BY GEORGE RUSH
DAILY NEWS COLUMNIST
If Michael Jackson ever left the country, he could live out his days on a tropical island paradise - thanks to his friend Marlon Brando.
A notarized deed obtained by the Daily News shows that on June 5, 2003, Brando granted Jackson sanctuary on one of the Pacific islands he owned "for the rest of [Jackson's] natural life."
According to the deed, Brando transferred use of a half-acre on the islet of Onetahi, in the French Polynesian atoll of Tetiaroa, "in consideration of gratitude and affection."
Brando informed Jackson in a letter thanking the pop star for hosting a birthday party for Brando's daughter, Nina, now 15.
"I can't easily describe the pleasure that has come our way with your invitation to Neverland," wrote Brando, who signed the letter "Love, Dad."
But the deed raises the question of whether Brando, who died last July, may have intended Onetahi as a possible refuge for the embattled singer.
At the time of the property transfer, child welfare groups were pressing Santa Barbara District Attorney Tom Sneddon to investigate Jackson, who had admitted on TV that he shared his bed with a then-12-year-old cancer survivor. Jackson, currently on trial in California, is accused of sexually abusing the boy and plotting to hold his family at his Neverland ranch.
In 1976, Brando arranged for American Indian Movement leader Dennis Banks to fly by private plane to Onetahi after he was indicted for assault and inciting a riot. Brando also spirited his daughter, Cheyenne, to Tahiti after she witnessed his son, Christian, shoot her lover, Dag Drollet, in 1990.
Jackson's spokeswoman Raymone Bain insisted the singer wants to clear his name and "has absolutely no plans to flee the country."
But Judge Rodney Melville regarded Jackson as enough of a flight risk to impose a $3 million bail and demand that he surrender his passport.
Banks told Brando biographer Peter Manso that he also had no passport when he arrived on the island, but that Brando's relationship with Tahitian government officials smoothed his entry.
The Brando-Jackson deed could become significant for former Brando employees who are trying to block a deal to turn the island paradise into a luxury eco-resort.
Jo An Corrales, whom Brando fired as his business manager in March 2004, believes the would-be developer isn't offering to pay enough to cover the estate's debts to her and other would-be creditors. Corrales' lawyer, Joel Pipes, plans to argue in court that the trustees haven't notified Michael Jackson, or anyone else with an interest in Teteiroa, about the pending resort deal.
Bain said she didn't know whether Jackson was aware of the resort proposal, adding, "he's had a lot of other things on his mind."
Originally published on April 4, 2005
