Written by Reham Abdullah Thursday, August 24, 2023 10:27 AM
Judges in a court confirmed that two men were claiming to be the late singer Michael Jackson He sexually abused them when they were boys. Their case should not have been dismissed.
And the men, Wade Robson and James Safechuck, who claim Jackson abused them for years, will now be allowed to file lawsuits against the companies that were owned by the late singer, according to Sky News.
The two men recounted and detailed their allegations of abuse from Michael Jackson in a 2019 documentary. Robson, a 40-year-old choreographer, met Jackson when he was five years old and went on to appear in three of Jackson’s music videos, allegedly. In his claim that Jackson molested him over a period of seven years.
For his part, Safechuk, 45, said he was nine years old when he met Jackson while filming an advertisement for a soda water company, and said Jackson called him often and showered him with gifts before sexually assaulting him.
A three-judge panel of the Second District Court of Appeals in California found that their lawsuits should not be dismissed by a lower court.
In 2021, the judge who dismissed the lawsuit found that MJJ Ventures Inc and MJJ Productions Inc could not be held responsible for protecting the two children, but the latest decision means that Robson and Safechuck can now properly claim that the companies have a responsibility to protect them.
Jackson, who died in 2009, was the sole owner and sole shareholder in both companies.
“A company that facilitates sexual abuse of children by one of its employees is not relieved of a positive duty to protect those children simply because it is owned by the perpetrator,” the Supreme Court justices wrote in their report.
Jonathan Steinsaber, Jackson’s attorney, said they were disappointed by the decision.
He continued: “We remain absolutely confident that Michael is innocent of these allegations, which contradict all credible evidence and independent assurances, which were first presented only years after Michael’s death at the hands of men motivated solely by money.”
