Michael Jackson's mega hit, Billie Jean,
recounts the tale of a woman who insists the singer fathered her newborn son.
A claim he emphatically denies throughout the track. Released in 1983,
the musical juggernaut propelled his
Thriller album to the top of the charts and spearheaded a sequence of commercial
success that ultimately resulted in Jackson's 1982 album becoming
the highest selling record of all time. Ironically,
little did he know that the singles
remarkable success would also arouse a whole host of crazed fans,
and their fanatical behavior continued to torment him.
Life imitated art as Michael was subsequently pursued,
with several making sexual assault and paternity claims against him in court.
However, the most persistent claims were
those made by Lavon Powlis or Lavon Muhammad or Gabriella Jamilla,
or, as she would prefer to be called,
Billie Jean Jackson. A well documented stalker of the King
of Pop, who made several bombshell claims against the artist,
including that they had a six year long affair, were secretly engaged
and named him in a 150 million dollar triple paternity lawsuit.
As he pleaded in his tormented track
Billie Jean, quote, Be careful of what you do because the lie becomes the truth.
This is the tale of Michael Jackson's real
life Billie Jean nightmare, that continued to haunt him even beyond his death.
Michael I'm in jail because I did what
you said. I hope someone gets in touch with you and I miss you.
But first, check out what we have new
in at our online store. Link is in the description box below.
It was August 14th, 1987,
and Michael Jackson was just about to release his much anticipated follow up
to his Thriller album, Bad, when Lavon Powlis first came
to public attention. Filing a 150 million dollar paternity lawsuit against the pop
singer, Powlis declared Michael Jackson as the father of her three children and he
was required to pay child support as well as tens of millions to support her as
the mother. The then 39 year old Lavon Powlis,
who demanded that the court call her Billie Jean Jackson after allegedly
changing her name, claimed that she had been in a relationship with the entertainer.
That they even got engaged after having their three children.
She said she first met Jackson in 1975
when she was living in New York City, after writing him letters and telling him,
quote, I have always been in love with him and I wanted to meet him.
The unemployed legal secretary said he
then invited her out to L.A. and their children were conceived in a blue
Rolls-Royce parked in front of the singer's suburban Los Angeles home.
Quote, Michael asked me to marry him on September 13th, 1985.
I said, yes, of course.
Since then, Powlis said, family feuds have delayed the wedding.
Asserting that she was, in fact, the inspiration for Jackson's hit song,
Billie Jean, Michael's alleged fiancee sought legal
action after the musician failed to pay support for the three children
she said he admitted fathering.
Which included then five year old twins, a girl and a boy, and an 11 year old son.
She said she waited to file the lawsuit because, quote, Michael and I were going
to get married and take care of it quietly.
But later stated, quote,
Michael got me pregnant and I want Michael to pay for it.
The claims were called ridiculous and preposterous by Jackson's publicist,
Lee Solters. With several newspapers reporting that a spokesman for state
welfare agency revealed that palace has at least twice named other notable people
as the children's father, but never filed a paternity lawsuit.
The agency took custody of the children
after the mother left two of them alone at a black Muslim mosque in Chicago,
and the children were at the time living with relatives in New York City.
However, this wasn't Jackson's first legal run-In with the Billie Jean imitator,
as during the paternity lawsuit, it was made known in court that Powlis had
been harassing Jackson for over four years now. Suffering from delusions
and believing she was engaged to marry Jackson, Powlis represented herself as his
fiancee, and instructed clerks at fashionable Ventura Boulevard boutiques
to bill him for clothing she intended to purchase.
She would also persistently loiter near Jackson's secluded estate in Encino.
The situation grew so bad,
in May 1986, Powlis was sentenced to 36
months probation after being convicted of two misdemeanor courts of trespassing.
And at the same time,
Michael Jackson also obtained a restraining order barring her
from coming within 100 yards of his Los Angeles home.
However, in September 1986,
she was sentenced to 52 days in jail and two years probation after she was
convicted of trespassing Jackson's estate yet again.
In January 1988, five months after filing
her bombshell, 150 million dollar paternity lawsuit against
Michael Jackson, Lavon Powlis's case was swiftly
dismissed by the judge due to a lack of evidence.
However, a 41 year old Powlis, now cited as
Lavon Muhammed, found herself back in court again later that year, when she
violated the terms of her 1986 restraining order.
In August Powlis tried, unsuccessfully,
to purchase a wedding gown by having it billed to Jackson, and in December billed
145 dollars in medical expenses to the singer.
She pleaded innocent to eight misdemeanor
charges, which, yet again, included trespassing after she was arrested
at 3 a.m. with a bottle of champagne in Jackson's Encino backyard,
having just scaled a five foot wall.
Powlis's lawyer predicted that the jail sentence would not deter Powlis
from returning to Jackson's property after she is released.
Quote, She feels like Michael wants her
on the property that she's supposed to be there, the lawyer said.
Therefore, the judge offered to send
Powlis for a mental evaluation in exchange for a lighter sentence.
But she refused.
Quote, I don't require mental health care, sir, she said, declining any treatment.
Therefore, she was found to be guilty
and was sentenced to two and a half years in prison.
To drive home his point, the Los Angeles Municipal Court judge
quoted lyrics from a Jackson song while sentencing Powlis. Referring to the song
'Leave Me Alone' with the chorus saying, quote, so just leave me alone, girl.
Just stop dogging me, girl.
Quote, you listen to the chorus of that song and you listen to those words.
The judge said.
However, this wouldn't be the last of Michael Jackson's ordeal
as Lavon Powlis, or Gabriella Jamilla Jackson
as she was referred to in court papers from 1995,
was sentenced to 99 days in jail after she pleaded no contest
to trespassing at the King of Pop's Encino home on three separate occasions.
Each time, claiming to be Michael Jackson's wife.
The now Santa Barbara resident was also ordered as part of the sentence,
to not telephone, follow, threaten, strike or make any physical
contact with a singer or his family members.
As late as 2008, the then 60 year old Lavon Powlis was
now making claims in court papers that she was the mother of Michael Jackson's
6 year old son, Blanket, and was suing the singer for partial
custody and child support to the tune of 1 billion dollars,
a sum capitalized in the court documents. In addition to 1 billion dollars
Powlis was also asking for visits with Blanket on Fridays,
Saturdays and Sundays, as well as a say in his education.
In court, it was revealed that palace was
yet again arrested for attempting to scale the fence at Jackson's Neverland Ranch
after she demanded to be let in, claiming to be Jackson's wife.
In November 2009, several months after Michael Jackson's
untimely death, Lavon Powlis went to court for this claim.
What proof can you show me
you're the mother? Said the judge, quote, I was pregnant and Michael took him.
If we took DNA tests, that would prove it. I'm the mother.
She said, quote, I'm Michael's wife.
There was a marriage on May 5th, 1986.
I don't want to tell you in open court about it because it sounds like a miracle.
Michael sings to me on his album.
In tears Powlis stated in court, quote, They stalked me.
The police would threaten me.
Michael's family threatened me and had me arrested.
The judge declared she hadn't shown him
a biological connection to Blanket, denied her
petitioned the court and subsequently suggested she seek psychiatric help.
Powlis reportedly stood silently
for a moment, absorbing the news that her moment in the sun was over.
The light in her eyes went out.
She had lost more than a billion dollars.
Thanks for watching.
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