A dancer-choreographer who alleges he was molested by Michael Jackson said Wednesday he plans to appeal a judge’s dismissal of a lawsuit filed against a pair of companies controlled by the late singer’s estate.
Santa Monica Superior Court Judge Mitchell Beckloff had previously dismissed Wade Robson’s separate complaint against the singer’s estate, ruling that it was filed too late. On Tuesday, he ruled Robson cannot proceed in his civil complaint against MJJ Productions Inc. and MJJ Ventures Inc.
Robson’s lawyer, Vince Finaldi, said he “strongly disagrees” with the ruling and plans to appeal. Robson, in a statement issued to The Hollywood Reporter through his attorney, said, “I respect but disagree with the court’s ruling and will be challenging it through the appellate courts. I am determined to see this case through to a determination on the factual merits by a jury of 12.”
Robson, 35, alleged that Jackson molested him between 1990-97, though he testified in the singer’s 2005 child molestation trial — which involved another boy and ended with Jackson’s acquittal — that the entertainer did not abuse him.
Robson said in a sworn statement that he did not realize until many years after the alleged abuses by Jackson stopped that he was a molestation victim. He says May 8, 2012, was a key date for him.
“I began to recognize for myself that Jackson had molested me,” Robson alleged. “It was on that date in my therapy session … that I first spoke about the sexual activity I had with Jackson. This revelation initiated an enormous emotional, psychological and physiological upheaval in my life that continues until this day.”
Howard Weitzman, an attorney for Jackson’s estate, said Beckloff made the right decision in dismissing Robson’s complaint.
“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 were always about the money rather than a search for the truth.”
–City News Service