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.
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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?
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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.
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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.
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