Sec
urity camera video obtained by CNN shows the tension between Jackson family members amid a very public dispute over the whereabouts of Katherine Jackson.
The 82-year-old matriarch of the Jackson music dynasty has not contacted Michael Jackson’s three children since she left the home she shares with them on July 15, although a sheriff’s investigation concluded she is safe in Arizona.
Siblings Janet, Jermaine and Randy Jackson attempted to convince Michael Jackson’s two oldest children to leave Katherine Jackson’s home with them Monday, but Paris and Prince resisted, three sources with knowledge of the incident said. The sources asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the matter.
The video shows Janet Jackson apparently trying to take a cell phone away from Paris Jackson at the Calabasas, California, home. She scolded her niece for using her phone to write about family issues on Twitter, according to the three sources.
Paris, Michael Jackson’s 14-year-old daughter, posted a Twitter message at about the same time: “gotta love fam.”
Prince, 15, is seen walking away from his Uncle Randy into the home’s security office. Paris soon followed. Randy and Janet Jackson appeared to be recording the incident with their cell phones.
Sheriff deputies broke up a scuffle minutes later involving Randy and Jermaine Jackson and their cousin Trent Jackson, who works for their mother, according to several people who witnessed it.
No one was arrested, although a battery report was taken and an investigation is ongoing, Los Angeles County sheriff’s spokesman Steve Whitmore said.
The drama happened as Los Angeles County sheriff’s detectives closed a missing persons case opened for Katherine Jackson, who was found to be with her daughter Rebbie in Arizona.
“Katherine Jackson has been located and she is fine and with family,” Whitmore said. “Our missing persons case is closed.” Deputies talked to two family members and were satisfied, he explained.
A lawyer for Katherine Jackson, however, was not satisfied, saying the sheriff’s deputies who tried to talk to her in Arizona Monday were blocked from seeing her.
Because she was taken across state lines, Katherine Jackson attorney Sandra Ribera said she hopes the FBI will investigate.
Jermaine Jackson, in a statement posted on Twitter Sunday night, said his mother “is safe and well in Arizona with her daughter and our sister, Rebbie, resting up on doctor’s advice.”
But Michael Jackson’s three children still have not heard from their grandmother, eight days after she left them at home, Ribera said.
“8 days and counting . something is really off , this isn’t like her at all .. i wanna talk directly to my grandmother!!<|3″ Paris tweeted Monday.
Jermaine Jackson’s statement insisted the children were not “being ‘blocked’ from speaking with Mother.”
“She is merely an 82-year-old woman following doctor’s orders to rest up and de-stress, away from phones and computers,” he tweeted.
His statement did not explain why Paris was rebuffed during several attempts to reach her grandmother on the phone.
It is the latest chapter in a messy dispute between several of Jackson’s children and her advisers.
Whitmore confirmed that the sheriff’s department is investigating allegations that Jackson was being “emotionally and financially mistreated by family members.”
Katherine Jackson has custody of Michael Jackson’s children and a 20% share in her son’s huge estate. Her husband, Joe Jackson, and her eight surviving children were completely left out of Michael Jackson’s will. Jackson died in 2009.
The abuse probe began when “a business associate of the Jackson family” reported the allegation to a sheriff’s official in April, Whitmore said.
“Investigators contacted Katherine Jackson and she emphatically denied any and all of (the allegations),” Whitmore said. When investigators met with Jackson, she was “in good health and voiced no complaints,” he said.
“Out of an abundance of caution, we have continued to interview legal representatives of the family about the possibility of financial abuses,” he said. “That investigation remains open.”
Katherine Jackson’s lawyer and business manager declined to comment.
Paris Jackson waited at home Sunday, hoping for a phone call from her grandmother, the woman who has cared for her since her father, Michael Jackson, died three years ago.
