California
Michael Jackson sexual abuse lawsuits on verge of revival by appeals court
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A California appeals court on Wednesday will consider reviving the dismissed lawsuits of two men who allege Michael Jackson sexually abused them as children for years, a move the court appears likely to make after a tentative decision that would order the cases back to a lower court for trial.
The suits were filed after Jackson’s 2009 death by Wade Robson in 2013 and James Safechuck the following year. The two men became more widely known for telling their stories in the 2019 HBO documentary, “ Leaving Neverland.”
Both sued MJJ Productions Inc. and MJJ Ventures Inc., two corporations for which Jackson was the sole owner and lone shareholder.
In 2021, Superior Court Judge Mark A. Young ruled that the two corporations and their employees had no legal duty to protect Robson and Safechuck from Jackson and threw out the suits. But in a tentative decision last month, California’s 2nd District Court of Appeal reversed that judge and ordered the cases back to trial.
Lawyers for the Jackson estate on Wednesday will try to convince the appeals court to reverse course.
The lawsuits have already bounced back from a 2017 dismissal, when Young threw them out for being beyond the statute of limitations. A new California law that temporarily broadened the scope of sexual abuse cases led the appeals court to restore them. Jackson’s personal estate — the assets he left after his death — was thrown out as a defendant in 2015.
Robson, now a 40-year-old choreographer, met Jackson when he was 5 years old. He went on to appear in Jackson music videos and record music on his label.
His lawsuit alleged that Jackson molested him over a seven-year period. It says that he was Jackson’s employee, and the employees of two corporations had a duty to protect him the same way the Boy Scouts or a school would need to protect children from their leaders.
Safechuck, now 45, said in his suit that he met Jackson while filming a Pepsi commercial when he was 9. He said Jackson called him often and lavished him with gifts before moving on to a series of incidents of sexual abuse.
The Jackson estate has adamantly and repeatedly denied that he abused either of the boys, and has emphasized that Robson testified at Jackson’s 2005 criminal trial that he had not been abused, and Safechuck said the same to authorities.
The Associated Press does not typically name people who say they were victims of sexual abuse. But Robson and Safechuck have repeatedly come forward and approved of the use of their identities.
Pennsylvania
Prosecutors oppose a defense request to exhume the body of the Pittsburgh synagogue shooter’s father
PITTSBURGH (AP) — Federal prosecutors on Wednesday opposed a request by lawyers for the Pittsburgh synagogue gunman to exhume the body of his father for the purpose of proving paternity.
Robert Bowers’ lawyers want the body exhumed for a DNA test after prosecutors raised questions about paternity during Bowers’ trial for the 2018 massacre at the Tree of Life synagogue. Bowers, a 50-year-old truck driver from suburban Baldwin, faces a possible death sentence after being convicted in June of killing 11 worshippers at the Tree of Life synagogue.
Trying to persuade jurors to spare his life, the defense said Bowers has a family history of mental illness and has introduced evidence that his father was diagnosed with schizophrenia. The defense asserts Robert Bowers also has schizophrenia and opened fire at the synagogue out of a delusional belief that Jews were helping to commit a genocide against white people.
The government urged the trial judge to reject the defense request, saying he does not have authority to order the body of Randall Bowers to be exhumed and calling the paternity issue tangential. Prosecutors also said the defense motion was “completely untimely and threatens delay and distraction from the pressing issues in the trial.”
Randall Bowers died by suicide in 1979 on the eve of his own rape trial. At trial last week, prosecutors sought to cast doubt on whether he was Robert Bowers’ biological father. The defense asked a judge on Tuesday to clear up the matter by ordering the exhumation of Randall Bowers’ body.
The judge has yet to rule.
Mental health experts hired by the defense told jurors that they diagnosed Robert Bowers with schizophrenia, a serious brain disorder whose symptoms include delusions and hallucinations. A neurologist testifying for the prosecution disputed that Bowers has schizophrenia and said mental illness did not appear to play a role in the attack.
Indiana
Neglect, drug charges filed against parents of 16-month-old boy fatally shot by brother
LAFAYETTE, Ind. (AP) — Prosecutors have filed neglect and drug charges against the parents of a 16-month-old boy fatally shot by his 5-year-old brother after the older child found a handgun in their apartment.
The charges against Deonta Jermaine Johnson, 27, and Shatia Tiara Welch, 24, of Lafayette were unsealed Tuesday following their arrests the day before in LaPorte, news outlets reported.
The shooting of Isiah Johnson occurred March 28 at the Romney Meadows apartments in Lafayette, about 60 miles (96 kilometers) north of Indianapolis.
Isiah, who died from a gunshot wound to his head, had marijuana in his blood, and his brother tested positive for cocaine, prosecutors said.
Deonta Johnson was asleep inside the apartment at the time of the shooting, authorities have said. Welch wasn’t present.
After the shooting, police found 93 fentanyl pills, marijuana and paraphernalia inside the apartment, prosecutors said.
Welch told police she owns the gun, but she usually kept it locked in a box under her bed.
Johnson also faces a charge of obstruction of justice for removing marijuana from the apartment before police arrived after the shooting, prosecutors said.
Online court records did not list attorneys for Johnson and Welch who might comment on the allegations against them.
