Pair Plead Guilty to Illegal Videotaping

The owner of a charter jet company and his associate pleaded guilty Monday to federal charges of conspiring to secretly videotape pop singer Michael Jackson when he flew from Las Vegas to Santa Barbara in 2003 to surrender on child molestation charges.

The guilty pleas by Jeffrey Borer, owner of Santa Monica-based XtraJet, and Arvell Jett Reeves, owner of Executive Aviation Logistics, an aircraft maintenance firm in Chino, brought a sudden end to the government’s prosecution of the two men, who had previously denied any knowledge of the illicit taping.

“The bottom line is that even famous celebrities deserve some level of privacy in their private communications, especially when they are meeting with their attorneys,” Assistant U.S. Atty. Daniel Shallman said after the guilty pleas were entered in court.

“These guys went out and tried to make a bundle of money by attempting to sell these tapes to the tabloids.... It was pure greed.”

A federal grand jury had accused Borer and Reeves of equipping one of XtraJet’s Gulfstream aircrafts with hidden video cameras and microphones purchased from stores that sold “spy” equipment. The men, the grand jury charged in a September indictment, hoped to sell the footage of Jackson to a television network.

The videotapes came to light in November 2003 when Fox News said it had been approached by a private party about selling tapes of Jackson aboard the jet with his then-attorney, Mark Geragos. At the time, the two were en route to Santa Barbara, where Jackson was facing child molestation charges. He was acquitted in that case early last year.

Originally, Borer said he did not know how the secret recordings were made.

But in the plea agreement accepted Monday by U.S. District Judge A. Howard Matz, Borer acknowledged telling Reeves to install audio-video recording equipment on the jet after learning that the entertainer would be chartering it from Las Vegas.

Borer, the plea agreement said, was to be responsible for contacting media companies, negotiating with them and selling the recordings to the highest bidder. Reeves’ role was to purchase and install the recording equipment, the plea agreement added.

The court documents said that Reeves and an unindicted and unnamed co-conspirator worked into the early morning hours before the flight’s scheduled departure to install the camcorders on the Gulfstream. They were unable to install the microphones because Reeves did not buy the right electronic connectors, but they did make two video recordings of the entertainer, his attorney and others on the jet, according to the plea agreement.

Five months after the incident, court papers said, Reeves’ co-conspirator told him he had been contacted by the FBI about the illicit tapes. Reeves concocted a cover story that he had placed the camcorders inside the aircraft to help disprove Borer’s allegation that he had stolen alcohol from the jet, the papers said.

Borer had unsuccessfully asked to have his brief court appearance before Matz closed. During the hearing, the two defendants said they understood the consequences of their guilty pleas.

Borer, whom sources have identified as a onetime FBI informant, and Reeves each face up to a maximum of five years in federal prison when they are sentenced in July.

Federal guidelines suggest a sentence of six to 12 months, though the judge will have the final say on whether to impose jail time. Additionally, each faces up to three years of supervised release, fines of $250,000 and potential loss of their FAA licenses.