{"id":12976,"date":"2023-11-16T17:43:16","date_gmt":"2023-11-16T17:43:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/a\/?p=12976"},"modified":"2023-11-16T17:43:17","modified_gmt":"2023-11-16T17:43:17","slug":"developing-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nigeriastandardnewspaper.com\/a\/developing-2\/","title":{"rendered":"DEVELOPING:\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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SANTA MARIA, CA – JUNE 13: Michael Jackson prepares to enter the Santa Barbara County Superior Court to hear the verdict read in his child molestation case June 13, 2005 in Santa Maria, California. After seven days of deliberation the jury has reached a not guilty verdict on all 10 counts in the trial against Michael Jackson. Jackson was charged in a 10-count indictment with molesting a boy, plying him with liquor and conspiring to commit child abduction, false imprisonment and extortion. He pleaded innocent. (Photo by Kevork Djansezian-Pool\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Michael Jackson and Wade Robson in 1987.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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SANTA MARIA, CA – MAY 5: Michael Jackson arrives at the Santa Barbara County Courthouse for the first day of defence arguments May 5, 2005 in Santa Maria, California. Jackson is charged in a 10-count indictment that included molesting a boy, plying him with liquor and conspiring to commit child abduction, false imprisonment and extortion. He has pleaded innocent. (Photo by Carlo Allegri\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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WE hereby revive MICHAEL JACKSON Sexual Assault lawsuit<\/strong>-CALIFORNIA Appeal Court<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

…Evidence showed deceased assaulted teen boys for years<\/em><\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

*Victims-now men recounts ordeal <\/strong>detailing several harrowing allegations in the Dan Reed-directed documentary titled \u2018Leaving Neverland\u2019<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

*Lawsuits of Wade Robson and James Safechuck should not have been dismissed by a lower court<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

*\u201cWe are disappointed. Two distinguished trial judges repeatedly dismissed these cases on numerous occasions over the last decade because the law required it. We remain fully confident that Michael is innocent of these allegations\u201d-Jonathan Steinsapir, attorney for the Jackson estate<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

*BY BEN LAWSON\/MEDICAL Correspondent, South Africa & GEORGE ELIJAH OTUMU\/<\/strong>AMERICA Senior Investigative Editor <\/em><\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

EVEN IN DEATH, MICHAEL JACKSON, the King of Pop music is still facing legal challenges from two former teenagers-now men who claimed \u2018Wacko-Jacko\u2019 allegedly abused them sexually for years. This case that once seemed to have gone down in the lower court was again revived by a-3-judge California Appeal Court who ordered Michael to have a case to answer.<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both victims, now men recount ordeal detailing several harrowing allegations in the Dan Reed-directed documentary titled \u2018Leaving Neverland\u2019 <\/strong>in 2019.<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Friday (18 August), a three-judge panel from California\u2019s 2nd District Court of Appeal found that the lawsuits of Wade Robson and James Safechuck should not have been dismissed by a lower court, and that the men can validly claim that the two Jackson-owned corporations that were named as defendants in the cases had a responsibility to protect them.<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A new California law that temporarily broadened the scope of sexual abuse cases enabled the appeals court to restore them.<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s the second time the lawsuits- brought by Robson in 2013 and Safechuck the following year- have been brought back after dismissal. <\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A judge who dismissed the suits in 2021 found that the corporations, MJJ Productions Inc. and MJJ Ventures Inc., could not be expected to function like the Boy Scouts or a church where a child in their care could expect their protection.<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jackson, who died in 2009, was the sole owner and only shareholder in the companies.<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The higher court judges disagreed, writing that \u201ca 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.\u201d<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

They added that \u201cit would be perverse to find no duty based on the corporate defendant having only one shareholder. And we reverse the judgments entered for the corporations.\u201d<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jonathan Steinsapir, attorney for the Jackson estate, said they were \u201cdisappointed\u201d. \u201cTwo distinguished trial judges repeatedly dismissed these cases on numerous occasions over the last decade because the law required it,\u201d Steinsapir said in an email to <\/strong>The Associated Press<\/em><\/strong>.<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe 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\u2019s death by men motivated solely by money.\u201d<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vince Finaldi, an attorney for Robson and Safechuck, said in an email that they were \u201cpleased but not surprised\u201d that the court overturned the previous judge\u2019s \u201cincorrect rulings in these cases, which were against California law and would have set a dangerous precedent that endangered children throughout state and country. We eagerly look forward to a trial on the merits.\u201d<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Steinsapir had argued for the defence in July that it does not make sense that employees would be legally required to stop the behavior of their boss. \u201cIt would require low-level employees to confront their supervisor and call them pedophiles,\u201d Steinsapir said.<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Holly Boyer, another attorney for Robson and Safechuck, countered that the boys \u201cwere left alone in this lion\u2019s den by the defendant\u2019s employees. An affirmative duty to protect and to warn is correct.\u201d<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Steinsapir said evidence that has been gathered in the cases, which have not reached trial, showed that the parents had no expectation of Jackson\u2019s employees to act as monitors.<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey were not looking to Michael Jackson\u2019s companies for protection from Michael Jackson,\u201d the lawyer argued said.<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But in a concurring opinion issued with Friday\u2019s decision, one of the panelists, Associate Justice John Shepard Wiley Jr, wrote that \u201cto treat Jackson\u2019s wholly owned instruments as different from Jackson himself is to be mesmerized by abstractions. This is not an alter ego case. This is a same ego case.\u201d<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The judges did not rule out the truth of the allegations themselves. That will be the subject of a forthcoming jury trial in Los Angeles. \u201cWe trust that the truth will ultimately prevail with Michael\u2019s vindication yet again,\u201d Steinsapir said Friday.<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lawsuit states that Jackson allegedly sexually abused the child hundreds of times between 1988 and 1992, ending when Safechuck was approaching puberty.<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Safechuck alleges that after meeting Jackson when he was nine years old in the late 1980s, the sexual abuse began during a trip to Paris in 1988. He claims that the singer demonstrated masturbation before coaching the minor to perform the act himself.<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Robson\u2019s case, the lawsuit states that the production company introduced the then-five-year-old to the \u201cBillie Jean\u201d singer in 1987, after he won a dancing competition.<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jackson\u2019s alleged abuse of Robson began in 1990 when Robson, aged seven, was staying at the Neverland Ranch with his family for the weekend.<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lawsuit claims that MJJ Productions Inc staff had witnessed Jackson putting his hand on Robson\u2019s crotch and had allegedly discovered the child and the singer\u2019s underwear on the floor beside the bed.<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is also alleged that MJJ Productions Inc security staff joked that the late entertainer didn\u2019t have any girlfriends \u201cbecause he likes little boys. He likes little white butts.\u201d<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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