Second alleged victim claims Michael Jackson operated elaborate child sex syndicate
BY
NANCY DILLON
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Tuesday, September 20, 2016, 8:36 PM
A second alleged victim is ramping up his claim Michael Jackson and his inner circle operated the most elaborate child sex syndicate "the world has known."
James Safechuck, 38, filed an amended complaint in Los Angeles Monday alleging the King of Pop's companies MJJ Productions and MJJ Ventures negligently enabled Jackson's abuse of underage boys.
The new filing — which a Jackson source dismissed as "ludicrous" — comes just days after a similar revised complaint was filed by the same lawyers on behalf of accuser Wade Robson, 34.
"Jackson was a pedophile who consumed children, and in order to do that he needed money and help. What he got from MJJ Productions was a cadre of willing accomplices who looked the other way and allowed him access to children," John Manly, one of the new lawyers for both Safechuck and Robson, said Tuesday.
"There's evidence that certain MJJ Productions personnel would tell their own staff, 'Don't bring your children here,' and then they would make arrangements for other children to be there constantly," he told the Daily News. "That's malicious. How can you in good conscience bring other children in for the slaughter?"
Manly's southern California law firm has represented hundreds of victims of clergy sex abuse around the country.
Robson and Safechuck first stepped forward in 2013 and 2014 with lawsuits targeting Jackson's megabucks estate.
When the lawsuits were thrown out for being too late, the plaintiffs later switched course and went after the companies instead.
Safechuck, a 36-year-old father of two, starred with Jackson in a Pepsi commercial when he was 10 years old.
His suit alleges Jackson began molesting him in a Paris hotel room at the start of his "Bad" tour in 1988 and that the sexual abuse continued for years.
It describes how Jackson allegedly developed code words and gestures to control Safechuck and safeguard their secret.
Jackson taught Safechuck to refer to an erection as "bright lights, brick city," the lawsuit states. It also alleges that while holding hands with Safechuck, Jackson would scratch the inside of the boy's hand as a signal he wanted to have sex.
The paperwork claims Jackson plied Safechuck and his parents with cash, gifts and first-class travel to Hawaii, New York and Europe to slowly gain their trust.
On one occasion he flew them to New York, put them up in Trump Tower and brought them to see "Phantom of the Opera" on Broadway. He introduced them to Liza Minnelli and the show's star Michael Crawford, the filing claims.
The complaint alleges Jackson induced Safechuck to testify on the singer's behalf in the 1993 investigation of the alleged sexual abuse of Jordan Chandler. That case was dropped following a private settlement.
Safechuck further claims Jackson contacted him in 2005 with a request he give "false testimony" at Jackson's criminal trial in Santa Barbara.
Jackson turned "angry" and threatening when Safechuck declined, he claims. A jury ultimately acquitted the singer.
Safechuck claims it wasn't until Robson first stepped forward in 2013 that he began seeing a psychiatrist and came to believe his anxiety and panic attacks stemmed from Jackson's alleged abuse.
Attempts to reach a lawyer for the MJJ Productions were not immediately successful Tuesday.
This is "a case with no merit and ludicrous accusations," a Jackson source said Tuesday.
When Safechuck filed his original lawsuit in 2014, estate lawyer Howard Weitzman blasted it as baseless.
"This is a person that made his claim five years after Michael died, more than 20 years after the incidents supposedly happened and who has given sworn testimony that Michael never did anything inappropriate to him," Weitzman said at the time.
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Robson gets ally in Jackson abuse suit
James Safechuck's allegations against Michael Jackson are disturbingly similar to Wade Robson's, their lawyer says.
Source: AAP
21 SEP 2016 - 6:26 AM UPDATED 50 MINS AGO
Australian choreographer Wade Robson's US sexual abuse lawsuit against late pop star Michael Jackson's production companies has been bolstered by a second alleged victim.
Robson's Los Angeles legal team announced on Tuesday it was also representing James Safechuck, who alleges Jackson molested him in a Paris hotel room at the start of the singer's Bad tour in 1988 when he was 10 years old.
Safechuck, now 36, starred in a Pepsi commercial with Jackson and claims he was abused by Jackson until he reached puberty.
"This case exhibits the same disturbing fact patterns as the case involving Wade Robson, who is also a client of our firm," Safechuck's lawyer, Vince Finaldi, said.
"MJJ Productions and MJJ Ventures ensnared Mr Safechuck in this sexual abuse operation at the tender age of 10, causing him long-term damage that haunts him until this day."
Jackson died in 2009 aged 50.
Robson, 34, has filed a civil lawsuit against Jackson's business entities, MJJ Productions and MJJ Ventures, and claims Jackson's inner circle "designed, developed and operated what is likely the most sophisticated public child sexual abuse procurement and facilitation organisation the world has known".
"MJJ Productions and MJJ Ventures were held out to the public to be businesses dedicated to creating and distributing multimedia entertainment by Michael Jackson, however, in fact, they actually served dual purposes," Mr Finaldi wrote in Mr Robson's complaint.
Brisbane-born Robson said he was five years old when he first met Jackson after winning a dance competition run by MJJ Productions in Australia.
Jackson allegedly invited Robson and his family to stay at his Neverland Ranch in California although Robson slept in Jackson's bed while his family were in separate guest quarters.
Robson became one of the world's best-known dance choreographers, working with Justin Timberlake, Britney Spears and other artists, but he claims it was only in recent years that he came to understand the abuse Jackson inflicted on him.
Robson had been one of Jackson's greatest supporters, testifying at the entertainer's 2005 criminal trial in Santa Barbara that the singer never sexually abused him.
Robson's evidence was key to Jackson being acquitted.
Lawyers for Jackson's estate have labelled Robson's delayed allegations as "outrageous and pathetic".
Poor Judge who has to read this and try to make sense out of it.
