Los Angeles (AP) – Civil lawsuits against production companies of the late pop superstar Michael Jackson will probably be heard in court after all. The allegations by two men who allege Jackson was sexually abused as children can now go back to trial following a decision by a California appeals court. This was reported by several US media on Saturday, with reference to court documents from Friday.
Jackson’s former tour promoter, Marcel Avram, said after the decision to the German Press Agency: “I was the promoter and producer on all of Michael Jackson’s world tours. Michael is dead. The genius lives on. We should finally see the man let it rest in peace.”
It’s about the allegations by James Safechuck (45) and Wade Robson (40) against the former “King of Pop”: In the documentary “Leaving Neverland” they first told a few years ago how the singer is said to have sexually abused them when they were children. The abuse started when he was seven, says Robson in production. It describes how Jackson systematically approached the children, ended up sleeping in the same room with them and after a while left again.
Safechuck and Robson sued two Jackson production companies after the documentary was released for failing to protect them from the man’s assaults. A lower court had not allowed a trial in 2021. The California Circuit Court of Appeals found that “a business that facilitates the sexual abuse of children by one of its employees does not relieve it of a positive duty to protect those children simply because it is solely owned by the perpetrator of the abuse.”
It was initially unclear whether the Supreme Court in California could be involved to overturn the judge’s decision again.
© dpa-infocom, dpa:230819-99-886803/3
2023-08-19 19:20:56
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