get A’s though he was “molested”!

During this session with Gardner, he even mentioned some of Michael’s learning about the meditation, the levitation and freedom from the gravitation. He is shown as quick on the uptake and a calculating young person not like many other teenagers. His life after the settlement is a proof of it because he became rich like a king, powerful and he had lots of fun in his life.

In February 1997, People magazine wrote this:

” […] Jordy has amassed huge wealth. His most recent bank statements show he has pounds 3 million-worth of bonds and shares alone. And he enjoys dabbling on the stock market with the help of his financial guru Jeffrey Hahn, vice president of the Santa Monica Bank.
He goes to a private school which he partly owns.
Jordy instructed his financial aides to buy into the Crossroads School when he noticed how much his annual fees were.
And after he bought himself a trendy Nissan Pathfinder vehicle and noticed how much money he was spending on petrol, he bought shares in Mobil, Chevron and Texaco. When he discovered the Internet on his computer he bought shares in Hewlett Packard Computers and telephone companies.
He even bought part of his bank, the Bank of New York.
Jordy has developed a taste for expensive clothes.
When he plays roller hockey outside his home he dons Armani trousers.
He surfs in Florida, scuba-dives in the Bahamas and skis in Taos and Vail, Colorado.
But all the holidays merely serve as a distraction. […]”
http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-61114091.html

 *  *  *

DAVID EDWARDS is also making an addition in the form of a videotape where a grown-up man who was molested in his childhood cannot hold himself when telling about his past experience (which took place some 20 years ago!).  When you see things like that and recall Ray Chandler’s words that “Jordan has easily recovered from the abuse due to some therapy” you can immediately understand all the difference in the world between a true victim and a FAKE one.

David says about it:

Here is a video of actor Todd Bridges, who was a child star in the 80′s from the sitcom “Diff’rent Strokes” (along with the late, great Gary Coleman). In this clip, he talks with Oprah about the child molestation he suffered at the hands of an adult male.

In the first video, he begins to discuss this at the 3:30 mark. Look at his reaction when he finishes reading the excerpt from his book that describes the molestation! Notice the EMOTIONS that he has! He can barely compose himself! Now read Jordie Chandler’s Oct. 1993 interview with Dr. Gardner, and notice the complete LACK OF EMOTION! Did Jordie ever stop to cry? No!!!

Next, here’s where it gets interesting! Notice the reaction that Todd Bridges’ mother had when he told her that he had been molested, and she tried to get the molester to leave her home and he wouldn’t!

And then at 2:04, NOTICE WHAT TODD BRIDGES SAYS HE’LL DO TO ANYONE WHO MOLESTS HIS CHILDREN!! I had to write that in all caps in order to emphasize my point!

Now, compare the reactions of Todd Bridges and his mom to the actions of Evan Chandler when found out that Jordie had been “molested” by MJ!! Tell me whose story is more credible! LOL!