Celebrity choreographer Wade Robson, who has accused Michael Jackson of molestation, is seeking to pursue further negligence claims against two companies formerly controlled by the pop star. He claims the businesses aided in running a “child sexual abuse operation.”
Robson has filed to amend his 2013 lawsuit against MJJ Productions and MJJ Ventures, in which he accused the late music icon of molesting him between 1990 and 1997. The case was thrown out by a Los Angeles judge in 2015.
In the complaint, obtained by The Hollywood Reporter, Robson claims via lawyer Vince Finlandi, “MJJ Productions and MJJ Ventures were held out to the public to be businesses dedicated to creating and distributing multimedia entertainment by Michael Jackson, however, in fact, they actually served dual purposes.”
It continues: “The thinly-veiled, covert second purpose of these businesses was to operate as a child sexual abuse operation, specifically designed to locate, attract, lure and seduce child sexual abuse victims.”
According to Robson, Jackson had a close inner circle within the two companies that “designed, developed and operated what is likely the most sophisticated public child sexual abuse procurement and facilitation organization the world has known.”
The 32-year-old Australian choreographer met Jackson after winning a dance competition run by MJJ Productions when he was 5 years old. Two years later, Robson’s mother set up a meeting with Jackson through his assistant, and the family was invited to stay at the star’s infamous Neverland Ranch.
Robson, who appeared in three of Jackson’s music videos, including “Black or White,” claims he slept in the same bed as Jackson while the rest of his family stayed elsewhere in the ranch. It was during that visit, the choreographer claims, Jackson sexually abused him for the first time.
In his new complaint, Robson alleges the abuse ― which ranged from kissing to penetrative sex ― continued until he was 14, THR reports. The dancer also claims that once he began going through puberty, Jackson was “no longer interested in him sexually.”
In the past, People reports, Robson has testified under oath that Jackson never abused him. The dancer also told the site in 2003 that Jackson had a genuine heart, though “no concept of a normal life.”
As THR notes, Robson has also said he loved Jackson like a father and didn’t realize he was sexually abused by the performer until a 2012 therapy session.
In a previous statement to People, Robson said, “I began to recognize for myself that Jackson had molested me. 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.”
Now, Finlandi aims to amend the original complaint to “rectify various flaws … simplify the complaint, and plead various causes of action/allegations that were omitted from the operate complaint,” according to THR.
The lawyer is looking to add several claims of negligence to the suit and is seeking to withdraw certain causes of action of childhood sexual abuse, sexual battery and assault and battery. He will also seek to withdraw allegations “regarding the estate,” THR reports.
A trial is scheduled for March 13, 2017.
Source: Huffingtonpost.com