4 hours ago
Image Released, Getty Images
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Michael Jackson with James Sivchik (when he was 10) in 1988
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An American judge rejected a lawsuit filed by one of Michael Jackson’s accusers, who claimed that two companies affiliated with the late star had allowed him to sexually exploit the plaintiff and others while they were children.
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Lawsuer James Sivczek said the pop star began sexually exploiting him when he was 10 years old.
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In 2014, Sivcz sued MJJ Productions and MJ Ventures, claiming that they were “created to facilitate the sexual exploitation of children by Jackson, and have indeed facilitated it”.
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But the judge dismissed the case, saying that the two companies did not assume a duty of care towards Seveschek.
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Jonathan Stensapear and Howard Weitzman, who represent MJJ Productions and MJ Ventures, told the BBC: “We are happy that the court has agreed that Saevchk has no right to file his lawsuit.”
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One of two men accused the late star of exploitation in a documentary released last year called “Leaving Neverland.”
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Sivchik said in the lawsuit that Jackson had sexually exploited him hundreds of times at his home and during art tours between the late 1980s and early 1990s.
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Jackson created MJJ Productions and MJ Ventures to manage his art business. However, the lawsuit alleged that “the second secret goal that has not been well concealed by these two companies is to manage the sexual exploitation of children, as they were specifically designed to monitor victims of child sexual exploitation and to attract, lure, and lure them.”
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Sevchuk also appeared in an ad with Jackson for Pepsi, and he often appeared with the star on stage.
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“He was an employee working on behalf of them (the two companies) as a dancer and artist on stage with Michael,” Sivczk’s lawyer, Vince Finaldi, told the BBC.
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“Because he was a minor at the time, and he was working for them, they had a duty to protect him. This is our argument.”
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Judge Mark Young in California expressed his disagreement with this proposition, saying that the two companies were not directly responsible for causing emotional distress, nor were they able to control Jackson because he was the one who controlled the two companies and everyone who worked in them. The judge concluded that large corporations could not be directly involved in the commission of these acts.
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Sivechik, who is claiming unspecified damages, will appeal the ruling.
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Jackson had strenuously denied having been involved in child exploitation. Reports indicate that Sivczek (as a child) gave a witness testimony defending Jackson when allegations of exploitation first came out in 1993.
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Finaldi, a lawyer who also represents Wade Robson, who appears in the documentary, said in a separate case that the case is expected to reach the litigation stage this summer.
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Dan Reed, the director of the documentary Leaving Neverland, is reported to have finished making a sequel to the court battles. Deadline said on Wednesday that the two companies had taken legal action against the film’s director.
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