DreamTeamDownloads1, FTP Help, Movies, Bollywood, Applications, etc. & Mature Sex Forum, Rapidshare, Filefactory, Freakshare, Rapidgator, Turbobit, & More MULTI Filehosts - Court Revives Lawsuits of 2 Men Who Allege Michael Jackson Sexually Abused Them

US Court Revives Lawsuits of Wade Robson and James Safechuck, Who Allege Michael Jackson Sexually Abused Them as Boys

The appeals court says the lawsuit should have never been dismissed because the men have sound basis to claim Jackson's companies should have protected them.

DailyMail 8 DEC 2023

https://live-production.wcms.abc-cdn...862&height=575

Leaving Neverland director Dan Reed (centre) with documentary participants Wade Robson (left) and James Safechuck.

Lawsuits alleging sexual abuse from Michael Jackson was revived by a California appeals court. Wade Robson and James Safechuck allege Jackson abused them when they were boys.

A three-judge panel from California's 2nd District Court of Appeal found the lawsuits of Wade Robson and James Safechuck should not have been dismissed by a lower court, and that the men could validly claim that two Jackson-owned corporations which were named as defendants in the cases had a responsibility to protect them.

The judges did not rule on the truth of the allegations themselves. That will be the subject of a forthcoming jury trial in Los Angeles.

A new California law that temporarily broadened the scope of sexual abuse cases enabled the appeals court to restore the men's lawsuits.

It's the second time the lawsuits — brought by Mr Robson in 2013 and Mr Safechuck the following year — have been brought back after dismissal. The two men became more widely known for telling their stories in the 2019 HBO documentary Leaving Neverland.

Mr Robson, now a 40-year-old choreographer, met Jackson when he was five years old. He went on to appear in three Jackson music videos. His lawsuit alleged that Jackson molested him over a seven-year period.

Mr Safechuck, now 45, said in his suit that he was nine years old when he met Jackson while filming a soft drink commercial. He said Jackson called him often and lavished him with gifts before moving on to sexually abusing him.

A judge who dismissed the lawsuits in 2021 found the Jackson-owned corporations, MJJ Productions Inc. and MJJ Ventures Inc., could not be expected to function like the Boy Scouts or a church where a child in their care could expect their protection. Jackson, who died in 2009, was the sole owner and only shareholder in the companies.

The higher court judges disagreed, writing that "a corporation that facilitates the sexual abuse of children by one of its employees is not excused from an affirmative duty to protect those children merely because it is solely owned by the perpetrator of the abuse".

The judges added that "it would be perverse to find no duty based on the corporate defendant having only one shareholder. And so we reverse the judgements entered for the corporations".

Jackson Estate 'Confident Michael is Innocent'

Jonathan Steinsapir, an attorney for the Jackson estate, said they were "disappointed" by the appeals court's decision.

"Two distinguished trial judges repeatedly dismissed these cases on numerous occasions over the last decade because the law required it," he told The Associated Press.

"We remain fully confident that Michael is innocent of these allegations, which are contrary to all credible evidence and independent corroboration, and which were only first made years after Michael's death by men motivated solely by money."

Vince Finaldi, an attorney for Mr Robson and Mr Safechuck, said in an email that they were "pleased but not surprised" that the court overturned the previous judge's "incorrect rulings in these cases, which were against California law and would have set a dangerous precedent that endangered children throughout state and country. We eagerly look forward to a trial on the merits".

Jackson lawyer Mr Steinsapir had argued for the defence in July that it did not make sense that employees would be legally required to stop the behaviour of their boss.

"It would require low-level employees to confront their supervisor and call them paedophiles," Mr Steinsapir said.