Posted Sept. 1, 2022
This week, more than a year after Morgan Carey’s lawsuit against his sister over statements in her book “The Meaning of Mariah Carey” was filed, Mariah Carey has just stated under oath that the things she said about her brother are true — which would mean they are not defamatory.
In an affidavit filed on August 29, Mariah Carey addresses two statements in her book that Morgan Carey says are untrue and that defame him.
The first is that in the late 1980s, while working in New York City nightclubs, Morgan Carey “…discreetly supplied the beautiful people with their powered party favors.”
The judge in the case, in denying Mariah Carey’s motion to dismiss two of the claims in the complaint, ruled that the average reader would conclude from that statement that Morgan Carey was distributing cocaine.
In her affidavit, Mariah Carey says the basis for her statement is that her mother, Patricia Carey, told her Morgan Carey was dealing drugs, including cocaine; that a well known photographer who knew both her and her brother told her Morgan had provided cocaine to a number of individuals; and that a well known hairstylist “…who was part of the nightlife scene in New York City, discussed with me stories about [Morgan Carey] providing cocaine to a number of individuals.”
Neither the photographer nor the hairdresser are identified - which they will be if they are prepared to state - under oath - that they witnessed Morgan Carey dealing drugs.
Another question is: Did the publishers know before the book was published the identities of the photographer and hairdresser? (The judge dismissed the claims against the publishers and the co-author of the book because, she said, Morgan Carey had not shown that they acted with “actual malice” - in other words, that they intended to damage him - but that decision could be reversed on appeal. If it is, the publishers will certainly be asked about what steps they took to assure themselves that their author could prove her accusations.)
Then there is Patricia Carey: Is she willing to testify against her own son? That’s if she is deemed capable of providing reliable testimony. She’s 84 or 85 years old and it was recently reported that she was found in her upstate New York home in a confused mental state and had been moved, against her will, to a high-end facility in Florida that provides specialist care.
Mariah Carey doesn’t claim to have witnessed any of the supposed drug dealing; it’s all hearsay. Without testimony from witnesses, her defense is weak.
And her final statement in defending against her brother’s claims is the weakest of all: Everyone knew.
It was “…inner-circle common knowledge at the time that [Morgan Carey] was heavily involved in the Manhattan nightlife scene and that he often was in possession of cocaine and provided it to members of the nightlife crowd that he associated with,” she states in the affidavit.
Again, it likely will take more than Mariah Carey’s self-interested statements to convince a jury that her allegations about her brother are true.
Mariah Carey also defends her statement that Morgan Carey - who she called her “drunk-ass brother” - had “…been in the system”, which the judge ruled would lead a reader to conclude that Morgan Carey had been in prison.
Mariah Carey says she was present when Morgan Carey was found in a hotel room in Aspen, Colorado, drunk; that “been in the system’ referred to when Morgan Carey, as a teenager, was treated for a short time at a facility for troubled youth; and that he was a witness in a criminal case against a woman who was convicted of shooting and killing her husband after Morgan Carey had allegedly agreed to kill the man for $30,000.
But he didn’t go to prison.
In another document filed this week, opposing Morgan Carey’s motion for summery judgment, Mariah Carey’s attorneys say that it should not be granted because there has been no discovery; no responses to written questions have been served, and no depositions have taken place.
But last year it was these same attorneys who opposed Morgan Carey’s motion to conduct limited discovery to obtain, among things, any correspondence relating to the decision not to give him an opportunity to respond to the things he is accused of in the book.
Morgan Carey’s attorneys have filed notice that they will appeal the order dismissing the claims against the publishers and the co-author and all but two of the claims against Mariah Carey.
This case was filed 18 months ago and has barely moved since then. It’s shaping up to be a long, expensive - and very public - battle between these two Carey siblings.
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