May 1, 2017, 1:39 p.m.
Case #75932.394.1
OFFICIAL TRANSCRIPTION OF POLICE INTERVIEW
—START PAGE 1—
| INVESTIGATOR: | Thank you for sitting down with us, sir. Could you please state your full name and occupation for the record? |
| GILROY: | The name’s Maurice Oliver Gilroy, but you can call me Maury. I’m the founder and CEO of Gilroy Artist Management, LLC. |
| INVESTIGATOR: | You’re a talent manager in the music industry. Is that correct? |
| GILROY: | Bingo. |
| INVESTIGATOR: | And who are your major clients? |
| GILROY: | You want a list? I’ve been in the biz for thirty years. Cut my teeth with New Kids on the Block back in the eighties. You remember them, right? Then there were Hanson, Boyzone, 98 Degrees, a couple American Idol losers until I dropped them— |
| INVESTIGATOR: | Your current clients will suffice. |
| GILROY: | I’ve managed Eric Thorn exclusively for the past four years. |
| INVESTIGATOR: | Only Eric Thorn? |
| GILROY: | He’s a full-time job. Believe me. |
| INVESTIGATOR: | OK, Mr. Gilroy. We’d like you to take a look at some photographs. From what we can gather, these pictures were taken in the vicinity of Tijuana, Mexico, on or around February 3. Do they look familiar to you? |
| GILROY: | Sure. |
| INVESTIGATOR: | Do you know who took them? |
| GILROY: | I took them myself. Not bad, huh? Might try a second career as a pap if the whole talent management thing doesn’t work out. [laughter] |
| INVESTIGATOR: | Can you give us a little more context? How exactly did you come to take these photos? |
| GILROY: | You know how it is. Artists can be a little prickly. Sometimes you need both a carrot and a stick, if you catch my drift. |
| INVESTIGATOR: | This was the stick? |
| GILROY: | Eric had a nice vacation, but he needed to get back to work. I took some pictures to make sure he understood that. |
| INVESTIGATOR: | So you took pictures of him without his knowledge and used them as leverage to force him to resume his public life. Is that your statement? |
| GILROY: | Well, that doesn’t sound very good, does it? [laughter] Listen, it was for the kid’s own good. He needed to get back to the States before he ended up in real hot water. |
| INVESTIGATOR: | What kind of hot water? |
| GILROY: | Look at Dorian Cromwell. Six months in prison for tax evasion. That’s what happens when you don’t have Uncle Maury around to clean up after you. It could’ve gone real ugly for Eric if I hadn’t shown up when I did. |
| INVESTIGATOR: | And what can you tell us about the woman in the photos—Tessa Hart? |
| GILROY: | What about her? I think the picture spells it out. |
| INVESTIGATOR: | For the record, Mr. Gilroy is indicating a photograph of Mr. Thorn and Ms. Hart in a state of undress, apparently kissing. |
| GILROY: | Don’t worry. I made my presence known before it got too pornographic. |
| INVESTIGATOR: | Were you aware of the romantic nature of their relationship before these photos were taken? |
| GILROY: | Sure. Listen, I know everything that goes on in Eric Thorn’s private life. I know it before he does most of the time. That’s my job. I’m out there doing damage control before he even realizes he’s got a problem. |
| INVESTIGATOR: | So that’s why you went to Tijuana in search of Mr. Thorn? Damage control? |
| GILROY: | Exactly. |
| INVESTIGATOR: | And precisely how did you locate him, if I might ask? |
| GILROY: | You don’t get to be where I am without acquiring a few friends who owe you favors, if you know what I mean. |
| INVESTIGATOR: | No, I’m afraid I don’t. |
| GILROY: | Let’s just say the music business is a tight-knit community. |
| INVESTIGATOR: | Someone in the industry tipped you off? |
| GILROY: | I have a guy who works in social media for DBA. |
| INVESTIGATOR: | Dorian Cromwell’s record label? Are you saying that an employee of DBA Records leaked the contents of a private conversation between Mr. Cromwell and Mr. Thorn? |
| GILROY: | Private? Trust me, Detective. Nothing in this business is private. Not Twitter. Not Snapchat. Nothing. |
| INVESTIGATOR: | So, for the record, your statement is that you took this series of photos as leverage to coerce Mr. Thorn— |
| GILROY: | Not coerce. Persuade. |
| INVESTIGATOR: | Excuse me. To persuade Mr. Thorn to return to the United States. You then orchestrated the terms of his return with both the federal authorities and his record label. |
| GILROY: | All in a day’s work. I’m what you call the cleanup crew. Ninety percent of my job is keeping Eric’s fans from catching wind of his latest mess. |
| INVESTIGATOR: | It appears that your cleanup abilities have their limitations. |
| GILROY: | Really? I would respectfully disagree. [laughter] I mean, the kid fakes his death, breaks his contract, sticks up his middle finger at his label, and still comes out smelling like a rose. More than doubled his Twitter following. Record sales went through the stratosphere. All that, and the feds let him off with a fine! We couldn’t have staged a better PR stunt if we’d tried. |
| INVESTIGATOR: | That’s all well and good, Mr. Gilroy, but it doesn’t answer why you’re currently being interviewed by a homicide detective. |
| GILROY: | Homicide? Now wait a minute. Hold your horses. What— |
| INVESTIGATOR: | When was the last time you spoke with Mr. Thorn? |
| GILROY: | Who said anything about a murder? |
| INVESTIGATOR: | And what else can you tell me about Tessa Hart? Her relationship with Mr. Thorn was not made public at the time of his return. Whose decision was that? Yours? |
| GILROY: | Slow down! Tessa’s not dead, is she? I just saw her. |
| INVESTIGATOR: | Mr. Gilroy, please answer the question. Why was the relationship between Mr. Thorn and Ms. Hart kept secret? |
| GILROY: | Don’t look at me! We could’ve spun that. It was Tessa who wanted to keep it all hush-hush. |
| INVESTIGATOR: | Why? |
| GILROY: | Have you spoken to her? I thought Eric was paranoid, but Tessa takes the cake. Talk about a match made in heaven. |
| INVESTIGATOR: | What exactly was she paranoid about? |
| GILROY: | She didn’t want to be photographed. Kept going on and on about some shady character who might notice her. Some kind of ex-boyfriend, maybe? |
| INVESTIGATOR: | Did she mention this individual’s name? |
| GILROY: | I honestly couldn’t tell you. How many stalker exes does she have? |
| INVESTIGATOR: | So Ms. Hart expressed a wish to keep the relationship private, and Mr. Thorn agreed? |
| GILROY: | He didn’t agree. There was much wailing and gnashing of the teeth until good old Uncle Maury came up with the perfect solution. |
| INVESTIGATOR: | Which was? |
| GILROY: | I told them the best way to hide her was to leave her in plain sight. Play it like she worked for him—like we hired her from the get-go to organize his little mental-health hiatus. |
| INVESTIGATOR: | A publicist essentially? |
| GILROY: | Right. Social media consultant. I told her to dress in black and walk five feet behind him in all public appearances. That way, if she wound up in a pap photo, they’d crop her out of the shot. Standard operating procedure. |