OAN’s Noah Herring
12:37 PM – Wednesday, July 26, 2023
A California appeals court will decide on Wednesday whether or not it will revive the dismissed lawsuits of two men who claimed that Michael Jackson sexually abused them as children.
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The lawsuits were filed following Jackson’s death in 2009 by Wade Robson in 2013 and James Safechuck the following year. The two men’s tales went viral after they were included in the 2019 HBO documentary “Leaving Neverland.”
Both men had sued MJJ Productions Inc. and MJJ Ventures Inc., which Michael Jackson was the sole owner and lone shareholder of.
The lawsuits were first thrown out in 2017 when Superior Court Judge Mark A. Young ruled that they were beyond the statute of limitations. However, a new California law that temporarily broadened the scope of sexual abuse cases allowed the court to reinstate them.
In 2021, Young dismissed the suits again, ruling that the two corporations and their employees had no legal duty to protect Robson and Safechuck from Jackson. Despite this move, California’s 2nd District Court of Appeal reversed the ruling last month and ordered the cases go back to trial.
Robson, now 40, was 5-years-old when he first met Jackson. He had reportedly met the pop artist because he was chosen to star as an extra in numerous Jackson music videos.
Robson’s lawsuit claimed that Jackson molested him throughout a 7-year period. He also asserted that since he was an employee of Jackson at the time, staff members of both organizations had owed him protection in the same manner that the Boy Scouts owed their young boys protection.
Safechuck, now 45, stated that he encountered Jackson when he was 9-years-old while filming a Pepsi commercial. He alleged that Jackson frequently called his home phone to chat with him and that the musician lavished him with presents before sexually assaulting him several times.
The Jackson family has adamantly denied any form of sexual abuse of either boys and has emphasized that Robson testified at Jackson’s 2005 criminal trial, saying that he was not abused.
They also pointed out how Safechuck initially admitted that he was not abused to authorities.
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