Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Missing Katherine Jackson: Accused Nephew Talks

Episode Date: February 13, 2017

A Los Angeles judge ordered the nephew and caretaker of pop icon Michael Jackson's mother to abandon the house where the Jackson family matriarch lives amid charges he abused the 86-year-old. Trent Jackson tells Nancy Grace in an exclusive interview that he doubts Mrs. Jackson even knows a lawyer requested the temporary restraining order, since she is in London visiting daughter Janet and her new baby. He claims the TRO is a power grab by Michael Jackson's siblings. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Michael Jackson's mother, Katherine Jackson, is alleging ongoing elder abuse at the hands of her nephew and driver, Trent Lamar Jackson. She's claiming that she is the victim of years of mental abuse and has reached the point that she's afraid to return home. This is Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. A number of Michael Jackson siblings are still contesting his will, alleging conspiracy and fraud, charges denied by the executors and thrown out by the courts.

Catherine says she tried to fire her nephew and have him move out of the guest house, but that he refused. She is currently in London visiting Janet Jackson, but fears he could physically harm her for terminating him if she returns home. The judge granted Catherine's request for a restraining order and has ordered the nephew to move out of her guest house. It never seems to end with Michael Jackson and or Michael Jackson's estate and all of his relatives that are like vultures circling his body trying to somehow position themselves to get more money, more fame, more everything. And it's not over. Right now, we understand that Michael Jackson's mom, Katherine Jackson, is in London

seeing her daughter, Janet Jackson's baby, for the first time. While she's gone, it seems as if someone has ousted her longtime caretaker, Trent Jackson, a Jackson family relative. Now, is this more meddling by the Jackson clan to jockey for position and or money through their mom? Or is there something more nefarious going on? Joining us today, that man, Trent Jackson. This is Crime Stories.

I'm Nancy Grace, and I want to thank you for being with us. As always, it never ends with this Jackson bunch. Never ends. Also, thank you to our sponsor being with us today, SimpliSafe. SimpliSafe has an incredible home security system. And one of the facets that are so unusual is that you can actually afford it. It's $14.99 a month for home security. I have children. My mom stays with me a lot. She's 84 now since my dad passed away last year. When I'm here and when I am not here, I want this place armed to the hilt. SimpliSafe.com slash Nancy for an additional 10% off.

But now back to the Jacksons. It's just amazing that someone with this kind of talent, unlike really anything the world has ever seen, the pop world has ever seen before anyway, there's no disputing that. The drama, the intrigue, the crime that has, you know, hounded this family and it's not over it's happening right now this is crime stories i'm nancy grace and as always thank you for being with us joining us that man the man that has seemingly been kicked to the curb while katherine jackson's out of town trent you have been taking care of michael jackson's mom k Catherine Jackson, for many, many years now. And I find it very unusual that out of the blue, the minute she leaves town, I think she's gone to visit Janet Jackson's new baby boy.

You suddenly have gotten a TRO filed against you. A TRO claiming kidnapping and, I guess, getting into her money. What's going on? Yeah, that's not true. Like I was saying, my aunt left there January 22nd. She left me paying the bills and taking care of the household. And it's mighty funny how when she got to London, which I told her not to go, which Paris told her not to go, and when she got over there, we haven't heard from her since she left.

And it seems to me that someone is over there putting all these things together to go after me so they can control my aunt, I guess. I really don't know. It seems like it's part two of part one. Well, another thing that's fishy,rent is that it they claim the tro the temporary restraining order that i'm looking at right now it says you deprived her of water oh my goodness okay i don't get that it says that you have tried to take over her finances you've kidnapped her and deprived her of water and from contacting her family. Well, she's with her family right now.

Let me explain something. First of all, me, Ms. Jackson, and Prince and Paris and Blanket, and my cousin TJ and his family lives in the house with her because TJ is the guardian of the children. So, you know, it's kind of crazy for them to say that I've deprived of water when we live in the same house. And kidnapping her means that I have to live somewhere else to kidnap her. I mean, we all live in the same house, so how can I kidnap her? It's kind of strange.

And that TRO that they claimed that I've been served with, I've never been served with anything. I'm still at the house right now. And we all puzzled that why we can't contact her and talk to her. That's the problem. So it seems like that she's on the other foot. She is in, I guess, London right now seeing her new grandson, Janet Jackson, as we all know, has just given birth to her first child. It's a baby boy. And Catherine Jackson has flown there to see the child but this claims that she could you kept her from being with her family but in fact her family lives in the home with her correct that's correct so how can I keep her from seeing her family when they come there every day Reby comes

there every day Jermaine comes there all the time Latoya comes pick her up I mean it's like why would I keep her from seeing her family And also her finances, which is through the estate, which she has the attorneys that make sure that her money is being applicated in the right way. And we also have an accountant who looks at all the bank statements. And it's going to be strange when you look at those bank statements, you're going to see who's really manipulating her with her money, and it's not me.

And so I just can't understand why they're making these accusations. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Well, hold on. Hold on, Trent Jackson. You gave, that was a very mysterious statement. You said when the court or financial handlers look at her money, they'll see that her money is being manipulated and not by you. So who are you suggesting is manipulating Catherine Jackson's money? I don't want to say right now. I mean, I don't want to get myself into the position to where, you know, it's going to backfire on me. But I'm just saying that they have the bank statement, the accountant has the bank statements. All they got to do is look at the paper trail, and they'll know who's manipulating Ms. Jackson, and it's not me.

All I do is pay Ms. Jackson's bills. I've been paying her bills for 15 years now, and that was my job to be her driver, her provider, as far as taking care of her, making sure she takes her medicine, making sure she's going to the doctor. These are the things Michael told me to do for her. And I've been doing this very well, by the way. And people who know me know this, you know, this is the second time this has happened.

They did this before. So you're telling me that Michael Jackson himself put you in, put Miss Jackson, his mother, in your care. He asked you to do these things. In 2004. Well, whatever else I might think about Michael Jackson, which you probably already know, I also know this. I think he loved his mother very, very much.

Another very alarming accusation is that, quote, because Trent Jackson managed to get a key to her bedroom, he opens her door at his will with no regard for her privacy. It also states that another time you convinced Katherine Jackson to go to Indiana, supposed to be for a couple of days, and you kept her there over a month and prevented her from speaking to her family. She wanted to come home, and you kept her there over a month and prevented her from speaking to her family she wanted to come home and you intimidated her into staying and also it states that the only way she can talk to her family is to hide in the closet what what wow yeah what's this business about

indiana let's start with that what are they talking about? Indiana. My aunt has a home there. You know the Jackson 5. They have their original house there at Gary, Indiana. And me and my aunt have been going back there for seven years now. And we go back and we put on a festival for the kids and we give away gifts. And I have a three-day festival and concert for the city to help the city out, something that we've been doing for the last seven years. And all of my family members from here, and most of them, I should say, not the quote-unquote her kids, come back and support the festival, come back and give away the gifts. And Prince and Paris have been coming every year and blanket and sign autographs,

and we have such a wonderful time giving back to the city of Gary. So I'm trying to figure out where is putting her in a closet and kidnapping her for a month. Everybody knows where we're at. I mean, it's not like nobody knows where we're at. And my aunt has phones everywhere, and she has her own personal phone. She can call whenever she needs to call. Isn't it just blanket in the home now? Because Paris has grown up

and Prince has grown up. So there's just Blanket left. Blanket is at the house now, yes. And he's happy at the house over there. Prince and Paris moved out but you have to ask them why did they move out? That's a good question. Well, aren't they, how old are they? Paris is 18

and Prince is 19 and he'll be 20 this month. Now, it also says that in these documents I'm quoting, that Trent, that's you, has manipulated Mrs. Jackson so much that whenever the police arrive, she recants and changes her mind. In other words, when the police get there and ask her about these accusations, she always says that's not true. So what do you believe is behind all this?

We didn't have the adult services called on us like three times. And each time the sheriff's come up there, they talk with my aunt and then they talk with me. And then they come back and tell me that, you know, our stories collaborate with each other. We're not saying anything different. And one of the ladies sheriffs told me, she said, what really is the problem because when Jermaine was keeping your uncle, we had to go up there to see what was going on up there because someone called the adult service on him.

And I said, well, basically, some family members are still unhappy about the situation that Michael made, and they feel like if they can control their mom in the way that they want, I don't know what, you know, I would like to know what is it that they're trying to do. They can benefit from this some kind of way. I mean, it's kind of strange that this is happening all the time. If there was a case and they had something against me, it seemed like by now I'd have been put in jail by now, at least arrested or something.

Well, you know, that's another interesting thing, Trent. I'm trying to make my way through these documents. There's no criminal complaint filed, is there? Joining me right now is Alan Duke, investigative reporter. Alan, I've got a TRO, but a TRO is a civil matter, not a criminal matter. Right. There's no criminal matter. It's just the TRO. And that is all. My question is, did Catherine Jackson herself sign this or authorize this TRO? Do we know that? Let me just answer that. My aunt probably don't have no clue that all this is going on. They are keeping her totally in the dark. After they fired Sandra Rivera, her attorney, they hired a new attorney named Joy Bass who came in,

wanted to take control of the children's money, wanted to take control of her money and operate it in the way she wanted to. The state, Howard Wiseman said, no, they were not going to allow Joy Bass to operate the children's money because no one met this attorney. No one had an opportunity of seeing who she was, where she came from, what she was doing. I mean, we never sat down and even talked to her. So Revy and Jermaine and Randy went and got this attorney like they always do

and had them fire Ms. Jackson's attorney who's been wonderful to her and all of us and then put in this new lady who came in and she's going to start making these decisions. And I was sure that Ms. Jackson doesn't know that all this stuff is going on overhead. You know, I was looking at the document, Alan, and I see where you write out what you wish for. This says return all of her credit cards, keys, passwords, and so forth. But it refers to Ms. Jackson. It's not Katherine Jackson writing this herself. I also don't see Katherine Jackson's signature anywhere.

I mean, but it could be there. And I just haven't been able to decipher in all of this. Go ahead, Alan. Have you heard from Catherine Jackson? She boarded a plane for London to see her new grandchild on January 22nd. Have you heard from her? No, we haven't heard from her. TJ heard from her once. And the only time he's heard from her is when she called back and told me to get out the house to to leave the house she said i was fired and so tj said you know i called grandma she said she told me to tell you to get out the house you

were fired he said but trent i know this is not grandma i can hear people in the background talking and you know making her and this is not the first time this happened this is the second time this has happened are you saying you spoke to her yourself? No, I did not. My cousin TJ did. Okay. So she didn't say that. Now we've got to remember Catherine Jackson is now 86 years old. Yes. So she never told you that herself, correct? No, she never told me that herself. No, this is something I heard from, you know, my cousin. And he knows that she would never say nothing like that. You know, he knows she's being forced to say this because she probably wanted to be let go.

I mean, she's been gone since January 22nd. And when you've gone that long, and one of the things that they don't understand, she needs special care. My aunt has polio. She limps, and she takes strong medication. And by doing that to her, and I told him, I said, look, you know, she can't defend herself when she's around them. And she didn't want to go.

Latoya didn't even know she was going until the day of, and we helped pack her bags. And just kept trying to tell her, no, you know, why would she go to London? And Janet lives in Dubai and fly for 10 hours on you know medication that can cause a problem and I had to contact the doctor to get the release for her to even be able to fly so I wasn't trying to keep her from flying I have packed the bags and she gave me the money and said I'll be back in a few days and we haven't heard from her since how often does she actually see all of those children she see sees Revy, Jermaine. Those are the two corporates right there.

Those two are bitterly unhappy about something, and I don't know what it is. I mean, because if something like this happened, don't you think they would have sat down and talked to me and said, Trent, we want to talk to you about abusing our mom, and we want to see her finances and all that. I could have easily got the accountant to come over to the house and showed them the finances of what's going on with her accounts and things like that because I'm not the one who can control her account. The estate is the one who's giving her money every month. They know her taxes. They know what's coming out of her account. All you got to

do is pull the bank statements and you'll see clearly what's coming in and out of her account. So where does that leave us? I mean, Alan, I've gone over the documents, and Katherine Jackson is always referred to in the third person. I don't ever see her actual signature on any of these documents. Did you? No, and it will be interesting to see if this is, if we find out the same thing that we found out almost five years ago when she went missing for a couple of weeks.

She turned out. She signed a court document after she got back saying that she was kept incommunicado. They took her phone. They took her iPad. They unplugged the hotel phone. They cut the television off. So she didn't know about all the concern about her disappearance. I don't think that you saying, Alan, that she, quote, went missing.

From what I understand, that time the family took her away to a vacation spot. Part of the family. They did take away her cell phone and her iPad. They did do that. So she had no idea the stir that was being caused back home. But I would hardly say that she was kidnapped or went missing. I'd tell you who thought she was kidnapped and who wanted the FBI to get involved. That was Paris, Jackson.

Do you remember? Yeah. Those incredible series of tweets that Paris made saying, where's my grandmother? It was a very dramatic thing. And that's really fueled that whole media stir in July of 2012. Paris, you remember Janet went to the house and we saw the security video of Janet trying to take Paris's cell phone away from her and her resisting. It was Paris and Prince who were calling her kidnapped because they had not been able to talk to their grandmother. Also, Nancy, if you think about it, when Latoya opened up her show and she always said, yes,

my mother was kidnapped. I mean, she straight out said it. We all knew that this was a plan. Prince told me they had planned this a year ago. This was a plan to get her out. And then they came back and tried to take the kids under my care. Wait, wait, wait. A plan to get her out and do what? Out of the house, to get her in Arizona. You know, there's no jurisdiction in Arizona about, you know, you can't go over there and get someone. But I had to hire a private investigator. I had to go to the sheriff's department and make sure that they was aware of what was going on and file a report. It's down at the sheriff's department. A missing persons report. Yeah, missing person report.

And they came back a week later and tried to take the kids out of the house. And that's when me and Jermaine and Randy got into a fight. I know, but I didn't ever hear for what. Take her to Arizona to do what? What was the purpose? Hold her hostage. I don't know why. You know what, Nancy? Okay, that doesn't make sense to me.

Yeah, hold her hostage. I mean, that's it. And come back and get the kids. They want to hold her hostage. So you're saying her own family held their mother hostage in Arizona in a hotel? That doesn't make sense to me. Well, yeah, it doesn't make sense to a lot of people. I don't believe that.

It doesn't make sense to a lot of people, but that's what happened. And Paris knew it was going to happen. I knew it was going to happen. We all tried to talk her out of it. And it happened. It happened. Well, where is the father? Where's the father in all this?

Catherine Jackson's husband. Oh, come on. Joe is right along with them. And I'll tell you how I know he's with them. You know, before my aunt left, she did not want to get her passport. I had her passport. She did not want to get her new passport. And I said, Katie, why you want it? She said, because I don't want to go. I don't want to fly on no plane. I don't want to go down there.

And so they first, Jermaine tried to get her passport. She wouldn't get it. Then she sent her assistant up there to get her passport. She wasn't going to get it. Then Reepy came over there, and it seemed like I don't know what she told her to get her to get her passport. Joseph kept calling about, get your passport, get your passport. And I knew once she got that passport and got out of the care of us

and got out of our way of us and got out of our way of protecting her she was going to be stuck with them and we knew all this was going to go down I already knew this was going to happen okay whoa I want to get back to Joe Jackson okay what do you mean he's with them did Mike didn't Michael Jackson leave the bulk of his money, I guess, to his children and to his mom? Michael Jackson left his mom with the children and the beneficiary of Michael's estate, not the rest of them. None of them name are nowhere on that estate. So that means the rest of them, all the brothers and the Joe Jackson, the whole kit and caboodle, they're off the gravy train, right? That's correct.

How are they making a living? That's something I've always wanted to know. They're not. I mean, if you look at it, that's the problem. Do any of them actually have a job? Well, some of them have been touring. Yeah. Let me just tell you which ones are being good.

There's Jackie, Marlon, and Tito. They, you know, they have their own group. They travel. They make money. And then they, you know, they beg Jermaine to do the right thing so he can help them out. Jermaine and Revy are being taken care of by their mother. Truly taken

care of by their mother. Child support, rent and all the other things that she pays for them on a monthly basis. I got to tell you something, Tripp. My mother is 84 and the thought that somebody would try to take advantage of her I've got to tell you something, Trent. My mother is 84,

and the thought that somebody would try to take advantage of her or mistreat her is almost more than I can take. When my father passed away last year, one of the last things I said to him was I would take care of mother, no matter what, and to think that people are allegedly taking her off, taking away her cell phone. If any of this is true, Trent Jackson, I'm coming after you myself. I am coming after you.

I find it hard to believe, though, because why does this happen when she leaves town? I don't see her name on any of these documents. So how could she do this while she's out of town in London? This is how stupid that attorney is because she's doing it. They're doing this without her being aware, just like they did before. She wasn't aware of any of this was going on until she got back into the States. She was blindsided the first time, and this is the drawer to get her out there to see Janet's baby was the way they was going to do it the second time.

Why would they wait until they get to London to bring up accusations of me abusing their mom, and I've been with this lady for 15 years taking care of her? I mean, they could have just did that while they was here in the States. Why would they go to London and do that? Do they even come and see her? Do they even come visit her? I got footage of them. I mean, at our house, we have security there.

Everybody comes in there, leaves out of there, signs in, signs out. We have cameras all the way around the house. You can see them coming and going with their mother every single day. And if their mom was being abused by me, why would you bring her back to the abusive household that you think that she's involved in? I mean, you got your own house. Take your mama home. Call the police. Get the police over there. Why would you keep bringing her back, going to the store and coming in there? You even see me taking Latoya some places. If I'm this big, brute abuser, what makes sense of you bringing your mom back to that house when you know it's all kind of, this is the house of repute? You got other places you can take your mother?

Nobody's keeping you from taking your mother. Have you gotten a lawyer yet? Because you're going to need one. You got to dig through this mess. This is a, you know, and it cannot be good for those children at all. Haven't they been through enough? It's awful. And it's not good for anyone.

I mean, it's not, you know, this is not good for anyone. I mean, I'm a grown woman, and I'm still not over my father passing away. And these are young children. And no matter what you may think Michael Jackson is guilty of, and I guess everybody knows what I think about that, still it's very clear he loved his children and he loved his mother. He definitely loved them. To suddenly have him gone, you know,

do you believe this whole thing is a money grab? I think more of a power control type of thing, you know, because the way they fired Sandra Rivera, the way they're trying to get rid of me, I think they want to talk about controlling someone or abusing someone. I think the abuse started back in Indiana, and it worked its way up to Havenhurst, and now here it is in Calabasas. The abuse started in Havenhurst, I mean, with how they treated their mom. And it didn't come from all of them.

It just came from a certain few. And these same ones that Michael fired, got rid of, and told me that he didn't want them involved in his finances and things like that, these are the main ones involved in this thing now. Because if you look at the names of who's down there in London, you'll know which one of the kids are still upset. So, Alan, is this thing going to court? I mean, when does Trent Jackson get to tell a judge his side of the story?

Not until March the 1st. There is a court date set for March the 1st, where the temporary restraining order will be considered to be made permanent, and that's when all this will be aired out okay everybody once again there's more trouble in the house of michael jackson michael jackson cannot rest in peace for five minutes it seems because now there are allegations that have been brought by we don't yet know who but ostensibly by his mother katherine jackson claiming that Trent Jackson needs to be kicked out. He's been her caregiver for years now. What's really going on while Katherine Jackson is out of the country? Nancy, we have TJ, his family lives in that house. We have, I don't know, we have like 10 or 12 employees that work there every

single day. Prince and Paris come there every single day. Now, if there was any kind of abuse going on, you'd think somebody would know something and would have heard something and would have said something by now. If that's the case, that means not only just me is abused, everybody in that house is abused in Miss Jackson. So we need to find that out.

And if I feel like why would they make a statement like that all the way over in London when they could have did that right here in California? Why would you go to London and do that? Why didn't you do that while you're here in California? Again, thank you to SimpliSafe, our sponsor, joining us here on Crime Stories. SimpliSafe is so easy to install, hence the name SimpliSafe. They've even got a video online to explain how to do it. People believe they cannot afford home security.

Well, you can. SimpliSafe offers round-the-clock security for $14.99 a month. And right now, if you go to SimpliSafe.com slash Nancy, there's an additional 10% off. I've got my home armed. My mom has her home armed. You know, when you have children or anything dear to you, it makes all the sense in the world. So thank you, SimpliSafe. What did Michael Jackson make of all his brothers and sisters?

I mean, he did not include any of them in his will. None of them were beneficiaries. That tells you a lot, don't it? Yeah, it really does. Yeah. I mean, it's almost like Michael left a platform for his brothers and them to be able to support themselves and do what they had to do to go on with their life. If you look at all those tours that he'd taken overseas and all over different places,

do you see him up on stage dancing with him? No. And he went on and moved on in his life. And then when he had kids, he decided if anything happened to him, his children should benefit off of his hard work and not his brothers and sisters because to this day they still have a platform for themselves to do whatever they want. So if they can get over the part about why come that money,

they think that money belongs to them. And it does not. Everybody tells them that does not belong to you guys. That money belongs to his children and his mother. Bottom line. With me is Trent Jackson. Trent, I'll see you in court. Nancy Grace, Crime Stories, signing off.

And I want to thank you for being with us today. Goodbye, friend. This is an iHeart podcast