How Come Nobody Ever Fact-Checks Jael Rucker?
Jan 6, 2026
How come nobody ever apologises to Michael Jackson? I bet that thought crosses your mind every single day, doesn’t it? Well… probably not.
Still, it’s precisely what Jael Rucker has been demanding for—oh, I don’t know—quite some time now.
Type something like “Michael Jackson was a victim of false allegations” into Google and you’ll almost certainly stumble upon one of her Medium articles. Because, as we all know, Google has a soft spot for conspiracy‑laden, pro‑Jackson blog posts.
If I were Jael—assuming, of course, I’d already pledged allegiance to the Church of Michael—I’d have chosen a different title. Something like “Why Does Nobody Apologise to Our Lord and Saviour?” Still absurd, but at least it’s less cheesy. Just my humble opinion.
But instead of asking why nobody apologises to Michael Jackson, perhaps we should be asking: why does nobody ever fact‑check Jael Rucker? Well, actually, the good folks over at Reddit have—and they don’t miss a trick.
So, I thought I’d give it a go myself. Now, I’ll admit I haven’t exactly devoured her back catalogue. In fact, I’ve only read one piece from top to bottom. I can’t even remember what I was searching for at the time, but somehow Google decided I needed Jael’s take on Michael Jackson’s police brutality story. Yes, you guessed it—she genuinely believes Jackson was physically manhandled and had his shoulder dislocated by the Santa Barbara police during his 2003 arrest.
Naturally, I thought: hang on, haven’t I already written about this? So I clicked through, and I was stunned—perhaps even mildly entertained—by just how spectacularly bad it was. Shoddy research, conspiratorial leaps, and a tone that could only be described as “tin‑foil chic.”
First and foremost, I had to filter through a fair bit of irrelevant spam before I actually reached the key points—namely, why Jael believes Michael Jackson was telling the truth about having his shoulder dislocated.
It seems Jael is putting all her faith in two pieces of footage: the video of Jackson leaving police custody on 20 November, and the Ed Bradley interview recorded on Christmas Day 2003.
Now, of course, you’re probably thinking: wasn’t Jackson filmed leaving the County Jail looking rather upbeat, waving to fans and the media before climbing back into his car, heading straight to the airport, and flying back to Vegas instead of going to a local hospital?
You’d be absolutely right. But Jael refuses to accept this as evidence that Michael Jackson wasn’t manhandled or injured during his arrest. She even takes offence at medical experts who offer professional opinions on Jackson’s claims, citing Dr Samuel Fink, who told CBS News the following:
If you dislocate your shoulder, you don’t have the joint there anymore. You can’t raise your shoulder, nothing to do it with. If someone forced you to do it, you’d be in a lot of pain.
But according to Jael, that medical expert was making baseless claims. Why? Because, she argues, the footage of Jackson leaving the County Jail — along with his interview with Ed Bradley — shows it was actually Jackson’s left arm that was injured, not the right arm he waved with. Jael has such confidence in this theory that the main image of her article features a still of Jackson leaving police custody alongside a shot from the Ed Bradley interview, complete with two big yellow circles indicating which arm was injured and which wasn’t.
She states:
As you can see above, it was actually Jackson’s right arm he waved with (shown as left on television)…I.E., NOT the arm/shoulder he said was dislocated. Ladies and gentlemen, the media (nor the doctors that gave their “expertise”) double checked to make sure they had the right arm before insinuating Jackson was a liar.
She further adds:
Now, back to that Ed Bradley interview, Jackson does say he was having a hard time reaching with that opposite arm, but that’s NOT the arm/shoulder he said was dislocated, and even within the interview, he says “shoulder,” as in singular, not “shoulders.” Now, as for what Jackson was feeling in his other arm, that could have had something to do with this injury he said he suffered at the hands of the SBPD:
Okay, is it time to apologise? Not quite. Even if one of Jackson’s shoulders had been severely injured, Jael makes no attempt to explain why he never sought immediate medical attention, or how he managed to get in and out of cars, catch flights, walk into buildings, and give interviews while supposedly in excruciating pain. Perhaps that requires just a little too much common sense. Instead, Jael appears more intent on accusing the media of misidentifying the arm or shoulder, demonising the Santa Barbara Police Department, and laying the groundwork for why those “crooked bastards” might have manhandled Jackson in the first place.
She states:
Now, we’ve already proven that the media had the incorrect arm/shoulder when trying to discredit Jackson’s account of his arrest, but what about Jim Anderson, the Santa Barbara County sheriff, who called for a state investigation into Jackson’s claims, even threatening to lock him up if they were proven false?
Jael seems to concede that it was virtually impossible for Jackson to have been manhandled and suffered a dislocated shoulder either during his arrival at the Santa Barbara airport hangar or while travelling in the back of the police car to the County Jail, as both events were recorded on video or audio.
Therefore, according to Jael, the only possible explanation is that Jackson was manhandled inside the County Jail itself, at a time when the cameras were not recording.
She states:
As per a January 2004 report from the Los Angeles Times, Jackson’s ride to the jail was recorded, and he was heard whistling, humming to himself, and saying he was “wonderful” when asked how he was doing by a deputy. This was cited as an example of how “professional” (Anderson’s words) Jackson was treated during his booking process.
She further adds:
Do you see anything wrong with this account? I do. When exactly did Jackson say his experiences happened during that CBS interview with Ed Bradley? When he was actually at the jail being booked, not during the car ride. That means the car ride to the jail is completely irrelevant here.
Jael even believes that, because the Santa Barbara Police Department didn’t press charges against Jackson for making false allegations, this must be a strong indication that they did, at the very least, rough him up—and that they all unanimously agreed not to push their luck.
She states:
If Anderson wasn’t there or missed certain parts of Jackson’s booking, then why was his first reaction to automatically be “surprised” (his words) at the way Jackson said he was treated (as if the SBPD didn’t have similar accusations against them)? Furthermore, Anderson talked a big game about potentially seeking criminal charges against Jackson for allegedly making “false public statements about police brutality,” and guess what happened after that?
No such charges were ever filed.
Of course, Jael doesn’t ask why Michael Jackson failed to take legal action against the Santa Barbara Police Department for causing him grievous bodily harm. I suppose he was simply too kind for his own good.
But let’s set aside the conspiracy theories and focus instead on the facts.
If Jael were a serious researcher, she would have discovered that the California Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which operates independently of the Santa Barbara Police Department, was tasked with investigating Jackson’s claims that he had been injured while in custody. Jim Anderson requested this inquiry because of the seriousness of the allegations and the potential for a civil claim against the SBPD.
The investigation was extensive. It involved up to 2,500 man-hours and interviews with as many as 163 witnesses, including inmates at the County Jail and members of Jackson’s own security team. Jackson’s staff even stated that they saw him being treated professionally throughout — a detail Jael somehow fails to mention anywhere in her article.
Furthermore, Jackson’s lawyer at the time, Mark Geragos — never one to shy away from using the media to defend his clients — was present throughout the entire booking process. While I’ll concede there would have been brief moments when his client was out of sight, Geragos himself never claimed to have witnessed any unprofessional conduct, let alone physical manhandling or, crucially, any immediate need for medical attention for his client.
In fact, during an interview for Stars Behind Bars, Geragos went on to say the following:
We had negotiated with the DA to have him surrender, and what that meant was, instead of somebody coming out and grabbing and arresting him we would go directly to them and meet them, which we did in a hangar outside of Santa Barbara. We then gave Michael over to the sheriff deputies. They filmed the entire thing which I generally don't see with any other clients. So, they filmed it just in case there were any kind of accusations made later. [Jackson] went into a holding cell, and was booked and fingerprinted, just like everybody else, and then immediately we had arranged for bail. I think if my memory serves me, it was something outrageous like 3 million bucks. We posted the bail [...] and then he was taken out of their almost immediately.
But let’s move on to the footage of Jackson leaving the County Jail, and the interview with Ed Bradley, which Jael uses as the main foundation for accusing both the media and medical experts of failing to do their research.
To refresh your memory, Jael maintains throughout her entire article that it was Jackson’s left shoulder that was injured, not the right arm he was seen waving with.
But that isn’t true.
If we start with the video footage of Jackson leaving the County Jail, he clearly demonstrates that he has full use of both arms. He first raises his supposedly injured left arm, then rotates his body and raises his right arm, using his left hand to grip the stair railing as he walks down the steps towards his vehicle.
Before entering the vehicle, he again raises his left arm and appears to blow kisses.
While the footage isn’t great—being a copy of multiple copies—it is still clear that Jackson demonstrates the use of both arms, including his left, on at least two occasions before leaving for the airport.
Watch the clip below.
Now, let’s turn to the Ed Bradley interview. It is worth noting that this was recorded approximately 35 days after Jackson was allegedly manhandled and injured by the police. Yet, despite more than a month having passed, he still had not filed any official complaint, nor had he sought or received medical treatment, even though he claimed to be in severe pain and unable to sleep.
He was, however, evidently well enough to get out of bed, have a wash, brush his teeth, get dressed, have his make‑up applied and—most importantly—walk in and sit down for an interview at a Los Angeles hotel.
Quite the trooper, wasn’t he.
Jael, once again, focuses on Jackson’s left arm during this interview, insisting that he makes it clear that it is his left shoulder that is dislocated, rather than the right one.
As previously noted, she does acknowledge that Jackson states in the interview that he is struggling to manoeuvre either arm, but this makes little sense and is rather contradictory, given that Jael herself produced a screenshot—complete with a large yellow circle—showing Jackson raising and waving his right arm. I suppose the only logical explanation is that Jackson’s arm and shoulder developed problems many weeks later (cue laughter).
If we focus on the interview itself, you can see that even before sitting down, Jackson greets people in the room by bowing, waving with his right hand, and using his left hand to grab the chair for balance. While I’m not a medical expert, none of these actions are consistent with someone who has suffered a serious shoulder injury—particularly a dislocation.
Watch the clip below.
Without the adverts, the Ed Bradley interview runs for roughly 23 minutes, and in the first five minutes—particularly when Jackson discusses Neverland Ranch, criticises the media, and addresses the allegations made by Gavin Arvizo—he appears notably animated. He moves both arms and shoulders freely and, although nothing he does is especially strenuous, he shows no sign of discomfort or pain.
Watch the clip below.
It is only when asked about his arrest and processing that he begins to complain of pain, claiming to Ed Bradley that the police manhandled him and locked him in a faeces‑covered bathroom for roughly 45 minutes. He goes on to allege that both his arms were injured by the way he was handcuffed, and that his left shoulder is “literally dislocated”.
Despite this, Jackson demonstrates to Bradley how far he can move both his left and right arms, showing that he is unable to raise them above his chin line.
Watch the clip below.
But Jackson appears to forget what he told Bradley only minutes earlier. For the rest of the interview, he completely contradicts himself, making a range of arm, neck, and shoulder movements without any sign of discomfort — even scratching his face several times with the right arm he had previously claimed he could not raise above his chin, as the images below show.
You can watch the full interview on YouTube.
Conclusion
It’s perfectly clear from the video evidence, the findings of the California Bureau of Investigation, and Jackson’s own behaviour that he was neither manhandled nor injured by the police.
I don’t believe Jael Rucker is stupid; rather, she appears to be yet another run‑of‑the‑mill apologist with her head lodged so firmly up Jackson’s backside that she views his behaviour through rose‑tinted glasses. As a result, she churns out misleading, fantasy‑laden articles that demonise everyone else in order to preserve her preferred pro‑Jackson version of events.
Her claims in this piece—particularly her scolding of the media and medical experts for allegedly failing to “do proper research”—are unintentionally hilarious, given that she herself relies on screenshots from videos which, when watched in full, make it painfully obvious that she’s the one skipping the homework.
One thing’s certain: the Jackson Estate must be positively chuffed that Google is awash with these pieces—whether they’re footing the bill or simply enjoying the free PR.
