Two men have pleaded guilty to secretly taping Michael Jackson on board a private jet as he flew to face those child abuse charges back in November 2003. As previously reported, Jackson and then lawyer Mark Geragos were taped on board the plane that flew the singer back to Santa Barbara just after the allegations against him had been announced. Employees of the company who provided the private jet then attempted to sell the videos to the media.
Two specific individuals - Jeffrey Borer and Arvel Jett Reeve - were indicted on federal charges relating to the secret taping last September, and both men have now pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy each relating to the incident. Borer was the owner of XtraJet, which flew the plane Jackson chartered, while Reeves owned a company called Executive Aviation which provided a maintenance service to XtraJet. According to their plea agreement, Borer told Reeves to buy and install the video recording devices ahead of the Jackson flight - with the intention of then selling the tapes to the media for a stack of cash. However the venture was unsuccessful because a technical problem meant the recordings were made without sound.
The two men, who avoided additional charges of endeavouring to intercept oral communication and witness tampering, will be sentenced in July, and could face up to five years in prison.