A deliberate tragedy

 Terrifying satanic rituals, an abusive husband, a life-changing traumatic brain injury and family rejection; Alison's Carey's struggle to survive

By David Baker

   The unspeakable abuse Alison Carey endured as a child at the hands of a mother who forced her to attend and be sexually abused at terrifying late-night satanic rituals has impacted all of her life. But as bad as it was, it wasn’t the only cruelty that has been inflicted on her.

   At age 15, Alison met a 19-year-old military man and became pregnant.  Resisting family members and others who wanted her to abort the baby, she soon found herself with a new born child thousands of miles from home on a military base in the Philippines.

   But what may have seemed like an escape from a dysfunctional family and the horror of her childhood quickly turned into a nightmare with an abusive husband.

  “He hit me almost every day,” Alison says.

   Her husband eventually was detained by military police; Alison was flown back to the U.S. - without the baby, who remained with social services.

  But Alison was not about to abandon the child named Shawn.  A short time later, still a teenager, she hitchhiked across the country to Los Angeles for a flight - paid for by her father - back to the Philippines.

  The return journey to the U.S. with Shawn was not easy, first transiting through a war-torn Beirut, then getting replacement documents for her lost passport in Tokyo.

   But Shawn has not appreciated her efforts: He recently dismissed her as his “…mother in name only.” With the tuition for his Harvard law degree reportedly paid for by his aunt, Mariah Carey, he nevertheless is unbothered that his mother struggles without teeth and is reduced to asking strangers for contributions to a fund for dentures.

***

   In 2018, Shawn announced his upcoming marriage to Brielle Strohmeyer.  In a text message, Alison told Shawn she would really like to be at the wedding of her first-born child.

   Shawn’s response was as hurtful as it was brief: “That’s not going to happen,” he wrote. Then, adding to a rejection that felt like a stabbing, he twisted the knife by sending Alison photos of himself, his bride and Alison’s three other children at the Beverly Hills, California ceremony.

     Alison's four children pose for a photo. (l-r), 

   Michael, Carmela, Shawn, Shawn's bride 

Brielle Strohmeyer and Dominic. 

   

   Strohmeyer - who is worth a reported $1.9 million -  is from Manhattan, Kansas. A story about the ceremony in the local newspaper The Mercury names Shawn's father. Then it adds,  “His aunt is singer Mariah Carey.”

    His mother, Alison, is not mentioned.

    The story says Monroe Cannon  - who is Mariah Carey’s daughter  - was a flower girl, and Moroccan Cannon - Mariah’s son - was a ring bearer.

   It would seem strange that Mariah would have had her then-7-year-old twins attend her nephew’s wedding without her. But if she was there, it was kept a secret.

   This week came a further rejection: Alison learned that she became a grandmother - nine months ago.

   The news was revealed when research for this story located Brie Strohmeyer's Twitter account, on which in a recent tweet she referred to a "...nine month old baby"  One of Shawn's relatives confirmed the birth, telling Alison that the child was born in March, and that his name is Tatum.

***

   The second most traumatic event in Alison’s life - after the unspeakable horror inflicted on her by her mother  - was the attack by an intruder in her Long Island home in 2015 that left her with a debilitating brain injury.

   Five months after the attack, while Alison was near death following surgery to stop a hemorrhage in her brain, her brother Morgan traveled to the hospital Albany N.Y. from his home in Hawaii. Not having had any contact with his sister for many years, they were almost strangers.

   The following year, Morgan sold stories to two British newspapers in which - in one calling Mariah “an evil witch” - he slammed the multimillionaire for not helping their struggling sister. 

   Morgan likely received several thousand dollars for the stories and an interview on a TV show. From it, he paid $800 for two months’ rent of a room for Alison in a house owned and occupied by an active drug user.

   In March 2021, Morgan filed a lawsuit against Mariah, vaguely claiming in legal papers that statements in her memoir had caused him to lose an opportunity to get a movie script he had written produced.  Forced by Mariah’s lawyers to be more specific, his attorney submitted an affidavit from an Italian movie producer, who wrote that Morgan’s script was called “Devil’s Hollow.”  This has led Alison to suspect that the script was based in part on a phone conversation Alison had with Morgan in 2016 in which he aggressively questioned her about the abuse she endured as a child.  Alison became extremely distressed during the hour-long call, and after several days of increasingly erratic behavior, was taken to a hospital for a month-long psychiatric evaluation.

   Alison’s last contact with her brother was in 2018.  His response to her text said:  “If this is about $ I don’t have any.”

****

   By the late summer of 2020, Mariah Carey had finally completed dictating her memoir to a hired writer.  With its publication set for the end of September, she needed a way to get maximum attention for the book.

   She did it by kicking her brain-damaged penniless sister in the face.

   Highlighting a section of the book in which she claimed, without presenting any evidence, that when she was 12 years old, Alison, then 20, fed her Valium, offered her cocaine, and tried to set her up with a pimp, she brought it to the attention of media outlets.

   It worked.  In the week before the September 29 publication date, stories about the Mariah’s accusations began appearing in newspapers, on TV and across the Internet.  In a TV interview with Oprah Winfrey, Mariah almost jumped out of her chair when, in an obviously prearranged part, Winfrey referred to Mariah's claims about Alison, and then read out the entire paragraph.

   Alison was devastated by her sister’s callous attack, descending into a deep depression and misusing alcohol after a long time sober.  She vehemently denies her sister’s claims.  But she didn’t get a chance to say so before she was trashed in sensational headlines around the world.  She was blindsided; not one of the news outlets even pretended to have reached out to her for comment, instead publishing the baseless allegations as undisputed facts.

   Mariah certainly knows Alison is vulnerable; Just before her media blast she was quoted as saying Alison is “damaged” and “very broken.” And she certainly knows all about the horrific abuse that destroyed Alison’s life. How could she not know; it’s been reported numerous times by the media, and in 2021 her own mother was accused in a legal filing of causing Alison to be sexual abused.

  But that Alison was repeatedly subjected to unimaginable psychological and sexual abuse by the one person a child expects to defend and protect her - her mother - and left with terrifying images that haunt her to this day? 

   Not a word.

***

  December 25, 2021.  A day when families connect, if  not in person, then at least by phone or video chat.

   Alison has four children.

   But from each of them them to their mother on Christmas Day at the end of a year in which Alison barely survived a medical condition requiring overnight emergency surgery?

   Silence.

**************

Alison's GoFundMe page for dentures: https://gofund.me/9030f169

******************************************

Benefits restored

After four months, newspaper story gets quick action from the SSA on Alison's withheld benefit payments  

By David Baker

   One day after a story was published in the Albany Times Union - and four months after the Social Security Administration was told that it had incorrectly reduced Alison's SSI to $30 a month - the agency said the error had been fixed, and a deposit of some of the withheld money was in her bank account.

   The reduction in the benefit amount apparently was made because the SSA somehow believed that Alison was still in a nursing home, where she had been following a hospitalization, for physical rehab. And despite a letter sent by Alison to the agency's Hudson office in early August saying that she had moved into an apartment, the benefit payment remained at $30 on Sept. 1; the letter did not get a response.

   A copy of the letter was set on Oct. 1.  That too was ignored, as was a third letter sent via certified mail on Oct 18. 

   Then last week, the Times Union published a story about the SSA's non-response.  And with 24 hours the agency had emailed a letter detailing the new monthly amount.  By that afternoon, part of the withheld money was in Alison's bank account. 

    Missing from the SSA letter was any apology or even an explanation for the agency's failure to respond to the three letters from Alison.  The letters said Alison was in an apartment, not in the nursing home; a simple phone call to the nursing home would have confirmed that she was no longer there.

  But that call was evidently never made; Alison's letters - three of them - were ignored.

  The question now is was it just Alison's statement about her residency that repeatedly was ignored? And if so, why? 

  Or are there dozen's of other people out there, who don't have a famous sibling and someone to assist them in presenting the situation to a newspaper, whose protests about incorrect cuts in benefits are dismissed?

   One day after her benefit was restored, Alison received a call from the office of the SSA's inspector general. The caller wanted to know if Alison's matter had been resolved. She said it had.

    The hope now is that the AG will also investigate what happened in Alison's case, and take steps to see that other claimants' communications are not also routinely and callously ignored. 

****

Read the second Times Union story here: https://bit.ly/3DCdk58

**********

In the news again

 The Albany Times Union with its exclusive story about Alison's fight to get her SSI payments restored.

https://bit.ly/3CmGYKg

An update: Soon after this story was posted Tuesday afternoon a spokesman with the Social Security Administration contacted the reporter to say that the issue with Alison's benefit payments has been rectified. Presumably this means she will now receive the withheld money. 

After four months and three letters.

The power of the press.

Calls by the reporter to the SSA and the office of U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer were not returned.

Meanwhile, the mention in the story of the GoFundMe page resulted in almost $400 being donated for new dentures.

**********************

Press release: Taking on the SSA

 

Mariah Carey’s estranged sister fights with the Social Security Administration over “mistaken” cut in disability benefits 

Alison Carey wants to know why the the Social Security Administration ignored  her repeated letters telling them that she lives in an apartment - not in a nursing home

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:  Nov. 12, 2021

   HUDSON,  N.Y. — A Greene County women disabled by a devastating brain injury has been left with just $30 a month in benefit payments after the Social Security Administration incorrectly listed her as living in a nursing home and ignored her repeated letters telling the agency about the error.

   Sixty-year-old Alison Carey - who is the older estranged sister of pop diva Mariah Carey - was homeless for 14 moths before moving into an apartment in a town near Albany, N.Y. in April. Before the move, Carey had been in a Columbia County nursing home for physical rehab following a hospitalization. Just before she left the home Medicaid approved her to become a permanent resident.

   But Alison was not ready to give up some measure of independence and when an apartment suitable for her limitations was found she decided that with help she could live on her own for a few more years.

   And that’s when the problem began; In a letter dated July 20 the SSA said that because Alison was in a medical facility for which Medicaid was paying at least half the fees, her monthly benefit would be reduced to $30 a month. The letter stated - wrongly - that  Alison was a resident of a medical facility for all of April, May, June and July, but because she had received her full benefit amount for those months, the overpayment would have to be repaid by reducing her benefit from $841 a month to $30.

  And that benefit amount, it said, would continue “from August  on.”

  But Alison was not in the nursing home. In a letter to the SSA’s Hudson office dated August 3, Carey wrote that she left the home and moved into her apartment on May 1. 

   Alison says she received no response to her letter, and that the filing of a form appealing the cut - which under the agency’s rules should have stopped the reduced benefit until the appeal was decided - also produced no response; the payment for August was $30.

  On October 1 - after the September and October payments were also $30 - Alison sent a copy of her August 3 letter to the SSA via Certified Mail. Again, she received no response.

   In mid October, Alison contacted the office of U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer. A member of the senator’s staff contacted the SSA and the agency finally called Alison, describing the detailed proof it would need to begin investigating Alison’s statement that she was living in an apartment. But she could not explain why Alison’s letters had been ignored for three months. In the meantime, the Schumer staffer had, at Alison’s request and citing the long delay in responding to her August letter, asked the SSA to make at least one month’s payment while the question about her residency was investigated.

    No payment had been received by Nov. 11 and the staffer has not responded to an email asking about the agency’s response to the request. The delay has so far left Alison out $2,378 in withheld benefits. 

    Alison has been estranged from her multimillionaire sister for about two decades.  In September 2020 the singer made headlines around the world when she revealed that her about-to-be-published memoir would say that when she was 12 years old the then 20-year-old Alison drugged her with Valium and offered her cocaine - claims Alison denies.

   In February, Alison filed a legal notice of her intention to file a lawsuit against Mariah Carey.  A month later the sisters’ brother, Morgan Carey, filed his own lawsuit over statements about him in the book. 

   In addition to multiple health issues - in the spring Alison had emergency overnight surgery for a life-threatening perforated stomach ulcer - she also has been struggling for several months without teeth after her dentures were broken in a fall. Medicaid won’t pay for a replacement until 2026.  In October, a GoFundMe page was set up, seeking donations for the $2,500 needed for new dentures.

  It’s at: https://gofund.me/f561ad7a

Hush....

Mariah Carey's paperback

is out; just don't tell anyone

   By David Baker

   The paperback edition of Mariah Carey’s controversial memoir was quietly published Nov. 2, with no effort made to promote it. A Walmart store in upstate New York had no copies on its shelves Tuesday morning.  At a Barnes & Noble store in Albany, an employee had to go into the storage area in back Tuesday evening to get a requested copy.

   As for the statements in the book that have prompted one lawsuit and notice of another; they are also in the new edition because the defendants really had no choice; they could hardly remove them while claiming in response to Morgan Carey’s lawsuit that they are protected speech because they are in the public interest. 

   Paperbacks are published to reach a new audience, people who would not have purchased the more expensive hardcover edition. That makes this paperback a republication - which restarts the 1-year window in which lawsuits can be filed.

   And that raises a question: Why publish a paperback which then has to be all but disowned?  If it hadn’t been announced - as it was on Twitter back in the summer -  it could have been simply forgotten.

   

   Instead, the flat-out statements that Alison Carey committed several crimes 40 years ago are repeated, presenting further evidence of actual malice.

   

   Not promoting the new book doesn’t change anything; it’s still the work of a cruel and vindictive multimillionaire. 

****

No promotion this time

Mariah Carey’s memoir is out in paperback

Tuesday - accompanied by the sound of silence

By David Baker

   A little over a year ago Mariah Carey was busy promoting her about-to-be-published memoir by pushing out to the media a section in the book in which she claims - without offering any evidence - that when she was 12 years old her 20-year-old sister Alison drugged her with Valium, offered her cocaine and tried to pimp her out.

   Fast forward a year  - during which both Alison and brother Morgan filed legal papers claiming that they have been damaged by the multimillionaire’s statements - and there is hardly a word about the release of a paperback edition of the book, scheduled for Nov. 2.

   Back in the summer, Mariah sent out a tweet announcing the date, along with an image of what appears to be the front cover - which has a photo of her that is on the back of the hardback edition. The tweet has a link to a page where the book can be pre-ordered.

   But since then: No more tweets. No media interviews. No apparent effort to publicized the new edition.

   Publishing the paperback has meant a decision had to be made: Whether to include in it the statements about Alison and Morgan that prompted the legal filings.

   Remove them, and it would look like an admission that they were libelous.

   Leave them in and it could be considered further evidence of Mariah Carey’s malice toward her brother and sister; that she intended to damage them - which has legal implications - as does accusing Alison of committing crimes, which Mariah did in the hardcopy.

   The new edition is listed at $16.99, a high price for a paperback, particularly as copies of the hardback can be found on the Internet for as little as $5.95 - with free shipping.

***

Fundraiser launched

 A GoFundMe page for Alison is now up.  It's at:

https://gofund.me/2c333d7b

**************************************************************

Decision awaited

 Carey vs. Carey: A judge will rule on Mariah’s bid to throw out brother Morgan’s defamation lawsuit  

By David Baker

   Legal papers from lawyers representing, on the one side, Morgan Carey, and on the other, the two firms acting for Mariah Carey, her co-author and the publishers of her memoir have now been submitted to the judge assigned to Morgan Carey’s lawsuit over statements about him in the book.

   Mariah Carey is asking state Supreme Court Justice Barbara Jaffe to throw out the claim before it starts. Morgan Carey argues that he should at least be allowed to conduct limited discovery - both written questions and depositions - to determine if Mariah Carey intended to damage him when she called him “..a been-in-the-system, drunk-ass brother” and suggested, among there things, that years ago he dealt illegal drugs.

   The judge has 60 days to issue her decision. After that, any party can appeal all or parts of it to the Appellate Division, a step that would likely put the case on hold for several months

***

   Mariah’s defense to Morgan’s claims is that her statements about him in the book are justified and protected because they tell a story that is meant to inspire troubled youngsters and therefore is in the public interest.

   That argument might also be used to make public a record of her testimony if she is compelled to sit for a deposition.

   Mariah Carey lives for attention. A video of her being grilled by one of Morgan Carey’s attorneys would certainly get her a lot of that.

***

 Companies publishing a book will often have the manuscript reviewed by lawyers for legal exposure. Statements in the manuscript will sometimes be changed or even removed to avoid a possible lawsuit.

   It’s not known if the publishers of Mariah Carey’s book sought legal advice, and if they did, whether they then ignored it. It’s hard, though, to think that any competent lawyer wouldn’t advise against publishing the flat-out statements - presented without any evidence - that 20-year-old Alison Carey committed several crimes against a then-12-year-old Mariah.

***

   

Earlier this year Alison had a life-threatening medical condition that required overnight emergency surgery. This was followed by six weeks in the hospital fighting an aggressive infection.

   By law, disability benefits are reduced for each full month a person is in a facility and the government is paying half or more of the bill. So instead of the usual amount, Alison received the minimum monthly amount the government must pay: $30.

  But her expenses didn’t change; landlords still expect to get the rent.

  Making her situation worse, the SSA mistakenly docked her one month too many, and so far has not corrected its error.

   The cut in income has delayed Alison’s hope of coming up with $2,500 to replace her dentures, which were damaged by a fall. Medicaid won’t pay for another set until 2026. So now she has no teeth, which severely limits what she can eat.

***

   

After surviving the life-threatening medical condition, Alison continues to struggle with the psychological impact of being abandoned by her family and now, the devastating distress caused by being accused in her sister’s memoir of criminal abuse of Mariah  - accusations which, without giving Alison any opportunity to respond, were then fed to the media ahead of publication to promote sales of the book.

   In a tearful interview scheduled for early November, Alison says images of the unspeakable trauma inflicted on her by her mother when she was a child haunt her every day.

    That, her multiple health issues  - and now her own sister kicking her down to sell the book -  has drained her of her will to live.

   “Nobody loves me,” she says. “Why wouldn’t I want to die?”

***

Interview cancelled

How Mariah Carey's lawyers stopped a TV show exposing the Carey family's "darkest secrets"

By David Baker

The text below is from the TV show Inside Edition back in 2016. It was after the interview with Morgan Carey that the show wanted to put Alison on camera.  But the producers chickened out after Mariah's lawyers said Alison was prevented by an earlier non-disclosure agreement from speaking - an agreement they refused to provide to the show. 

Morgan also tried to stop Alison's appearance on the show, falsely telling her that a meeting with a producer at a lawyer's office in Kingston had been canceled.

When Alison told me what Morgan had said I immediately rushed down to Kingston, picked up Alison and took her to the lawyer's office to meet with the producer, Aylcia Powers. Details were set; Alison was to tape the interview in New York City.

Then it was dropped. 

The "dark secrets" Morgan referred to in his interview would be the horrific satanic rituals that Alison was forced by her mother to witness as a child, an experience that left her with soul-destroying PTSD and memories that haunt her to this day. 

Here's what Inside Edition posted after the interview:

Mariah Carey has been called out by her own brother, who's accusing the singer of abandoning her troubled sister. Speaking to Inside Edition from Florence, Italy, Mariah's older brother, Morgan, 51, spoke about his broken family, saying: "Mariah doesn't care about anyone other than herself."

Alison Carey, 55, was arrested on prostitution charges earlier week at a low budget motel in upstate New York. She has pleaded not guilty. Cops say she placed an online ad soliciting sex that borrowed lines from her sister's 1996 hit, "Fantasy". "I'm a pretty lady looking for guys... with me it's such a sweet, sweet fantasy baby," the ad read.

The arrest is the latest crisis for Alison, who in her younger days wanted to be a singer just like Mariah, but she ended up battling drugs and falling on hard times. Morgan said: "I would hope Mariah could find it in her heart to forgive Alison her transgressions and step up, create a trust, let's make sure Alison's needs are met."

Morgan and Mariah were once very close. In fact, Morgan - a model and music producer - claims he was instrumental in Mariah becoming a superstar. "There wouldn't be a Mariah Carey today if it hadn't been for me," he claims. He says he has not spoken to Mariah in six years following a nasty rift tore them apart. 

Morgan says he's upset because Mariah refuses to help Alison, even after she recorded a desperate public plea for help in March. Mariah's publicist says she has done a lot over the years to give Alison a helping hand. "Through the years, Mariah has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars supporting Alison and her children," the statement said.

Morgan says: "I will always be puzzled why Alison, a heroin addict, has always been given large sums of money from Mariah her whole life. You can't put large sums of cash into the hands of a drug addict."

Incredibly, Morgan fears retaliation from his famous sister and her fans for speaking out. "It's about protecting this fiction she has created, this image she has created, it's about keeping the darkest secrets covered up," he said.

It is believed Mariah has not spoken to her sister since 1994.

(Inside Edition)

Careful what you wish for

 

A legal win for Mariah Carey could

 see her trapped by her own words

By David Baker 

Law firms love clients like Mariah Carey; wealthy people who are ready to spend unlimited amounts of money fighting lawsuits, battling the other party at every turn by doing everything possible to make their opponent’s case as time-consuming and expensive as possible.  As one of Mariah Carey’s attorneys said to a lawyer who was evaluating Alison’s claim: “Mariah would rather spend tens of thousands of dollars fighting a claim than give Alison five dollars.”

Earlier this month Mariah Carey’s lawyers continued their effort to get her brother Morgan Carey’s claim over statements about him in Mariah Carey’s book thrown out before it starts.

While filing an amended complaint that drops a claim for intentional infliction of emotional distress, Morgan’s attorneys are asking for permission to conduct limited discovery - which would include both written questions to and depositions of several people - including Carey herself - while a decision on a motion by her attorneys to dismiss the entire case is pending.

Also to be questioned would be members of the company that published the memoir, who have said in affidavits that they believed and accepted as fact everything Mariah Carey wrote in her book. Given the accusations against both Morgan Carey and sister Alison Carey, this lack of concern over the statements is remarkable; even with insurance and a contract with the author protecting them from any claim - neither of which has been mentioned as a defense in the legal filings - most publishers would be uneasy, to say the least, about Mariah’s flat-out statements that then-20-year-old Alison committed several crimes against Mariah when she was a child. 

Morgan Carey also wants copies of any documents about the decision to publish allegedly damaging statements about him without giving him an opportunity to respond. The failure to do that, he claims, is further evidence of Mariah Carey’s malice.

A judge will now decide if Morgan Carey’s request for limited discover is granted and if the case is thrown out.

As  a high profile public figure, Mariah Carey presumably is aware that she could be a target for some people who think public figures are public property, and takes steps to keep herself and her children safe.

But it is impossible to understate the rage that Morgan might be filled with if, after being trashed in his sister’s book, Mariah Carey then uses her immense wealth to shut down his case before it starts.

That danger may never come. Morgan is 61 years old and presumably has mellowed and matured so probably would not resort to the violence Mariah accused him of in his youth. 

But that’s not the point. It’s the uncertainty.  It’s not knowing. It’s the knowledge that a person you likely have made very angry is out there. It’s having to constantly check vehicles; it’s having bodyguards; it’s the offered public appearances that have to be declined; it’s the suspicious packages, the letters that have to be scanned, the extra security at each residence - and years later, still living with an ever-present undercurrent of fear.

And the sad part of it is that her attack on Morgan, like the one on Alison, was all so unnecessary. 

Stories in the book could have been truly inspiring for young people in traumatic family situations - as Mariah pathetically claims her vicious attacks on her siblings are.

Instead, in permanently public legal records and posts on the Internet she has allowed herself to be portrayed as cruel and vindictive toward her own closest relatives.

Such an irony. Ever desperate for attention, Mariah Carey could soon find herself imprisoned by her own hateful, publicity-seeking words.

*****

Decision time for Mariah?

Settle or face questions under oath; that may be the choice when judge rules on discovery request  

By David Baker

   Mariah Carey has expended a lot of effort trying to avoid sitting for a deposition - even in one case in a lawsuit that she started.

   But she may not be able to avoid facing questions in the lawsuit brought by her brother over statements she made about him in her memoir.

   Her initial response to the claim filed by Morgan Carey was to ask a judge to throw out the case - before it had barely started.

   But now Morgan is asking for the court's permission to submit written questions to, and to conduct depositions of Mariah Carey, her co-writer and two members of the company that published the book.

   In a legal document filed this week, Morgan Carey's attorney says Morgan should not be denied the opportunity to obtain evidence that Mariah Carey "...(W)as somewhat less than reliable and truthful" in the book, and that with the prospect of profiting from a bestseller, the publishers were "...(A)ll too willing to ignore the extensive public record demonstrating her indifference to the truth."

   The lawyer also wants copies of documents, including "...(C)ommunications concerning the decision not to seek pre-publication comment from (Morgan Carey) or other named sources."

   The attorney also is looking for evidence that Mariah Carey's statements were motivated by malice; that she intended to hurt her brother  - something she all but admitted in her TV interview with Oprah Winfrey. 

  Meanwhile, Mariah's sister Alison Carey has filed her own legal document over statements about her in the book, in which Alison stated that she also was not given an opportunity to respond to allegations of, in one instance, criminal conduct.  The first she knew of it was when it was reported just before the book was published, in headlines to stories in newspaper and on dozens of websites around the world.

   Settle or fight. Either way, Mariah's response will certainly be useful in preparing Alison's upcoming claim - as will the decision on whether to repeat the challenged statements about her in an already announced paperback edition of the memoir.

   A judge will now decide if the Morgan Carey's request for discovery will be granted.

---

   One of Morgan Carey's claims is that negotiations to produce a film screenplay he has written were abruptly broken off because of statements in his sister's book. To back up this claim, his lawyer has filed a sworn statement from the producer.

   That document says the screenplay is titled "Devil's Hollow" - that it is in the horror/thriller genre - and "inspired by actual events."

    Which brings to mind a phone call Alison received from Morgan one Tuesday in 2016.  During the call, Morgan grilled Alison with a series of questions about Alison's forced involvement in a satanic cult at the hands of her mother when Alison was a child.

   The call went on for an hour, during which Alison became increasingly agitated.  When it was over, she said repeatedly: "Why is he asking me these things? Why is he making me think about it?"

   Over the following several days she became increasingly erratic and confused, while still talking about Morgan's call.

   On the Friday morning she was out in the street, waving down drivers and asking them for a credit card to buy a song on iTunes.

   The police arrived;  Alison was taken to a psychiatric hospital, where she remained for a month. 

   It was clear that this episode was triggered by Morgan's call.  And right after the call, we speculated that he was looking for information he could use for his own benefit. 

      Could any part of "Devil's Hollow" be based on the call that caused his sister so much distress?

    ---

   Morgan has a history of secrecy when dealing with Alison. One afternoon, also in 2016, he called and said he needed Alison to immediately record a short video.  He did not say what it was for, but we thought he might be planning to include it in a private message to Mariah. 

  So we hastily recorded the clip and uploaded it to Dropbox.

  Two days later a story appeared on the British news website Mail Online,  quoting Morgan slamming Mariah.  And there was Alison's video.

   Coming just two weeks after a similar story in another British newspaper, The Sun on Sunday - in which Morgan was quoted calling Mariah an "evil witch", and which we first became of aware of not from Morgan but during a phone call from a relative in England - the Mail would have needed something exclusive to justify running such a similar story.  They had it: Alison's video.

   Did Alison benefit from our small but significant contribution to the value of the Mail story? Not really.  Morgan did send $800  to a woman for two months' rent of a room for Alison in her house - likely a tiny fraction of what Morgan received for the two stories.  But according to Alison, the woman was using drugs.  Alison soon moved out.

---

   Morgan has had no contact with Alison for the past two years so probably doesn't know that in May Alison needed emergency overnight surgery.  The doctors gave her only a 50 percent chance of surviving the procedure and for several days her status was critical.

  So an effort was made to inform all her relatives of her condition.  Morgan had been living in Italy but with no number or email he could not be contacted.  In any event, legal papers say he is in now back in Hawaii.

  Messages were relayed to all Alison's other immediate relatives but with one exception, none of them responded.  Not one of her three sons.  And, not surprisingly, not her only sister. 

   The callous indifference of this family is simply stunning.

****

   

 

Commentary

 

Attorneys for Mariah Carey ask a judge to throw out  her brother's claims over statements in her memoir

   By David Baker

   Posted June 2, 2021

   Attorneys for Mariah Carey have now filed a response to Morgan Carey’s lawsuit over statements in Mariah Carey’s 2020 memoir, The Meaning of Mariah Carey.

   The usual response would be what’s called an “answer”, in which the defendant responds to each paragraph in the complaint.

   But in this case, the attorneys instead are asking a judge to toss out the entire case before it even starts. 

   In a 31-page document filed on May 28, Mariah Carey claims that passages in her book about her brother are not statements of fact but rather are opinions, which therefore are not defamatory.

   It’s correct that opinions are protected - but only if they are about facts. You can’t say someone is a ”sometimes drug dealing” person - as Mariah says of Morgan in the book - and then claim it was just her opinion, unless there is evidence that he in fact had been dealing illegal drugs.

  Also, her description of a physical fight between a teenaged Morgan and their father, Alfred Roy Carey, is questionable. In the book she claims that it took “12 police officers” to pull them apart. 

   She was 3 years old. Are we really to believe that in an obviously stressful situation, a terrified 3-year-old counted the number of officers involved?

  But according to the motion, this and other passages are not meant to be taken literally. Rather, they are colorful, hyperbolic writing, intended to paint a picture in the readers’ minds of events she claims occurred.

  Something you might find in, well, a work of fiction. 

  In most lawsuits, a defendant would face detailed examinations, answering, under oath, both written questions, and in person during a deposition. It’s part of what’s called discovery, in which parties to a lawsuit exchange information prior to trial.

   In their response to Morgan’s lawsuit, defendant Carey’s lawyers say one of the reasons his claim should be tossed out is that he failed to provide details of his alleged financial losses caused by the book.

   But this is disingenuous: These lawyers certainly know that there is no requirement for that kind of detail in a complaint. A complaint can be long and detailed, or it can be very brief;  as long as it clearly states the reason that the defendant is being sued it is sufficient.

  The details the defense lawyers are saying are missing would usually be demanded in those written questions in documents called interrogatories, and in demands for bills of particulars - the very process that with last week’s motion defendant Carey is trying to avoid.

   Seven of the eight claims in Morgan Carey’s complaint allege defamation; the eighth is for intentional infliction of emotional distress. 

   That’s the same claim that defendant Carey’s sister Alison Carey alleged in a notice of claim filed in February over statements about her in the book.

  To succeed, the statements in a claim of intentional infliction of emotional distress must be outrageous and extreme and intended to hurt the victim.

   That might be hard for Morgan to prove. But Alison’s situation is very different. As defendant Carey was quoted as saying just before her book was published, Alison is “damaged, and  “very broken.” 

  And although she refuses to acknowledge it, she knows why. She knows about the horrific sexual and psychological abuse Alison endured as a child that resulted in a diagnosis of post traumatic stress disorder, causing terrifying flashbacks of the unspeakable abuse.

   And she knows about the traumatic brain injury from when Alison was hit on the back of the head and left for dead by an intruder at her home in 2015, resulting in surgery four months later to stop a cerebral hemorrhage and leaving her with short-term memory loss and limited vision in one eye. 

  But despite all that, defendant Carey used her description of events she claims occurred 40 years ago to vilify her much less fortunate sister - and then pushed the details out to media organizations just before publication of the book.

   It’s hard to imagine a more callous act. 

   Now in a hospital a month after a life-threatening medical emergency and facing weeks of rehab, Alison is also struggling with the loss of the father of one of her children, who was shot dead by a police officer last week.

    The broader question here is, were Mariah Carey’s attacks on her siblings really necessary? 

   Mariah Carey is one of the luckiest people on the planet. She was barely out of high school when she began a life of enormous wealth and luxury. Yes, her life was hard before she hit it big. But there are thousands of people who are just as talented and work just as hard for far longer, but never make it.

  She should be thankful for her incredible fortune. At the very least, she should have left her siblings out of her book.

   Instead, she portrays herself as a bitter victim, publicly smearing her "broken" sister with damaging, hurtful allegations while denying her an opportunity to defend herself before the stories appeared.

   And that really is outrageous and extreme.

****

Hearing set on motion to dismiss claim

   The return date for Mariah Carey’s motion to dismiss her brother’s complaint is next month.

    In many cases, there is no actual hearing. Instead, the judge decides the request “on the papers” submitted by the parties.

   But in this case, Mariah Carey has requested oral argument. If this is granted, lawyers for both sides will appear at a hearing to make their cases.

  The hearing is set for July 6 in state Supreme Court, New York County.

-- David Baker

Mariah case update

 

Court documents suggest Morgan Carey's claim against Mariah might be headed to settlement

Attorneys agree to a delay in filing of responses to brother Morgan's claim for alleged defamation in Mariah's Carey's 2020 tell all memoir

 By David Baker

Posted Tuesday, May 11, 2021

 Morgan Carey’s lawsuit against his sister Mariah Carey and her publishers over her memoir continues with indications that the claim against the publishers and the co-writer of the book may be dismissed, leaving Mariah Carey as the only defendant.

   In March, Morgan Carey filed a complaint - the document that starts a lawsuit - alleging that his reputation has been damaged by statements in Mariah Carey’s book “The Meaning of Mariah Carey”, which was published in September 2020.

   Along with Mariah Carey, the claim also names as defendants Macmillan Publishing Group, Andy Cohen Books, and Michaela Angela Davis, who wrote the words at Mariah Carey’s direction. 

   Once a complaint is served, a defendant normally has 20 days (a little longer in some circumstances) to respond. That response is usually in the form of what’s called an answer, which contains numbered responses to each of the numbered paragraphs in the complaint.

   An answer usually provides little information about the case; most responses either admit an indisputable allegation (the date the book was published, for example); deny an allegation; or say “the answering defendant lacks sufficient  knowledge to admit or deny the allegation.”

    However, in this case, none of the defendants’ attorneys have served an answer. Instead, after acknowledging receipt of the complaint, they have agreed in a document called a stipulation to extend the deadline, in Mariah Carey’s case, until May 14, and in the case against the publishers and the co-writer, until May 28.

   This suggests two things: First, that a publishing agreement states that Mariah Carey, not the publishers and the co-writer, will be responsible for any claims arising from statements in the book - a possibility supported by a sentence in the stipulation that says the defendants may ask the court to dismiss the complaint without them filing an answer. 

   Such an agreement would explain the publishers’ willingness to publish obviously controversial statements while presumably knowing that the target of Mariah Carey’s vicious attacks would not become aware of the explosive claims until stories about them appeared in the media just before the book was published.

   So Mariah Carey may soon be the only defendant. Which leads to the second explanation for the delay; that settlement negotiations are taking place.

   Back in February, an attorney then considering taking Alison Carey’s case was told by one of Mariah Carey’s attorneys that Mariah Carey “would rather pay thousands of dollars to fight Alison’s claim than give Alison five dollars.”

   That’s tough talk, meant to scare off  plaintiffs’ lawyers who just want to collect their 40 percent plus expenses without a long, expensive legal battle. But the reality may be very different. It’s not the cost Mariah has to worry about; it’s the public exposure involved in defending a claim - having to answer detailed questions under oath during depositions (which, in Alison’s claim, given statements in the book, some of which could be about Mariah Carey’s knowledge of the abuse inflicted on Alison as a child.)

   Deposition transcripts or parts of them can become public as exhibits attached to other documents filed in a case. They also become part of the court record when a case is about to go to trial. A request can be made for a transcript to be made confidential, but anyone can be present at depositions unless a protective order is obtained, which requires convincing evidence that the person’s presence would cause “serious harm.” 

  That, and having to respond to detailed written questions under oath is a big incentive to settle.

   And Mariah Carey has previously tried to avoid giving a deposition. In one of several lawsuits filed against her by former employees she claimed that being deposed in a law office would put her at risk of catching COVID-19. Then, when the lawyers offered to have her appear via video from her home she claimed that even that was too risky because she could still catch the virus from the video camera operator required by the rules to be there to verify the event. 

   That excuse won’t work now; items she posted on Twitter and Instagram in early April show her getting her second shot of a COVID vaccine. For Mariah Carey, no event is too trivial for a call to the press or posts on social media. 

   So now, settle or fight, this spoilt multimillionaire is about to face the consequences of her spiteful, unnecessary attacks on her two less fortunate siblings.

——

As noted above, the deadline for Mariah Carey’s initial response to her brother’s claim is this Friday, May 14. Check back here after that date for details.

Unfit mother?

                 Would Mariah Carey have let her

           mother take care of her daughter?

    

By David Baker

    For all that Mariah Carey wrote in her sibling-bashing book, one topic was missing; she said nothing about the horrific abuse inflicted on her sister Alison by their mother when Alison was a child. 

   That raises a couple of questions: Was Mariah subjected to any of the same abuse?  If not, why was she spared? And either way, why is she not now sympathetic to the sister she acknowledged is “…very broken”?

   She certainly knows what happened to Alison. It’s been described numerous times in newspapers and on TV.  As someone who posts on social media and who is constantly searching the Internet for her name -- and who’s own mother was accused in a legal filing of allowing Alison to be sexual abused -- Mariah cannot credibly claim to not know.

   And if she thinks what happened was okay—and that it didn’t destroy Alison’s life—here’s a question: Would she allow her own  9-year-old daughter to endure the horrific psychological and sexual abuse Alison has described?

***

   It's been almost five months since The Meaning of Mariah Carey was published, coming up on the time when a paperback edition was a book would be released.

 

   But in this case the publishers have some decisions  to make.

    

    Do they leave in the parts about Alison and her brother Morgan, even though they are the subject of legal claims, and risk further legal exposure?

   

   Or do they take the disputed parts out, in what would likely be claimed was an admission of liability?

   Or they could simply abandon any plans to publish a paperback, thus losing additional income from the book -- and the constant attention Mariah craves.

    Mariah has also suggested there might will be a movie version of the book.  But would any production company approve say, a scene that portrays the incidents Mariah alleges in the chapter about Alison?  Or one with an actor playing Morgan slamming their mother's head against a wall -- as Mariah claims happened?

   That seems unlikely.  So the idea of a movie might be dead - because Mariah couldn't resist slamming her two siblings 

***

   Speaking of Mariah’s daughter -- and her twin brother:  At 9 years old, they have a relatively limited view of the world, shaped mostly by what their parents tell them.

 

    But that will change. The time will come when they will go on the Internet and learn about the aunt they have never met and that, as always, there is another side to the story.

    At that point they will realize what that they were led to believe was not the whole picture and, as a result will likely view both Alison -- and their mother -- in a very different light.

***

    Almost from birth, Mariah has made her two children public figures. Photos on Twitter and Instagram; videos on Facebook. They have even appeared on stage with her.

    All of which may result in them growing up, like their mother, with a grotesquely distorted sense of their own importance and their place in the world.

****

    BIG NEWS  The filing in early February of Alison's legal notice of a claim for intentional infliction of emotional distress over Mariah's memoir was reported across the country and around the world by dozens of publications, including:  Variety, Billboard, Rolling Stone, the Hollywood Reporter, the New York Post, the New York Daily News, Long Island Newsday, People Magazine and USA Today; and in Britain, the BBC, The Sun, the Independent, the Times and New Musical Express.  Reports also appeared on outlets in several other countries including Germany, Italy and Australia.

    A month later  Morgan Carey filed his own lawsuit which was also widely reported, with all the stories also mentioning Alison's claim, many of them in the first paragraph.

Meanwhile, Alison is preparing for an in-depth TV interview in which she will talk about not just the devastating trauma she suffered as a child but also other events in her life, many of them not revealed before, even to her family. 

                                                            ******