Victims who claim they were raped by Michael Jackson when they were kids are waiting to hear whether they can sue his estate for substantial damages.
They allege that Jackson paid up to $200 million in hush money to stop victims from prosecuting him while he was alive.
Wade Robson, an Australian choreographer claims Michael Jackson repeatedly sexually abused him when he was just five years old.
The Daily Mail reports:
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Mitchell Beckloff has scheduled a hearing for Robson and another of Jackson’s alleged child victims, James Safechuck, on Tuesday that could decide if their respective claims proceed.
Robson and Safechuck missed a statutory deadline when they filed their claims more than a year after Jackson’s 2009 death.
If Judge Beckloff gives Robson, 32, and Safechuck, 36, a green light to proceed with their civil claim, new child molestation allegations will likely be revealed in court against Jackson.
Lawyers say the King Of Pop shelled out nearly $200 million to as many as 20 victims, reports the New York Post. The Jordan Chandler lawsuit alone is alleged to have cost more than $40 million.
Safechuck, who says he met Jackson in 1987 when he was eight and was molested a year later, claims in court filings that Jackson held a secret wedding ceremony with a young Safechuck as his bride.
Safechuck alleges the singer gave him a marriage certificate and a wedding band as keepsakes and confirmation of their ‘undying love’.
He also alleges that Jackson wrote a check for more than $1 million to Safechuck’s father, a sanitation worker.
‘Jackson was successful in his efforts to the point that my client endured repeated acts of sexual abuse of a heinous nature and was brainwashed… into believing they were acts of love and instigated by James himself,’ Safechuck’s attorneys said in the filings.
The singer regularly dressed Safechuck in clothes identical to his and would tell reporters Safechuck was his cousin, a former employee said.
Safechuck’s attorney alleges that Jackson molested Safechuck more than 100 times.
Robson was a five-year-old dance prodigy in Brisbane, Australia, when he first met the singer.
Prior to filing his civil lawsuit in 2013 he had been one of the pop star’s biggest supporters, including testifying under oath at Jackson’s 2005 molestation trial in California he was never abused by Jackson.
Robson was a key reason for Jackson’s acquittal.
He now says he ‘lived in silence and denial for 22 years’ and alleges he was seven years old when Jackson first molested him.
Robson accuses Jackson of first molesting him at the Neverland Ranch, while his sister slept in a separate bed just metres away.
A former Jackson maid, Blanca Francia, is expected to testify that she walked in on the singer showering with and groping the then nine-year-old Robson and that she saw Jackson and Robson semi-nude in bed together, the Post reports.
The estate has previously asked the court to reject the claims on the basis that Robson waited too long to file and because Jackson is the only other person with knowledge about the accusations and has been dead for more than five years.
Robson, a choreographer for Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake, says he has been unable to work because of the pain caused by Jackson’s abuse.
Jackson died of acute propofol and benzodiazepine intoxication on June 25, 2009, after suffering from cardiac arrest.
