Court rules revival of Michael Jackson sexual abuse lawsuits
Two men who allege that Michael Jackson sexually abused them as children have been granted the resumption of their lawsuits, a court of appeals has ruled.
This marks the second time the two men, Wade Robson and James Safechuck, have returned to trial after the dismissal of their initial 2013 and 2014 attempts.
A California appeals court said that the case should not have been dismissed to a lower court, and they can now pursue lawsuits against companies owned by Jackson. The judge who dismissed the suits in 2021 said he did not have a legal duty to protect the children from the alleged abuse.
The higher court disagreed, commenting: “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.”
Jonathan Steinsapir, attorney for the Jackson estate, said they were “disappointed” by the decision: “Two distinguished trial judges repeatedly dismissed these cases on numerous occasions over the last decade because the law required it.”
He added: “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.”
Robson, now 40 years old, met Jackson when he was five years old and appeared in three Jackson music videos. His lawsuit alleged that Jackson molested him over a seven-year period. Safechuck, 45, said he met Jackson while filming a Pepsi commercial when he was nine. He said Jackson groomed him with gifts before sexually abusing him.
The allegations, which have been met with significant ambivalence from fans and musicians alike since 1993, have become one of the industry’s longest and most inconclusive scandals.
Jackson always denied any allegations accusing him of abusing underage boys.
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