Re: [Discussion] Wade Robson files claim of sexual abuse against MJ-Estate
Jim's main assumption is that a kid would never lie. That a 5 year old kids are usually the ones who give false testimonies because they can't always tell between life and fantasy, but a 13 years old doesn't have that problem anymore and he knows very well what's reality is. I'd say his preception regarding this is on the verge of being naive if it's not a case of being ignorant because you want to be ignorant. "a 13 year old boy knows what's reality hence his testimoney is not likely to be false.". Except that 13 years old boys - and girls - are very able to tell a lie and can be very skilled at lying.
Yes, I agree. He spouted a lot of the usual fallacies: "boys and men don't lie about sexual abuse" (why wouldn't they, especially when there is a motive to lie?), "false allegations do not happen in older children" etc.
What he mixed into this with the 5-year-olds vs. 13-year-olds argument is probably rather about false memories of sexual abuse, although I'm not even sure about that not happening in older children or even adults. I'm sure they do and I think it's been proven with experiments that they do.
However, we do not claim false memories in either Jordan or Gavin. (Well, there was the whole Sodium Amytal theory re. Jordan but I do not believe in that and we can show MJ's innocence without Sodium Amytal as well.) They were simply kids who were co-erced into lying by their parents for money. No, they did not mix up fantasy and life, they knew they were lying and they did it because their parents told them to do it so that they can make money. Same with Wade and James as well, who made their allegations as adults and amids monetary demands (=motive to lie). The only guy who may have some type of false memory syndrome IMO is Jason Francia, because who knows what was done to him in that therapy that he was put in by the prosecution in 1994 to make him "remember" things. And with his type of allegations it's not too hard for a skilled therapist to convince a scared and not too smart kid that when MJ tickled him he also touched his penis and if he does not remember then well, he should because the therapist and the prosecutors say that's what happened. But I'm not even sure about him really believing the lies, he probaby just went along with what the prosecution and his mother wanted from him, but if any of them has false memories than he would be it IMO. All the others know they are lying.
Older kids are perfectly capable of understanding motives to lie. Like when Pellicano asked Jordan and he said "my father only wants money" - he perfectly understood that if he made that lie then his family and he would get a lot of money. Also there was a manipulation on the parents' part in both cases. And Gavin and his family were seasoned grifters, so what makes anyone think they would not lie?
Some people are embarassed about making allegations even if they were abused, but some are not embarassed to make such allegations even if they were not. It happens all the time. Daniel Kapon and Joseph Bartucci and that Canadian kid that Diane Dimond found all said they were abused by MJ and it turned out none of them even met MJ. So that shows right there that yes, there are people who do lie about sexual abuse.