CNN — A court opinion filed on Friday and obtained by CNN, Wade Robson and James Safechuck, two men who have long alleged that the late Michael Jackson sexually abused them when they were children and who were featured in the 2019 documentary “Leaving Neverland,” can now revive their since-dismissed lawsuits against Jackson’s estate. Last Friday, the Second District Court of Appeal in California declared that “a 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.” To find no duty on the basis that the corporate defendant has only one shareholder would be perverse,” the statement of the judgement added. Therefore, we vacate the corporate victories.
Robson and Safechuck, who met Jackson in professional contexts, have both accused him of abusing them when they were young children. Robson, then five years old, won a dance-alike contest at a Jackson concert in Brisbane, Australia, and he and Safechuck, then eight, featured in a Pepsi commercial together with Jackson. In “Leaving Neverland,” they each detail in nearly identical terms how Jackson is accused of sexually abusing him over the period of several years, with the abuse increasing in intensity and Jackson allegedly pressing them not to disclose the incident. (The film “Leaving Neverland” was shown on HBO. Both CNN and HBO are under the Warner Bros. Discovery umbrella.
Although Jackson passed away in 2009, his estate is still being sued along with two entertainment companies that he ran single-handedly for the most of their existence. There will be a new trial for the matters that were previously combined in the court of appeals. We are disappointed with the Court’s ruling,” stated Estate of Michael Jackson attorney Jonathan Stein Sapir in a statement to CNN. “We remain absolutely confident that Michael is innocent of these claims.”
In a statement provided to CNN, Safechuck and Robson’s attorney Vince William Finaldi said, “We are pleased but not surprised that the appellate court overturned” the previous rulings, which he called “incorrect” and “against California law and would have set a dangerous precedent that endangered children throughout the state and country.” We’re looking forward to a fair trial to the end.
