Michael Jacksons accusers seek to open sealed records that include nude photos of the singer
Malia Mendez April 5, 2024
Michael Jacksons production company is fighting to keep sealed court records out of the hands of two of his accusers ahead of a forthcoming jury trial.
MJJ Productions filed a motion Wednesday in
the
Los Angeles
County
Superior Court to quash four subpoenas issued by Jackson’s alleged sex-abuse victims
,
Wade Robson, 41, and James Safechuck, 46. The subpoenas,
which were
directed at the county sheriff’s offices and
the
district attorneys of Los Angeles and Santa Barbara
counties
, are for sealed police records
from related to
Jacksons 2005 pedophilia charges.
The production company believes Robson and Safechuck’s
actualtrue
target is a series of nude photographs of Jackson included in the records.
The nude photographs were taken by police in 1993 amid accusations from a 13-year-old boy that he was sexually abused by Jackson, which culminated in an estimated
$20M $20-million
settlement.
They are also protected by a court-entered protective order, MJJ Productions said in the Wednesday filing.
The filing reads:
Beyond the invasion of privacy issues, the available records indicate the photographs Plaintiffs now seek are also subject to a strict protective order agreed to by Michael Jackson and Santa Barbara law enforcement and entered by the Santa Barbara Superior Court
.
,
” said the filing, according to the
.
MJJ Productions went on to say that the photos were not taken willingly and were the result of a court-ordered search based on a false statement in what became a discredited criminal investigation.
Michael Jackson documentary ‘Leaving Neverland’ full coverage
To allow Plaintiffs to exploit that series of circumstances to their benefit by obtaining those photographs now adds a second defilement to the first, the company concluded in the filing
, the Mail Online reported
.
The motion comes less than a year after a California appeals court revived lawsuits from Robson and Safechuck
, which have that had
been thrown out and later revisited twice since they were first filed in 2013 (Robson) and 2014 (Safechuck).
The second dismissal came in 2021 from the L.A. County Superior Court, which ruled that the corporations MJJ Productions Inc. and MJJ Ventures Inc. of which Jackson was in sole control had no legal duty to prevent sexual abuse of children by the singer.
In its August 2023 decision, the state appeals court reversed the decision, approving Robson and Safechuck
to
together
t
o take their abuse claims to a trial in which they will need to prove not only that Jackson abused them, but that production company staff were complicit.
Jonathan Steinsapir
, attorney for the Jackson estate, said his client was disappointed” with the appellate court’s decision.
Two distinguished trial judges repeatedly dismissed these cases on numerous occasions over the last decade because the law required it, Steinsapir told the Associated Press. We remain fully confident that Michael is innocent of these allegations, which are contrary to all credible evidence and independent corroboration, and which were only first made years after Michaels death by men motivated solely by money.
Howard Weitzman, the late attorney who previously represented Jackson, similarly described Robson and Safechuck as serial perjurers, whose sole agenda has been to extract money from Jacksons rightful heirs and chosen beneficiaries, after the release of the 2019 HBO documentary “Leaving Neverland.
In the documentary, the repeat plaintiffs recounted the abuse they endured as boys at Jacksons Neverland Ranch.
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Jacksons estate sued HBO over the documentary, alleging that the cable channel violated non-disparagement agreements it had made with the singer prior to his death in 2009.
Despite the desperate lengths taken to undermine the film, our plans remain unchanged, HBO said in a statement
atduring
the time of the lawsuit. This will allow everyone the opportunity to assess the film and the claims in it for themselves.
Robson and Safechucks trial date has been scheduled for April 2025, the same month that the forthcoming
Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson biopic is slated for release.
The
duo hopes two hope
their trial comes first, but
apparentlythey
suspect MJJ Productions is gunning for the opposite.
They want the Michael Jackson biopic to come out before the trial. That’s what I think, their lawyer John Carpenter told Rolling Stone in February. These corporations that facilitated the abuse in the first place, they’re rewriting the history.
