The Jacko smear campaign begins with the following story leaked to the N.Y. Daily News:

The Daily News: The kid [Gavin Arvizo] at the center of the Michael Jackson sex case allegedly tried to steal clothes from a California store on orders from his father when he was just 8, court records reveal.

The shoplifting turned violent when security guards grabbed the boy and his mother fought them, the papers said. They were arrested and charged with burglary.

A police report on the Aug. 27, 1998, incident said security guards caught up with the boy in the parking lot, where they wound up fighting with the boy and his parents. His mother was handcuffed.

The troubled family then sued the JCPenney store in West Covina, about 30 miles east of Los Angeles, alleging they were severely beaten and falsely arrested. In the suit, the family claimed the boy suffered a “sprained arm, nightmares and emotional distress.”

The suit also claimed that a younger son, who was 7 at the time, was bruised on the forehead, causing “headaches and emotional distress.”

As part of the settlement, charges against the family were dropped. The family collected $200,000, but the couple divorced a short time later after bickering over the money.

Other police reports involving the family allege the father once kept his daughter, now 15, prisoner in his car for 2-1/2 hours and threatened to “kill your mom and your whole family.” The teen told cops the incident happened outside her school on Nov. 13, 2001.

In a bizarre statement after the mother filed assault charges against the father, she assured police that Michael Jackson, local weatherman Fritz Coleman and basketball star Kobe Bryant “would assist her with this incident.”