LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: A lawyer for the Michael Jackson estate asserted in court that employees at businesses owned by the pop artist had no legal obligation to protect children from the late King of Pop, according to a source. Jonathan Steinsapir, the attorney, resisted a potential ruling by the 2nd District Court of Appeal in California, which indicated that it was inclined to reinstate previously dismissed claims from two men who claim Jackson sexually assaulted them for years when they were boys.
According to Steinsapir, the court's rationale "would require low-level employees to confront their supervisor and call them pedophiles." Holly Boyer, an attorney representing plaintiffs Wade Robson and James Safechuck, however asserted that workers should bear that accountability. Jackson died in 2009. Safechuck sued in 2014 after Robson had sued in 2013. The two men gained additional notoriety after sharing their tales in the 2019 HBO documentary 'Leaving Neverland', as reported by The Associated Press.
Where are Wade Robson and James Safechuck now?
One of the alleged victims featured in the contentious documentary 'Leaving Neverland', James Safechuck, has changed careers and is now employed in the IT sector. Safechuck has been working to rebuild his life and heal following his alleged encounters with Jackson ever since his participation in the documentary.
In the four-hour documentary, Safechuck, who first encountered Jackson when they were both children while working on a Pepsi commercial, related his horrifying story of abuse. He has now found comfort and is concentrating on his current projects. The Independent claims that Safechuck currently works in the tech industry. Despite the fact that his job's specifics are kept a secret, the survivor's involvement in this profession signals a new beginning.
The Australian choreographer Wade Robson who initially accused the late music icon of sexual abuse has subsequently gone on with his life, putting his career and personal growth first. While he waits for his future trial against Jackson's organization, MJJ Productions Inc., Robson, who is now 40 years old, is now teaching dance and choreography.
The boys were 'left alone in this lion's den by the defendant's employees'
"We do require that employees of the entity take those steps, because what we are talking about is the sexual abuse of children," Boyer told the three-judge panel via videoconference. "What we are talking about here is 7- and 10-year-old children who are entirely ill-equipped to protect themselves from their mentor, Michael Jackson." The boys, according to Boyer, were "left alone in this lion's den by the defendant's employees. An affirmative duty to protect and to warn is correct."
'They were not looking to Michael Jackson’s companies for protection'
A judge who dismissed the lawsuits in 2021 concluded that Jackson could not reasonably expect MJJ Productions Inc. and MJJ Ventures Inc., two organizations for which he was the sole shareholder and owner, to operate similarly to the Boy Scouts or a church where a child in their care could reasonably anticipate their protection. According to Steinsapir, evidence in the untried cases demonstrated that the parents had no expectation of Jackson's staff serving as monitors. He claimed that a deposition from Robson's mother revealed that, when she initially brought her 7-year-old son into the pop star's presence, she was completely unaware of the existence of the businesses. "They were not looking to Michael Jackson’s companies for protection from Michael Jackson," Steinsapir stated.
Hearing focused solely on the legal obligations of corporations
The claim made in the complaint and the court's potential ruling that the corporations had participated in careless hiring was ludicrous, according to Steinsapir, given that the individual performing the hiring was the alleged offender. “Any person that might be prone to criminal tendency has a duty not to hire himself?” Steinsapir added. The hearing focused solely on the legal obligations of corporations, rather than the veracity of the men's charges, which Steinsapir constantly referred to as unverified and inaccurate.
