Years after Jordan Chandler became one of Michael Jackson’s first accusers, an investigative journalist has cast doubt on the claims that he was a victim of the King of Pop.
Ian Halperin believes that Jordan’s accusations were likely the result of pressure from his father.
“I started my investigation convinced that Jackson was guilty. By the end, I no longer believed that,” Halperin told The Daily Mail.
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Trigger warning: this article contains graphic details that may be distressing to some.
The Canadian journalist reportedly spent years among Jackson’s entourage and with the singer himself. His theory about the Jordan case comes days before the premiere of Michael, the biopic about the late musician’s life.
Jackson met the boy in May 1992, when the singer’s car broke down and he entered a rental agency in Los Angeles owned by David Schwartz, Jordan’s stepfather.
Schwartz’s wife, June, handed Jackson her son’s phone number, explaining that he was a massive fan. The singer soon began speaking with the child over the phone and invited his family to his home.
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Jordan told child psychiatrist Dr. Richard Gardner that Jackson had ab*sed him beginning in April 1993. He claimed that the pop star, then 34, would begin crying and accuse him of not loving him whenever Jordan complained about being touched without his consent.
According to Halperin, however, Jordan was administered a sedative by his father that made him more vulnerable to manipulation.
His investigation includes the transcript of an interview with a clinical professor of child psychiatry, carried out in October 1993 with the then 13-year-old Jordan.
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Halperin told The Daily Mail that he believes Evan Chandler, Jordan’s father and a Beverly Hills dentist, gave his son the sedative sodium amytal, also known as “truth serum,” on July 12, 1993.
Jordan was allegedly given the substance, which is described by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as having hypnotic properties, after complaining of a toothache.
“A lot of people have spewed that theory, about the sodium amytal, and I’m certainly not discounting it,” Halperin said. “I’ve heard from very close people to the case that there was substance to it.”
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Halperin’s investigation concluded that Chandler was a dentist and aspiring screenwriter who depended on Jackson for Hollywood contacts and allegedly became furious when the singer began refusing to help advance his career in the film industry.
Chandler claimed that he was growing suspicious about Jackson’s close relationship with Jordan. By June 1993, he hired a lawyer, Barry Rothman, to explore a possible case against Jackson.
When Jordan complained of a toothache, his father administered sodium amytal to extract the tooth. The child was asked by his father whether Jackson had ever touched his privates, to which he replied, “Yes.”
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“The father was very sleazy, very money-oriented. He dictated the narrative of how this would be played out. He was calling the shots,” Halperin claimed.
Instead of going to the police, Chandler reportedly arranged to meet Jackson’s representatives and, on August 9, 1993, demanded that he buy four screenplays for a total cost of $20 million, an offer Jackson’s team refused, calling it “extortion.”
Days later, the furious father allegedly spoke to the child psychiatrist and told him he believed Jackson had ab*sed his son. The psychiatrist then informed the Los Angeles department of children and family services, which launched the criminal case.
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In January 1994, a settlement between the two parties was reached.
According to Halperin, who obtained court documents and will publish his investigation in his book Unmasked: The Final Years of Michael Jackson, the settlement included $15,331,250 to be held in trust for Jordan until he reached the age of majority, in addition to $1.5 million for each of his parents, and millions in legal fees.
Halperin is convinced that the father of Jackson’s accuser was “motivated primarily by financial considerations” and that the singer was innocent, deciding to settle the case because his insurance company demanded it.
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“He couldn’t afford to fight the case,” said Halperin. “I know that sounds crazy. But he didn’t have access to the liquid cash that most people thought he did. Michael was a big spender and no matter how much he made, he lived above his means.”
Since the case was closed in the 1990s, Jordan and his mother have kept a low profile. The accuser’s last confirmed sighting was reportedly in 2009.
His mother, June, has largely vanished from public view, while his father, Chandler, took his own life in 2009 after being diagnosed with cancer.
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A Vanity Fair report notes that Jordan’s mother argued with Jackson about her son sleeping in the same bed as him. The Billie Jean singer allegedly told her, “Why don’t you trust me? If we’re a family, you’ve got to think of me as a brother. Why make me feel so bad? This is a bond. It’s not about s*x. This is something special.”
In 2005, more than a decade after Jordan’s accusations, the Grammy winner stood trial on accusations of m*lesting a 13-year-old boy, Gavin Arvizo, who had been seen holding hands with him two years earlier. Jackson was found not guilty.
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While Halperin believes in the King of Pop’s innocence, he notes, “Jackson himself, however, also deserved much of the blame,” adding that his decision to “continue to sleep with children even after the suspicions surfaced bordered on criminal stupidity, even if he called such suspicions ‘ignorant.’”
The accusations continued years after the singer’s passing in 2009. The 2019 HBO documentary Leaving Neverland includes the testimonies of two men, Wade Robson and James Safechuck, who alleged that they were ab*sed by Jackson for years as children.
The two men are pursuing $400 million in damages as part of a motion filed in September 2025. The Estate of Michael Jackson told People that “the lawsuit has no merit and Michael is innocent.”
People commented on the Jordan Chandler case and the accusations against Michael Jackson
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