Santo Domingo.- When Michael Jackson was 35 and during the scandal of being accused of fondling a 13 year-old boy, he decided to marry Lisa Marie Presley in Dominican Republic’s central city La Vega.

Judge Hugo Alvarez, who officiated the wedding, revealed that the pop legend wanted to marry aboard an airplane while flying over the country, which this nation’s laws didn’t sanction.

A journalist from the magazine Time and National Enquirer had sufficient information to reveal the news, after which Alvarez decided to call newspaper Listin Diario to confirm Jackson’s wedding with the King of Rock, Elvis Presley’s daughter on Thursday May 26,1994.

History

At the end of 1993 Alvarez is contacted by a close friend, a lawyer living in Miami, whose name he never revealed, to place him in contact Jackson’s lawyers, who proposed that he officiate the wedding with Presley.

In January, 1994 Alvarez meets for the first time with the artist’s lawyers in Los Angeles.

“There I met Jackson’s lawyers and Lisa Marie’s representative and they gave me some details of the wedding that would take place in May,” he said. “I signed a statement of discretion that I couldn’t reveal details of the wedding.”

He said he abided by the agreement to the point of refusing to provide details to a U.S. journalist who offered to pay. “There was no way I could have kept it a secret any longer, so I decided to call Listin Diario and give them the information.”

The lawyer said he later found out that it was Jackson who had revealed his marriage in Dominican Republic. “He told his mother he had wed and his mother tells Latoya, one her daughters, of what happened in Dominican Republic. It’s Latoya who reveals the information to the press; they then come to the country to investigate.”

Hush hush vows

Jackson and Presley arrive with their representatives at the La Romana International Airport on May 25, and stayed at Casa de Campo.

Given Jackson’s demand for privacy the marriage was carried out in the judge’s house in the La Vega subdivision El Campito, around 11 a.m. and lasted 10 minutes. “Michael Jackson was dressed in black with a hat of the same color and a belt with tacks. Lisa had a short beige dress and flowers of the same color.”

Impressions

What most impressed Alvarez was Jackson’s skin color and temperament. “The skin color was intense pink and behaved like a child because he couldn’t maintain his stare. “He impressed me as a timid person, mainly, by from his manner. We had a short conversation of about three minutes.”

“The pop star told me that the Dominican Republic was a very beautiful island, and for that reason he would’ve liked to wed flying above the island on an airplane,” he said, adding that when he told Jackson he had three children, he invited me to take them to visit his ranch in Los Angeles, and that “my children were going to be thrilled by it.”