Jackson estate blasts child sex 'monster' lawsuit
Source: AFP |
May 10, 2013, Friday
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MICHAEL Jackson's estate has slammed a new lawsuit filed in Los Angeles claiming that the late King of Pop, who died in 2009, was a "monster" and child molester.
Australian choreographer Wade Robson has filed a claim alleging "childhood sexual abuse," despite testifying at a 2005 molestation trial that the star never touched him.
Lawyers for Robson, who stayed at the singer's Neverland Ranch as a teenager, filed the lawsuit on May 1 asking an LA judge to let him make a late claim as creditor in Jackson's estate.
"Michael Jackson was a monster and in their hearts every normal person knows it," Robson lawyer Henry Gradstein said in a statement claiming Robson had a breakdown last year.
"He collapsed under the stress and sexual trauma of what had happened to him for seven years as a child. He lived with the brainwashing by a sexual predator until the burden of it all crushed him," Robson said.
Jackson, dogged for years by child molestation charges, was acquitted after a high-profile trial in 2005. But his career never recovered, and he died in 2009 while rehearsing for a doomed comeback tour.
Gradstein cited Jackson as having told the young Robson: "If anyone ever finds out about what we did, we will go to jail for the rest of our lives" and "our lives will be ruined forever."
"This kind of intimidation of a child by a sexual predator is tragically characteristic and effective, keeping them quiet about the abuse - often for a lifetime," said Gradstein.
Howard Weitzman, a lawyer for Jackson's estate, called Robson's claim "outrageous and pathetic."
"This is a young man who has testified at least twice under oath over the past 20 years and said in numerous interviews that Michael Jackson never did anything inappropriate to him or with him," Weitzman said.
"Now, nearly four years after Michael has passed, this sad and less than credible claim has been made. We are confident that the court will see this for what it is."
Jackson's mother Katherine is currently suing AEG Live, the promoters of his would-be tour, for negligently hiring doctor Conrad Murray, convicted over the star's death from an overdose of the anesthetic propofol.
Australian choreographer Wade Robson has filed a claim alleging "childhood sexual abuse," despite testifying at a 2005 molestation trial that the star never touched him.
Lawyers for Robson, who stayed at the singer's Neverland Ranch as a teenager, filed the lawsuit on May 1 asking an LA judge to let him make a late claim as creditor in Jackson's estate.
"Michael Jackson was a monster and in their hearts every normal person knows it," Robson lawyer Henry Gradstein said in a statement claiming Robson had a breakdown last year.
"He collapsed under the stress and sexual trauma of what had happened to him for seven years as a child. He lived with the brainwashing by a sexual predator until the burden of it all crushed him," Robson said.
Jackson, dogged for years by child molestation charges, was acquitted after a high-profile trial in 2005. But his career never recovered, and he died in 2009 while rehearsing for a doomed comeback tour.
Gradstein cited Jackson as having told the young Robson: "If anyone ever finds out about what we did, we will go to jail for the rest of our lives" and "our lives will be ruined forever."
"This kind of intimidation of a child by a sexual predator is tragically characteristic and effective, keeping them quiet about the abuse - often for a lifetime," said Gradstein.
Howard Weitzman, a lawyer for Jackson's estate, called Robson's claim "outrageous and pathetic."
"This is a young man who has testified at least twice under oath over the past 20 years and said in numerous interviews that Michael Jackson never did anything inappropriate to him or with him," Weitzman said.
"Now, nearly four years after Michael has passed, this sad and less than credible claim has been made. We are confident that the court will see this for what it is."
Jackson's mother Katherine is currently suing AEG Live, the promoters of his would-be tour, for negligently hiring doctor Conrad Murray, convicted over the star's death from an overdose of the anesthetic propofol.
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