A judge on Tuesday dismissed the lawsuit brought by a
choreographer who alleged Michael Jackson molested him as a child,
resolving one of the last major claims against the late singer’s
holdings.
Judge Mitchell L. Beckloff’s summary judgment
ruling against the now-35-year-old Wade Robson found that the two
Jackson-owned corporations, which were the remaining defendants in the
case, were not liable for Robson’s exposure to Jackson. He did not rule
on the credibility of Robson’s allegations themselves.
Robson’s attorney, Vince Finaldi, said he strongly disagrees and plans to appeal.
Robson, a native of Australia who has worked with Britney Spears and NSYNC, met Jackson when he was 5 years old.
He
testified in Jackson’s defense at the singer’s 2005 criminal trial,
saying he had spent the night at Jackson’s Neverland Ranch more than 20
times and usually slept in Jackson’s room, but Jackson never molested
him. Jackson was acquitted in that trial.
Then in 2013
about four years after the singer’s death, Robson sued the Jackson
estate for what his attorneys described as molestation that spanned a
seven-year period.
A court ruled in 2015 that Robson had
filed his lawsuit too late to get any of Jackson’s estate. That left two
remaining defendants, both corporate entities owned by Jackson in his
lifetime: MJJ Productions, Inc., and MJJ Ventures, Inc.
The
judge ruled Tuesday that those two corporate defendants could not be
held responsible for Robson’s exposure to Jackson, the way a school or
the Boy Scouts can be found liable for bringing together an abusive
adult and a child victim.
Finaldi said the reasoning sets a dangerous precedent.
“What
the judge is saying is that you if own a corporation or a company, you
can hire people, use these people to facilitate your sexual abuse, use
them to facilitate victims,” Finaldi told The Associated Press by phone.
“So long as you’re the sole owner of that corporation, the corporation
can’t be held liable.”
Jackson estate attorney Howard
Weitzman said in a statement that he “believes the court made the
correct decision in dismissing Wade Robson’s claim against it. “In my
opinion Mr. Robson’s allegations, made 20 plus years after they
supposedly occurred and years after Mr. Robson testified twice under
oath — including in front of a jury — that Michael Jackson had never
done anything wrong to him was always about the money rather than a
search for the truth.”
Finaldi replied that the Jackson camp’s interest in the truth was “hollow.”
“If
someone’s trying to search for the truth, why not let the lawsuit
proceed?” Finaldi said. “Why not exonerate him and let a jury decide.”
During the criminal trial, Robson bristled at testimony by other witnesses that they had seen Jackson molest him.
“I’m telling you nothing happened,” Robson testified at the time when a prosecutor challenged him.
Another
Robson attorney said when his lawsuit was filed that stress and sexual
trauma led Robson to finally accept that he had been molested by
Jackson.
