Summary: A judge dismissed Wade Robson’s molestation lawsuit against Michael Jackson’s companies.
Choreographer Wade Robson’s lawsuit against Michael Jackson’s companies was thrown out by a Los Angeles judge on Tuesday. The judge stated that Jackson’s companies were not liable for bringing the two parties together, according to Page Six.
Robson, now 35, said that he met Jackson when he was a child, and he had spent the night at Jackson’s estate, Neverland Ranch, several times. At a trial almost twenty years ago, Robson said that he had shared a bed with the entertainer, but he had maintained that Jackson had never molested him. However, after Jackson’s death in 2009, Robson filed a lawsuit, saying that Jackson was a pedophile and seeking damages.
Robson filed his lawsuit in 2013 against Jackson’s estate and two of his companies. The dancer who worked with Britney Spears and *Nysnc said that Jackson used his companies to facilitate meeting children to molest.
In 2015, a judge ruled that the statute of limitations for Jackson’s alleged abuse had passed so Jackson’s estate could not be sued. That left his companies as possible outlets for Robson to get money. However, on Tuesday, Judge Mitchell L. Beckloff dismissed the lawsuit, which was one of the last major claims against the late superstar’s fortune.
Judge Beckloff said that, unlike schools or the Boy Scouts, Jackson’s companies were not liable for bringing Robson and Jackson together. He did not rule on the credibility of Robson’s molestation claims.
Vince Finaldi, the attorney representing Robson, said that they plan to appeal.
“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. “So long as you’re the sole owner of that corporation, the corporation can’t be held liable.”
Howard Weitzman, who represents the Jackson estate, said he believed the court made the right decision.
“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,” Weitzman said.
Weitzman was referring to Robson’s testimony in Jackson’s 2005 criminal trial, where he said under oath that he had slept in Jackson’s room 20 times and was never molested.
Finaldi said that the judge should have let the case move forward.
“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.”
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