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

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   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.

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 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.

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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.

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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?”

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