(Los Angeles) A California appeals court on Wednesday will consider reviving the dismissed lawsuits of two men who allege Michael Jackson sexually abused them as children for years, a decision the court appears likely to make after a ruling interim order that would order the records returned to a lower court for trial.
The lawsuits were filed after Jackson’s death in 2009 by Wade Robson in 2013 and James Safechuck the following year. The pair are known for telling their stories in the 2019 HBO documentary, Leaving Neverland.
The two sued MJJ Productions and MJJ Ventures, two companies of which Jackson was the sole owner and shareholder.
In 2021, Superior Court Judge Mark A. Young ruled that the two companies and their employees had no legal duty to protect Robson and Safechuck from Jackson and dismissed the lawsuits. But in an interim ruling last month, the California 2nd District Court of Appeals struck down that judge and ordered the cases back to trial.
On Wednesday, attorneys for Jackson’s estate will try to convince the appeals court to back down.
In 2017, Judge Young dismissed the lawsuits for exceeding the statute of limitations. A new California law temporarily expanding the scope of sexual abuse cases led the appeals court to reinstate them. Jackson’s personal estate — the assets he left behind after his death — was dismissed as a defendant in 2015.
Robson, a 40-year-old choreographer, met Jackson when he was 5. He continued to appear in Jackson’s music videos and record music with his record label.
His lawsuit alleged that Jackson abused him for seven years. It is said that he was Jackson’s employee and that the employees of two companies had a duty to protect him in the same way that Boy Scouts or a school would need to protect the children of their leaders.
Safechuck, now 45, said in his lawsuit that he met Jackson while filming a Pepsi commercial when he was 9 years old. He claimed that Jackson called him often and gave him gifts before moving on to a series of sexual abuse incidents.
Jackson’s estate has adamantly and repeatedly denied that the singer abused the boys. She pointed out that Robson had said during Jackson’s 2005 criminal trial that he had not been abused, and that Safechuck had told authorities the same.
The Associated Press does not usually name people who say they have been sexually abused. But Robson and Safechuck have repeatedly come forward and approved the use of their identities.
