A judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by one of the two men who alleged that Michael Jackson abused them as boys in HBO‘s controversial documentary Leaving Neverland.
Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Mark Young found that James Safechuck could not sue the two corporations Jackson owned that are named as defendants in the lawsuit, MJJ Productions Inc. and MJJ Ventures Inc.
According to the judge, Safechuck’s lawsuit had not demonstrated that he had a relationship with the corporations that would have required them to protect him from Jackson.
“We are pleased that the court dismissed Mr. Safechuck’s case by ruling that he had no grounds to pursue such a lawsuit,” Jackson estate attorneys Howard Weitzman and Jonathan Steinsapir said in a statement.
This is the second time Safechuck’s case, filed in 2013, has been thrown out. A judge had dismissed it in 2017, but an appeals court revived it early this year after California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a new law last year extending the statute of limitations and allowing those who claim they were sexually abused as children to file suits until age 40.
Safechuck and Wade Robson had accused the late pop star of abuse in last year’s Leaving Neverland documentary. Safechuck had alleged that Jackson abused him hundreds of times at his homes and on tour in the late 1980s and early 90s.
