PROOF That Disney is CORRUPT!

[Rowlf's Roadie]

from http://snopes.com

In 2004, a Disney cast member was prosecuted on criminal charges. Michael C. Chartrand, a Walt Disney World employee who worked inside a Tigger costume, was the subject of a police investigation after a 13-year-old girl complained that he had fondled her breast while she posed for a photo with him and her mother in WDW's Magic Kingdom park on 21 February 2004. (The girl's mother maintained that she had been similarly fondled, but her allegation was not an element of the criminal case.) Mr. Chartrand was arrested in April 2004 and charged with lewd and lascivious molestation of a child and simple battery; by the following week 24 more complaints about him had been lodged with authorities. (All of the other complainants either lacked sufficient evidence to press charges or were unwilling to do so, however.)

Mr. Chartrand declined a plea bargain and took his case to trial, and in August 2004 a jury deliberated for less than an hour before returning a verdict of "not guilty" on the charge of lewd and lascivious molestation. As part of his closing argument, Mr. Chartrand's attorney, Jeffrey Kaufman (who himself worked for Disney as a costumed character), donned the Tigger costume to demonstrate to jurors the difficulty of maneuvering and seeing while inside in the outfit.

ALL OF THIS IS A LIE, AND I HAVE PROOF! I remember one time I went to Disney and met Tigger himself. I offered him a cupcake. He saw this and signaled, "no thanks." If he can see that, he can see a breast.

This is all the more reason to support http://savedisney.com. Would Roy E. Disney and Stanley Gold hire a pedophile? Michael Eisner would and DID, that sick man.

 

[Amazing Mumford]

ALL OF THIS IS A LIE, AND I HAVE PROOF! I remember one time I went to Disney and met Tigger himself. I offered him a cupcake. He saw this and signaled, "no thanks." If he can see that, he can see a breast.

This is all the more reason to support http://savedisney.com. Would Roy E. Disney and Stanley Gold hire a pedophile? Michael Eisner would and DID, that sick man.

Sorry, but this is a ridiculous post. The poor guy was found 'not guilty' in a court of law and that should be the end of it. It sounded to me like the girl (or her mom) just wanted a nice cash settlement from Disney.

Have you ever worn one of those costumes? I have and the vision IS extremely restricted. He may have seen your cupcake because it happened to fall in his limited field of vision, but that doesn't necessarily mean he can see EVERYTHING. Plus, I believe the lawyer proved that it was also difficult to maneuver Tigger's hands as the girl had claimed.

Also, it's obvious Eisner doesn't personally hire for the costumed characters. Even if "Tigger" was a pedophile, there's not much Eisner could do about it. How do we know that a few bad guys weren't hired when Walt was still around? Walt didn't do all the hiring personally and neither would Roy Disney or anyone else, so it's possible that a few pedophiles were employed by Disney back then. Are they then just as "corrupt" as Eisner? It's awfully unfair to link Eisner to this at all--let alone claim the whole company is "corrupt."

 

[Randlev]

Now I'm no Eisner supporter, but I don't think you showing Tigger a cupcake is a reason for this thread. If you can find me real non-tasty-dessert related proof that this guy is guilty, more power to you and your cause, although I don't see how it's SaveDisney.com related, because Uncle Mike didn't hand pick this guy to be tigger. Eisner's done some pretty stupid things to the Disney Company lately, but I don't see this story of an innocent Disney World Cast Member to be related to Uncle Mike's reign. If you want to bash uncle mike, whip out some criticisms of the Fox Family Channel acquisition or the end of Traditional Animation or the cheap DTV sequels, even the Pixar fallout (then again they'll be back soon). But this is definitely not related. He's done some good things for the company, even lately, the muppet deal and warding off Comcast being two of these things, and although I'm a Save Disney supporter, I'm beginning to see that Roy and Stan have little affect on the company, and borrowing a page from Teresa Heinz Kerry, if we have to wait til 2006 for a regime change, I don't think it'd be 2 "more years of ****."

But thats just my opinion, I didn't mean to open a can of Disney worms on the muppet board, I just had to stand up for Eisner in this situation.

 

[Luke]

Stating this as fact is actually slander/libel against the Disney company and Michael Eisner too. It's also not Muppet related or a Muppet Headline - not sure why it was posted here.

 

[nikki_sxx]

I know people who work and have worked for walt disney world in the costume department and even they said that trying to move your hands in them suits is hard. Also i know a lot people who contribute an awful lot to the save disney site and what it is trying to do and even they say that the mother and child were just trying to earn a few dollers. So before you go and try and commit slander please go and get your facts right

 

[Muppetsdownunder]

That does sound ridiculous to me! tigger would never do a thing like that and if so it would have been by accident! it would be pretty sad if they had to stop having walkaround characters because of people making accusations about them! it would change the fun of disneyland!

One thing I also find strange is how the heck did they know who was in the tigger costime? Don't they have numerous costumes and characters in different parts of the park at the same time?

This just seems so stupid to me, its like one of the kids on sesame street saying that big bird fondled them!

I'm sure it would have been an accident!

 

[Fozzie Bear]

The guy was acquitted. When I designed the Muley suit, I had it made so that it would be easy EASY to see out of with some decent peripheral vision, and that there were little vents going around the head so I could hear from all angles. Being in those suits are NOT easy jobs, it's hot and uncomfortable, and you can't see a thing. I've been in a Scooby Doo suit before and all you could see out of was his NOSE, and you couldn't hear hardly anything from outside the suit. Blah.

I don't support people touching each other, and if he did then he should have a staple stuck in his hand! Otherwise, if he didn't and it was an accident, then he should be given better treatment than he has been stuck with.

Besides that, this is all old news. I am thinking it's time to lay down the "hate disney" thing (though they are STILL not my favorite), because they now own our precious Muppets, and even as evil as Michael Eisner is in my opinion, I am laying down the dislike of Disney until I see what is going to happen with The Muppets.

And can someone lock this thread, please, or delete it. It's just weird.

 

[Fozzie Bear]

One other thing, Donald Duck was posing for a picture with me once, and was trying to tickle my ribs to make me giggle. Who's to say this guy wasn't trying the same thing, but his arms are longer and hands bigger and he may have reached too far and didn't mean to. When you pose for a picture, folks are to your SIDE, not in front of you holding a muffin out to you--in most suits you can't see anything to your side at all!!

 

[Muppetsdownunder]

I remember when we went to Disneyland in 1994 my brother who was only about 4 or 5 at the time kept touching Pinnocchio's legs! that would have been weird for the person inside the costume since they only wear stockings on the legs.

 

[muppetmayhem]

Fozzie Bear is right. You are only limited to see what the costume allows and in most cases, no you can't see to the side. If you were posing for a picture you would have to look straight towards the camera. Your eyesight would be restricetd and you wouldn't have any idea what was happening to your side. The little girl was most likely to the side of him when posing for a picture, that would be the only place of course. So when the ''tigger'' put his arm around her, he might just have touched her breast, but how in the world was he supposed to know. He is thinking that they both are excited about having there picture taken. And another thing, Not only do they have poor eyesight but they also have thick baggy material to carry around. Not to mention that the gloves are hard to manuever. Tigger probably didn't even feel a thing. This means that he was innocent and that some people need to look deeper in the pages of a book, in order to really find out something.