A dancer-choreographer who alleges he was molested by Michael Jackson cannot file a late creditor’s claim against the singer’s estate.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Mitchell Beckloff decision to dismiss Wade Robson’s petition came more than a month after he heard arguments on the estate’s motion to toss the case. Beckloff issued his 19-page ruling on Tuesday.
Robson, 32, alleged 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.
Attorney Howard Weitzman, on behalf of the Jackson estate, today hailed Beckloff’s ruling.
“The court’s dismissal of Wade Robson’s claim against the estate of Michael Jackson confirms that his lawsuit was inappropriately filed,” Weitzman said. “Mr. Robson testified under oath in a courtroom that Michael never did anything improper with him. The estate believes his testimony was honest when his sole motivation was ‘to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.”‘
Robson needed a judge’s permission to bring a late probate court claim because his court papers were filed in May 2013, nearly four years after the entertainer’s June 25, 2009, overdose death at age 50.
Maryann Marzano, one of Robson’s lawyers, said during the April hearing that the facts of her client’s case “cry out” for equity to be applied so that he is not deprived to his right to have a full hearing rather than see his case disposed of in a single motion.
Marzano argued Robson’s case illustrates that there was no “ah, ha” moment for her client and that until he received therapy and realized he was molested by Jackson, he could not do anything sooner because he had been “brainwashed into believing it was consensual.”
But attorney Jonathan Steinsapir, on behalf of the estate, countered that limits must be placed on when claims can be filed, irrespective of how serious their nature, so that others cannot keep bringing similar cases against the Jackson executors and other estates for years to come.
Beckloff agreed.
“Even assuming the plaintiff’s position is correct … both parties before the court recognize that any such (impediment) exists only for a reasonable time period after any violence, intimidation or threatening conduct by the decedent ceases,” Beckloff wrote.
In his most recent sworn statement filed in connection with his attempt to file a late probate claim against the singer’s estate, Robson said 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.”
Attorney Henry Gradstein, who also represents Robson, said earlier that regardless of the outcome of the petition to file the late creditor’s claim, his client can proceed in a separate case against the corporate arm Jackson established before his death.
— City News Service