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Post by Snow White on Dec 15, 2017 1:20:26 GMT
So called fans who think Michael was guilty haven't even bothered to read the court testimonies, let alone going deeper to read the REAL FBI files investigation. How the hell could they possibly believe their opinion is worth listening to , if it's not based in facts rather than media's regurgitating bullshit.
Professor Brian Cox is a physicist but I apply his quote to any kind of discussion:
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Post by respect77 on Dec 15, 2017 3:38:40 GMT
These are just the "keeping it real" fans who never bother to go deeper in these allegations than surface stuff. So what makes them believe Wade? His utterly ridiculous blog posts? I didn't expect those ridiculous posts could convince anyone, let alone fans. Why not read his court docs that contradict them in many ways?
Like Snow White says, these fans are like people of the general public who think they can base a judgement on a couple of cherry picked, one sided stuff, but don't bother to go any deeper. Only for fans there is no excuse for such ignorance.
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milo
Wondering Who
Posts: 124
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Post by milo on Dec 15, 2017 3:44:10 GMT
So much inaccuracy in one thread I see. Quite incredible. A certain member making shit up. Wade never said in any of the three blog posts he was unsure how to feel about his Mother. So those supposed tears that were cried upon reading it are wasted. The Also, 'Wade didn't need money'. Such a laughable reason. Wade doesn't need money yet was asking for unpaid volunteers to help on set with one of his directing jobs (Mr 'can't direct in any capacity whatsoever' Robson) and then wanted to borrow a house free of charge from somebody for another shoot. Yeah, he really doesn't need money... You really see how ignorant people are. Clearly the second poster hasn't read any of Wade's court documents and believes it took Wade five years to dance again, which just isn't true. Also, not wanting to read about the Arvizo case... yet thinks MJ was innocent of it. How utterly bizarre. Some 'fans' and haters really are bamboozling. Edit: Oh and the tired old rhetoric 'MJ was abused as a child himself' based on nothing whatsoever. Also, lol at Jordan had such 'self worth' that... He never wanted to testify in 1994. Threatened to sue if he was forced to testify in the 2005 trial. Didn't speak on his Father wanting to make a music album about the abuse he'd supposedly endured. Didn't speak on his Uncle promoting a book about his supposed abuse in 2004. And is running from Wade's lawyers who want to depose him. The only self worth Jordan ever had was when he told people at college nothing ever happened and realised, had he testified, that Mesereau had people ready to testify to what he'd told them at college and he'd of been stumped on the witness stand. I think they’re refering to this part: "I was extremely nervous to tell my mother about the sexual abuse, so I organized for her to come into a therapy session with me, enabling me to have the Therapistʻs support. The moment I told her that Michael sexually abused me, tears cascaded down her face, she let out a wailing cry and kept repeating the words “Why didnʻt you tell me?” She grabbed me and hugged me while she sobbed but I couldnʻt quite hug her back. At that point, I had so much confusion as to how I felt towards her. I went through many emotional and mental phases in the beginning stages of healing from the sexual abuse: confusion, shame, loss, sadness, hopelessness, anger, surrender, forgiveness, wonderment, release, clarity, and hope, to name a few. And not in a linear fashion." In my opinion, the fans who believe Wade’s story are victims of child abuse themselves. Wade studied how to act like a child abuse victim. Majority of fans don’t read court documents, so they are not aware of all the lies Wade is telling trying to circumvent the law. They are letting themselves being manipulated by their emotions, not using their rational skills. And right now, it’s the norm to believe the victim not matter what.
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Post by kaeleah on Dec 15, 2017 3:51:41 GMT
Someone in the aforementioned thread said they might tear apart Wade's allegations later...
This "believe the victim no matter what" mentality, as I have posted before, really gets under my skin as an MJ fan because on one hand, there are really obvious holes in all of his accuser's stories, and the more one studies the more obvious that becomes, but I know that to non-fans who haven't looked into the allegations in depth, choosing not to believe an alleged victim doesn't look good on the surface. Nowadays there are victim advocates who act like false allegations NEVER happen, or if they do they're so extremely rare that it's still best to believe the alleged victim, but false allegations DO happen and they can ruin lives and reputations.
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milo
Wondering Who
Posts: 124
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Post by milo on Dec 15, 2017 4:06:56 GMT
Someone in the aforementioned thread said they might tear apart Wade's allegations later... This "believe the victim no matter what" mentality, as I have posted before, really gets under my skin as an MJ fan because on one hand, there are really obvious holes in all of his accuser's stories, and the more one studies the more obvious that becomes, but I know that to non-fans who haven't looked into the allegations in depth, choosing not to believe an alleged victim doesn't look good on the surface. Nowadays there are victim advocates who act like false allegations NEVER happen, or if they do they're so extremely rare that it's still best to believe the alleged victim, but false allegations DO happen and they can ruin lives and reputations. Yes, many people use this argument that false accusations are not that common. They argue that many sexual abusers are not punished because the victim is always questioned or blamed somehow.
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Post by mjjfan810 on Dec 15, 2017 4:15:29 GMT
Someone in the aforementioned thread said they might tear apart Wade's allegations later... This "believe the victim no matter what" mentality, as I have posted before, really gets under my skin as an MJ fan because on one hand, there are really obvious holes in all of his accuser's stories, and the more one studies the more obvious that becomes, but I know that to non-fans who haven't looked into the allegations in depth, choosing not to believe an alleged victim doesn't look good on the surface. Nowadays there are victim advocates who act like false allegations NEVER happen, or if they do they're so extremely rare that it's still best to believe the alleged victim, but false allegations DO happen and they can ruin lives and reputations. Yes, many people use this argument that false accusations are not that common. They argue that many sexual abusers are not punished because the victim is always questioned or blamed somehow. I actually think the tide is beginning to turn in that regard, certainly in relation to a victim being blindly believed every time without question. There have been a number of cases lately of young men accused of rape whose names have been dragged through the courts and the media, only to be found not guilty. A lot of people I see are starting to recognise what a mockery it makes of the notion of being innocent until proven guilty.
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Post by respect77 on Dec 15, 2017 4:47:08 GMT
I am working on the Wade section of my website. It may take a few months because I am busy, but here are some extracts from the work document until then. (Note: you may see some references here to Wade's and Joy's deposition that you may not yet be familiar with, but it is coming. Wade's lawyers attached deposition transcripts to their opposition to the Estate's summary judgement motion and these are from there. It's a lot of material (hundreds of pages), we just got hold of them a couple of days ago and we are still in the progress of processing it, but I assume some time later we will make a post about them on Daily Michael. BTW, Blanca Francia was utterly destroyed in her deposition. Even more so than in 2005. Eventually she admitted she never saw OR heard anyone else in the shower than MJ. So much I will give to you. LOL.) "A master of deception" - then or now?
Over the years, both as a child and as an adult Wade continued to defend Jackson privately and publicly alike, and often volunteered to do so. At no times did he give any hint of distress or confusion while talking about Jackson, he always seemed very open and casual about their friendship. There are also no stories of him telling anyone or hinting to anyone, either publicly or privately, that he had been allegedly sexually abused. On the contrary. According to Wade’s own mother, Joy Robson, Wade was “very convincing” when she asked her son in the wake of the Chandler allegations about whether he had ever been molested by Jackson “[Wade] laughed and said it was ridiculous” and “he would look me in the eye time and time again and tell me that nothing ever happened”. When she was asked: “And throughout -- up until after Michael passed away, he always was very consistent in his story to you that nothing ever happened?” she answered: "He was." When asked if Wade was believable she said: “He was -- he should have had an Oscar. He was very convincing.” [Joy Robson deposition 2016] In a draft for a book that Wade was shopping about his allegations in late 2012-early 2013 (more about that later), he explains his consistent, convincing denial of sexual abuse by describing himself as "a master of deception" [his deposition transcript on December 12, 2016]. When asked if he was a good liar, he says Jackson taught him "how to lie really well about the abuse that I suffered at his hands" [deposition]. So according to Wade's story, alleged "coaching", like the above quoted one on the phone, made him a masterful liar, and very convincing even to his very much controlling mother. In the years before Jackson's criminal trial in 2005 [for details about that case see our relevant section] the Robsons did not have much contact with Jackson. According to Joy Robson’s 2016 deposition: "We weren't talking to Michael much at that time. We were really not having any connection” and “we weren't really seeing much of him at the time” [Joy Robson deposition 2016]. Wade in his declaration for his creditor's claim says that he would see Jackson about once a year and talk on the phone with him two or three times a year [Robson's declaration, April 30, 2013] in the years before the 2005 trial. So while they still had some connection, it was sporadic. Wade claims in his complaint that when he was subpoenaed to testify at Jackson’s trial, once again Jackson “coached” him by "role playing" over the phone and once again it worked on him, just like when he was 11 years old in 1993: "Michael Jackson continued to call him constantly and perform similar role playing as he did with [Robson] during the Chandler Investigation, telling [Robson]: "They are making up all these lies about you and me, saying that we did all this disgusting sexual stuff. They are just trying to take US down, take away my power and my money, take away OUR careers. We can't let them do this. We have to fight them together." [Robson's] state of mind was the same as when he testified in connection with the Chandler Investigation in late 1993." [4AC 40] (Emphasis added.) Robson’s current story (well, one version of it) is that on May 5, 2005, when he went up on the stand and testified under oath at a criminal trial in Jackson's defense as an adult man, he did so because at the time he did not yet understand that what Jackson had allegedly done to him as a child was sexual abuse, was wrong and was not consensual and not loving. Even if you are willing to give him the benefit that as an adult man he would not understand what sexual abuse was (and please consider that, among other things, he claims things like anal rape), there are some problems with that claim. One is that at the time the Jackson trial was all over the news and of course it was discussed everywhere how wrong such alleged acts would be and how there would be nothing consensual about sexual relations between a child and an adult. Another thing to consider is that when the Arvizo allegations became public, just a couple of days later, Robson was asked about them in an interview on November 26, 2003. "I never had that experience and I hope that it never happened to anybody else", he said. (Michael McKenna - Aussie Star Tells of Sharing Jackson's Bed (November 26, 2003, Hobart Mercury, Australia) for a secondary source see: mjjtruthnow.wordpress.com/2014/05/12/wade-robson-wadeaminute-things-dont-add-up/ ) That sounds like a man who fully understood that a sexual relationship between a man and a child would be wrong. Moreover, during his testimony at Jackson’s trial Robson was not just asked vague or general questions that could be open to Robson’s interpretation of what is right and what is wrong. In actuality, he was asked very pointed and direct questions. For example, when prosecutor Ron Zonen asked him if he had ever showered with Jackson in the nude as a child, that is a “yes” or “no” question where the answer would not depend on Robson’s understanding of right or wrong. Robson firmly denied that he had ever showered with Jackson. Q. Has anything inappropriate ever happened in any shower with you and Mr. Jackson? A. No. Never been in a shower with him.He did not say “I was in a shower with him, but I don't think it is inappropriate”, he said "No. Never been in a shower with him". There were many pointed and direct questions like that, where the answer simply would not depend on Robson’s understanding of right or wrong and each time Robson firmly and unambiguously denied that any sexual abuse or anything inappropriate had ever happened. Please consider that one is under oath and under a penalty of perjury while testifying at a criminal trial AND also while making a declaration or testifying at a deposition in a civil case. That means there is no way around it: Wade Robson is a proven liar – and that under oath and a penalty of perjury. He either lied in 2005 or he is lying now that he has changed his story and filed a lawsuit with monetary demands. According to another version of his story, he denied abuse before 2012 (including under oath at the 2005 trial) because Jackson told him that both of them would go to jail and both of their lives and careers would be over if anyone ever found out, and Wade believed it [See Wader Robson's interview on the Today's Show on May 16, 2013]. He was afraid of going to jail himself and he also wanted to protect Jackson from going to jail, he says. This seems to contradict the claim that he did not know it was wrong until 2012: if it is something to go to jail for then it is certainly something wrong. But even if we believe he had some sort of cognitive dissonance or he thought that child sexual abuse was just misunderstood by society and perpetrators would wrongly be jailed for it (although this seems to be contradicted by his comment " I never had that experience and I hope that it never happened to anybody else"), the fact is that he could see both in 1993 and 2005 that the alleged victims do not go to jail and that no one ever went to jail for accusing Michael Jackson of sexual abuse. In actuality, the Santa Barbara Police Department welcomed anyone willing to accuse Jackson of such acts with open arms (they campaigned for alleged victims to come forward) and no one was ever threatened to go to jail for such allegations. In yet another version of his story, and apparently this is the version he gave to his mother, he did not tell his alleged "truth" in 2005 because of shame. In her 2016 deposition Joy explained what Wade told her about why he denied any abuse as an adult, including at the 2005 trial. (* Wade initially did not want to testify at the trial in 2005. More about that further below.) The version he told his mother about shame, however, is contradicted by Wade's own deposition in 2016. There he presented the version where he simply did not understand in 2005 that what had allegedly happened to him as a child was wrong or that he had any problem with it. Any feeling of shame, guilt or anxiety he dealt with, he says, was in everyday social situations, not about the alleged abuse. Of course, now he is trying to link those everyday anxiety, shame or guilt issues to his alleged sexual abuse, but fact is many people experience such feelings in life in social situations regardless if they had ever been sexually abused or not. He specifically states that until May 2012 he did not yet understand his alleged sexual abuse, so he did not feel shame or guilt about it. To be continued...
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Post by respect77 on Dec 15, 2017 4:51:47 GMT
"They are making up all these lies about you and me"Going back to Wade’s statement about what Michael Jackson had told him on the phone while allegedly “coaching” him for his testimony: it defies Robson’s allegations of sexual abuse. That sounds something that an innocent man would say, not an abuser to his victim: “They are making up all these lies about you and me, saying that we did all this disgusting sexual stuff.” (Emphasis added.) First of all, when an abuser talks directly to his victim they would both know the abuse happened, so it makes no sense for an abuser to deny it and call it “lies” while talking about it directly to his victim. Secondly, Robson’s claim is that Jackson had told him that the alleged sexual relationship between them was an expression of love that Robson believed it up until 2012. However, here Robson quotes Jackson saying that what he was accused of was “disgusting sexual stuff”. This goes against the claim that Jackson considered such alleged acts as “an expression of love”. On the contrary, based on this, he considered them as “disgusting sexual stuff”, like any person would who has no such inclinations. Moreover, it also defies Wade’s claim of him believing it was love until 2012 because he was allegedly brainwashed into that by Jackson. Here he quotes Jackson himself telling him that such acts were “disgusting sexual stuff”, so how would that not ring a bell to an adult man that it was not an expression of love after all and that something was wrong with it? In his deposition Wade tries to explain his claim that this would be some sort of “role play” or “coaching” by saying that Jackson would tell him that their phones were tapped during these conversations. Interestingly he commented that this was his perspective NOW that this was some sort of role play: “essentially, I mean, my perspective on it now is like a rehearsal for the stand, you know, where he would say they're saying we did all these disgusting things together" [page 139] (emphasis added). Apparently, Wade did not discuss his testimony with Jackson in person before he went on the stand in 2005, because he only mentions these "role playing" phone conversations with him in his deposition [138-140]. He mentions having one very short, about 5-10 minutes conversation with Jackson’s attorney for the trial, Thomas Mesereau (not clear whether on the phone or in person) [page 136] and from the Defense team it was private investigator, Scott Ross who interviewed the Robson family in person before their testimonies. Ross interviewed him about twice in person, according to Wade [page 137]. Wade does not accuse either Mesereau or Ross of trying to make him give a false testimony or trying to coach him. In various interviews Mesereau said that whenever he asked him, Wade was always very convincing and unambiguous in his statements that Jackson never molested him. The same was told by Scott Ross. In an interview with The MJ Cast in June 2016, Ross revealed that he is actually good friends with Wade's older brother Shane, who also works as a private investigator, but he does not believe Wade's current sexual abuse story and he told this Shane as well. Ross said that in 2005 he interviewed Wade numerous times before his testimony and he never saw anything that made him believe that he was lying then. Ross said that he has no qualms telling the attorney if he feels a witness is lying and should not be used in court, but with Wade he never felt that. On the contrary, he was very credible. "Wade Robson was the first person that Tom [Mesereau] put on the stand. He was completely credible. He told me everything, everything he testified to it didn't happen, nothing happened, didn't do this, didn't do this. All of a sudden now he's trying to jump on the bandwagon and trying to collect some money. What's up with that? So... I interviewed him at great length. I went out to his house, I met with his mom, I met with his sister, I met with his brother. I interviewed him at great length on numerous occasions and none of this was there, none of this was real. He never made any... he never lost eye contact, there was nothing in there that caused me to believe that he was lying to me", said Ross in the interview. (The MJCast - Episode 033: Vindication Day Special with Scott Ross, June 18, 2016 www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GVsD9GeWrU, the part about Robson is from 1:10.12 ) So now, in the hindsight of his allegations, Jackson calling such acts “disgusting sexual stuff” and Jackson calling the allegations "made up" and “lies” to Wade, are turned into it being some sort of very contrived on-the-phone “role play” and “coaching” that was allegedly so effective that it made Wade a masterful liar for more than two decades, so convincing that "he should have had an Oscar", according to his mother. Moreover, Wade says he did not want to testify in 2005, because he did not want to be dragged into the case, he wanted to focus on his own life (he was about to get married etc.) [138-139] and he told Jackson that on the phone, nevertheless he was subpoenaed by Jackson's defense, so he was left no choice [140]. The reality is that if Jackson had really molested Wade, it would have been incredible risk-taking on his part, both in 1993 and 2005, to rely on such lame supposed “role plays” and hope not only that Wade would understand what Jackson wanted with those ambiguous comments on the phone, but also that he would know exactly what to say and how to behave on the stand – and that from a guy who told him on the phone that he did not want to testify. After Jackson was acquitted on June 13, 2005, the Robson family was overjoyed, according to an interview that Wade’s mother, Joy had given the next day to an Australian paper: "We just feel so vindicated right across the board,'' said Joy Robson, who watched the verdict live on TV from her LA home. "We were crying and screaming and crying and screaming.''[Aussies bolstered Jackson's defence case - June 14, 2005, www.theage.com.au/news/People/Aussies-bolstered-Jacksons-defence-case/2005/06/14/1118645780742.html]To be continued...
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Post by respect77 on Dec 15, 2017 4:55:15 GMT
A failed prophecyOn June 25, 2009 Michael Jackson passed away. Wade and his family mourned him and they went to his memorial. Not only that, but Wade had nothing but praise for Jackson, just like during his lifetime. In an exclusive book The Official Michael Jackson Opus that was published in December 2009, Wade made an entry in which he wrote among others: “The last time I saw him was in July 2008. I was in Vegas working on a show and he was living there. Me, my wife and him and his three kids had a barbecue. It was the most normal thing in the world. Me and my wife had been to Whole foods and bought stuff to cook. But when we got there he’d provided loads of catering. I said, “Dude, Why did you bring loads of catering? We’ve got regular food here”. I remember cooking outside while Michael sat there under an umbrella. We had great times because he was such a caring person. Most of all I’ll miss those phone conversations. I still have my mobile phone with his number on it. I just can't bear the thoughts of deleting his messages. Michael Jackson changed the world and, more personally, my life forever. He is the reason I dance, the reason I make music, and one of the main reasons I believe in the pure goodness of human kind. He was a close friend of mine for 20 years. His music, his movement, his personal words of inspiration and encouragement and his unconditional love will live inside of me forever. I will miss him immeasurably, but I know that he is now at peace and enchanting the heavens with a melody and a moonwalk. I love you Michael. – Wade Robson”(Emphasis added.) Robson participated in a tribute by Janet Jackson to her brother at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards on September 13, 2009. He also continued to praise Jackson in various media interviews, often voluntarily. In November 2010 Wade and his wife Amanda had a son – their first (and so far only) child. [4] A month later, in December, Wade was offered to direct the dance movie Step Up 4 (eventually it came out under the title Step Up Revolution) and he accepted the offer. According to his court papers and a blog post he wrote on November 17, 2017, he considered this as the fulfillment of Michael Jackson’s “prophecy” to him as a child that he would become a movie director of “epic proportions”, bigger than Steven Spielberg (declaration, www.waderobsoncreations.com/wadeswindow/breaktoheal1). This "prophecy" is a weirdly emphatic element of his story. From Robson’s complaint: "It was on this trip that Michael Jackson began to mentally manipulate [Robson] with information such as "Study the greats and become greater. Be the best or nothing at all. Rule the world. Be in the history books. Immortalize yourself," and prophesied that [Robson] "will be a film director bigger than Steven Spielberg." As far as [Robson] was concerned, his fate was written." [4AC, 20]Jackson was known to make such, sometimes maybe exaggerated comments to people as a way of inspiration and motivation (although some of these thoughts are suspect to be twisted by Robson here – eg. “be the best or nothing at all”), but Robson's perception that this was some sort of "prophecy" that he was entitled to fulfill is certainly weird. Robson took this so called “prophecy” so seriously that when he crumbled under the pressure of the job, and perhaps realized that not only he was not going to be the next Spielberg, but even directing a Step Up movie was too big of a challenge for him, that triggered a nervous breakdown in him, made him pull out of the project and left him purposeless (the movie was eventually directed by Scott Speer). Wade writes in his blog post from 2017: “Additionally, I was now ravaged by a de-habilitating feeing (sic) of shame that I was a complete failure. I felt that my entire life had been building to this opportunity to become a Film Director. It had arrived, I was fulfilling Michaelʻs prophecy, and then I blew it, therefore my entire life, I believed, had been in vein. Thank God I had Amanda and our baby boy because beyond that, I felt no purpose anymore.” [Nov 17, 2017]Although Wade does not mention it in either his court papers or his blog post, the Step Up project was not his first failed attempt at directing a movie. In an interview that he gave to Dance Informa in April 2009 he revealed that he and his wife were working on their first feature film at the time. It was not only his passion project to create this movie, but also his wife’s. When asked why he declined to direct Britney Spears’ 2009 tour, Wade said because their priority was creating a movie: "We have been writing [the film] all through [2008] as well, but Amanda was mostly working on it because I was doing the Cirque show*. So it was kind of really broken and hard to really focus on it" and "We were supposed to do this Britney tour but it was just another distraction and we really want to move into film and really make this the next path for us... I spend most of my time saying no to jobs, probably to my own demise..." The film was the couple’s primary project at the time: "We are treating it like it's our job. It's five days a week, as soon as we wake up until the sun comes down. That's what we're doing all day, every day. We're just making a move to get this done", said Wade. When asked if there was one thing he could do that he had not achieved yet, what would it be, Wade answers: "All about directing film”.(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izzviw2DhGI www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbT_0zZhCgY)(*The “Cirque show” mentioned here, is not to be mistaken with the Michael Jackson show. It is the Criss Angel Believe show in which Robson worked as the choreographer. The show was a critical and commercial failure and was eventually canceled in 2016.) He also revealed in the same interview that they were writing a theater show as well. Neither the movie or the theater show ever materialized, despite of both Wade and Amanda putting a lot of time and effort into it. The couple did create two dance short films together. A 17-minute film known as I? in 2006 and a 5-minute film in 2007 entitled WITHIN. In both Wade is credited as the director, Amanda as the writer. The latter was partly shot at Michael Jackson's Neverland Ranch that is associated with positive emotions, inner peace, clarity, being alive in the film. In the credits the couple write: "Wade & Amanda Robson would like to thank... MJ, for allowing us to use his sacred land. Grace, for making it happen." (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQCkcXfH-CE) These short films, however, did not garner much attention for the Robsons' film making ambitions. By the way, Amanda has long been Wade’s creative partner. She is not a dancer or choreographer, but Wade says in the interview that during their marriage she has gradually became more and more involved in Wade’s work. Wade calls her “the opinion that I trusted the most and the approval that I needed”. He also mentions how they never travel without each other, wherever Wade goes, Amanda always travels with him. To be continued...
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Post by kaeleah on Dec 15, 2017 5:10:02 GMT
I find it telling that he actually seems more upset by the "failed prophecy" than the alleged sexual abuse.
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Post by respect77 on Dec 15, 2017 5:12:22 GMT
Wade goes into therapy
According to Robson’s court papers, on May 16, 2011 he started cognitive therapy for about a month [4AC 42] (in his blog post in 2017 he says two months). He never made any sexual abuse claims by Michael Jackson to this therapist. [5] In his court papers he never mentions this, but in his blog post on November 17, 2017 he said that this was not the first therapist he went to. He mentions several therapists that he tried before that: “In crisis mode, I tried a few therapists and a psychiatrist”, he writes. Among them one that he is particularly critical of: “The highly recommended and incredibly expensive psychiatrist, with whom I spent 45 minutes, during which he almost never looked me in the eyes, diagnosed me with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and prescribed me two medications for anxiety and depression. I was terrified of medication, therefore I never took the depression medication and only tried the anxiety medication a few times in an attempt to get some desperately needed sleep.”Robson never made any claims of sexual abuse by Jackson to any of these therapists or the psychiatrist. In July 2011 he returned to work “with his former sense of invincibility", as he put it in his court papers. [4] In his blog post in 2017 he claims: “I saw [the cognitive therapist] for about two months, skimmed over my past, learned some mental techniques, stitched myself back up and got back to what I knew best, WORK: my long practiced technique for burrying (sic) my anxiety, pain and sadness. A technique I learned from my childhood idol and mentor, Michael Jackson.”(Emphasis in original.) And in his deposition about the same period: "That -- all I knew to do was -- all I learned from Michael was all I knew to do was get back to work so I figured that's what I had to do." [depo page 200]There seems to be a zeal in Wade’s new story to blame everything negative in his life on Michael Jackson. From his failure as a movie director and inability to come to grips with the failure of a childhood “prophecy” to his overworking himself. Meanwhile there is hardly any mention of his mother, Joy Robson in his story (and if there is then only as a distant bystander). The mother, who, among other things, proudly declared in a 2011 radio interview that she made sure that Wade and his sister Chantal were never bored as children and always worked. “We didn’t work with [Jackson] a lot. […] I realized very early on that if we were gonna make it here it is gonna be up to me. I couldn't really rely... Michael had a... he lived in a bubble and had a different reality to ours. I was the one who had to find agents and, you know, [Wade] started acting and he didn't dance a lot. He actually decided at the age of 10 that he didn't want to work as a dancer. He didn't like the way they were paid, he didn't like the way they were treated." [...] "[Wade and Chantal] have always been busy and I think boredom breeds trouble. […] My kids worked every weekend, every school vacation, their birthday parties were backstage, their Christmas parties were backstage. No regrets." [Emphasis added.]In an article about the Robsons from 1995, we learn: "Joy said Wade and daughter Chantal developed an American accent almost immediately. As a result, Wade was doing three or four auditions between 3-7 pm each day. While Wade worked hard, attending audition after audition, learning lines, practising and rehearsing his dance movements, so too did Joy – his greatest supporter. The two are almost inseparable and make career decisions together.
[…]
While Wade is the on-stage talent, Joy is his mentor, protector and confidante. She handles everything from make-up, wardrobe and music to securing a deal with some of the big names of the American entertainment scene.
[…]
Three years since their arrival on American soil, the Robson family are heavily entrenched in the entertainment scene. It is a tribute to Joy’s courage, persistence and belief in her son’s ability, and their fortitude to stand up for what they believe is right. They could easily have repacked their six bags and returned home to Australia, but they – as a team – decided to stay and help a friend in need, while at the same time defy the odds and pursue their own goals in their own way."(Emphasis added.) Also from the 1995 article (as well as from the Robsons' testimonies in 2005 or Joy Robson's deposition in 2016) we learn that Jackson was actually hardly present in their life at the time. “The first 18 months in LA was really tough going. We had taken six suitcases and little money and knew no-one in LA, only Michael who spent much of the time away.”[The Inside Story on life in Michael Jackson’s shadow (Shirley Broun, Variety Today 1995)] (Emphasis added.) From the 2011 interview and the 1995 article it is clear that Joy was a very ambitious stage mom who made her kids work overtime from an early age, and who was really the driving force behind her kids' careers. Meanwhile Jackson, due to his own, much publicized “lost childhood”, is known for his principle of letting children have their childhood. In actuality, in her 2016 deposition during a rant against Jackson, Wade’s mother, Joy made mention of the fact that Jackson used to call and beg her “all the time” to let Wade have his childhood: "And to think that this man who used to call me and ask -- and beg me not to make Wade work all the time, to let him have his childhood, what a hypocrite." (Joy depo, page 245). In Wade’s new version of his life it is Jackson who is made out to be the scapegoat for every negative thing in his life – including his own and his mother’s professional or personal failures and even his father’s suicide in 2002. (Wade’s father suffered from bipolar disorder – ie. manic depression - and committed suicide in 2002. In his complaint Wade hints at his father committing suicide because of anxiety and fear that Jackson might have been sexually abusing Wade, even though Wade's own claim is that he never told or hinted to anyone until 2012 that he had allegedly been sexually abused. That includes his father, who did not even live with Wade, his sister and mother in the United States, but stayed back in Australia with Wade's older brother. By the way, mental illness seems to run in Robson's family. Besides his father's bipolar disorder, a male first cousin of his, also on his father's side, committed suicide in 2014 at the age of 30, due to depression.) A couple of months later, in March 2012, allegedly Wade suffered a second nervous breakdown. He went to a new therapist in April 2012 where he started an insight-oriented therapy. According to his story, about three weeks in the therapy, on May 8, 2012, he first made allegations of child sexual abuse by Michael Jackson to his therapist, or anyone at all. According to his blog, what prompted Wade to "confess" to his therapist was a popular TED talk by Brené Brown about “The Power of Vulnerability” ( www.ted.com/talks/brene_brown_on_vulnerability ) that he was listening to on the way to his therapist. The talk is about “the courage to be imperfect”, to allow ourselves to be vulnerable and think that we do not have to be perfect to be worthy of love and connection. It also mentions how parents commit a mistake when they raise their children to be “perfect” and want “to make sure [they] make the tennis team by fifth grade any Yale by seventh”, which echoes Wade’s life who by the age of sixteen choreographed for international stars, such as Britney Spears. The lecture seems more related to Wade’s struggle with career expectations and his struggle to be “perfect” in his job from an early childhood than sexual abuse. The therapist he went to, Dr. Larry Shaw, is a therapist whose focus is on people in high pressure jobs, whether in business or entertainment, and especially people who are in those jobs because of their family's high expectations of them. “The guys I've worked with recently have father issues, which means they had very powerful fathers, so there's an aspect of living under the father's shadow”, Dr. Shaw wrote in an article in 2015.“They've got this inner dialogue that's really their father's voice saying, "You're not good enough.” “Everyone I've worked with, they all want to get out of the business. They're at the top of their game and they're miserable. One guy called it the golden handcuff. Another guy I worked with said when he was in Cannes, he was looking down on the red carpet and thinking, "I just feel so alone. Why am I here and why am I doing this? This has no meaning." He left his hotel room, skipped some parties, walked to the top of a hill and looked out over the ocean. Then an old farmer came by with an apple, looked at him and cut off a piece of apple for him. He just went, "That's what life is about, being able to be at peace, and all you need is an apple.”(Dr. Larry Shaw - The Executive: The Pressures of the Golden Handcuff (August 27, 2015, The Hollywood Reporter) www.hollywoodreporter.com/features/hollywood-dsm-industry-shrinks-reveal-817919 ) (Emphasis added.) In reality, however, to get out of the business, one needs more than an apple. You need stable, long-term finances to be able to do so. Especially if you are still young and have many years to live, a family, and a certain standard of living to maintain. A retirement in one’s 30s is costly. Add to this a threat by Wade’s wife, Amanda during that time, that she would leave him if he went back to work and could not get himself out of these cycle of breakdowns. Wade said about that at his 2016 deposition: "And at some point in that breakdown, me, not doing well emotionally, having the thought and I guess expressing the thought that maybe, something in relation to the idea of me getting back to work again like I did the breakdown before. And my wife and our family had been through so much, was going through so much with these breakdowns, that, you know -- I'm saying this speaks to [Amanda's] reaction. The first breakdown, when I did that small amount of therapy with Dr. Cameron and then relatively quickly ended up getting back to work, seemed like I was all good, right, and then, within a year, right, or by March or whatever, in 2012, another breakdown happens, right.
So, then, post that, some point in that second breakdown something was expressed about, from me, about the idea of me going back to work, and based on what my wife had just been through the last time I went back to work and then here we are again in a breakdown, she was so stressed out, understandably, that she, you know, expressed something along the lines of, like, if you are going to do the same thing again, like, meaning not get to the bottom of and start healing what's going on with you and just kind of go back to work, are we going to end up in this same sort of cyclical thing again.
And in tears and in extreme stress, you know, she expressed something along the lines like, "I don't know if I can do that. If that's what you're going to do, not get healed, you know, not really work on yourself, I don't know that we can keep going through that. I don't know if I can keep, you know, Koa, if I can stay around, if I can keep Koa around for that.
And, you know what, thank God she did that because that was -- it scared the hell out of me. And so, that was one of the moments that really gave me even more of an impetus to, you know, jump all the way into, to healing, into therapy, and to, yeah, into healing.
Question: But did you take that as actual threat that she was going to leave you?
"A threat. I mean, yeah, that's what it said. She said, you know, "If you 're going to do this again, if you're going to go back to work and maybe we're going to end up in this same sort of cyclical thing, I don't know if I can stay around for that." (depo, page 247-248) In his deposition in 2016, Wade's older brother Shane said that during his breakdowns Wade was worried about his ability to support his family and had financial concerns. Joy Robson also admitted in her deposition that regarding his finances “there was a concern, yes”. [Joy depo page 218-219] So based on the above Wade needed to get away from the pressures of his show business career and he also needed finances to be able to do that. One cannot secure those finances by suing someone’s Estate or companies for a potentially multimillion-dollar award due to a failed “prophecy” or for crumbling under the pressures and expectations of a job that was “prophesied” to him as a child. However, one can sue and hope for the kind of money that would set him and his family for life, if he, all of a sudden, starts alleging childhood sexual abuse. There would also be a benefit in scapegoating someone else for his professional failures and mental problems. To be continued...
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Post by respect77 on Dec 15, 2017 5:15:00 GMT
Strange visualizationsThe Brown TED talk is not mentioned in Wade’s lawsuit as a trigger to make allegations against Jackson (only on his blog and he mentions it at 2016 his deposition too), but both in his court papers and on his blog he claims that the trigger for it was watching his one and a half years old son and imagining and visualizing the things happening to him that Wade claims happened to him when he was 7-14 years old. "I would look at my son and imagine him experiencing the sexual acts I did with [Jackson] - which I did not yet equate with being sexually abused - and, for the first time in my life, I wondered if I needed to talk to someone about what [Jackson] and I "did together". I knew that I truly had no idea how I felt about it. I still thought that once I spoke to someone about it, I would be fine”, he wrote in his 2013 declaration. According to his own statements on his blog, Wade needed to visualize his son being sexually abused to be able to muster up any emotion that he could build on in his own story of alleged childhood sexual abuse. "[O]ften in therapy I would hit a wall when trying to connect to my younger self. But similar as to what inspired me to disclose in the first place: having visual flashes of my son being sexually abused and feeling so viscerally in response to them, in therapy, my Son became a profound access point to little Wade. Upon difficulty connecting with my younger self, I would often envision my son in the traumatic scenario from my past that I was trying to process. I could then feel it deeply, tap into what little Wade was feeling, and what he really needed, to heal." [Nov. 24, 2017 blog] (Emphasis added.) Visualizing things that he wanted to turn into reality was no stranger to Wade. In a 2002 interview he said: "Learn how to visualize. If (you) have a goal you’ve got to visualize every little aspect of it. You know, if I want to do a song for somebody, and I really want it happen, I’ll put myself in the situation. I’ll visualize what the studio looks like when we’re recording, I’ll picture myself walking to go get coffee, simple little things. But it just places you in the situation and makes it reality before it happens and then there’s not even a question that it’s going to happen. Every time I’ve done that, wholeheartedly, it’s always happened. It’s never failed." [2002 - Cool Job: *NSYNC’s and Britney’s Choreographers (secondary source: archivewr.tumblr.com/page/3) ] To be continued...
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Post by respect77 on Dec 15, 2017 5:19:46 GMT
No more entertainment?In his lawsuit against Michael Jackson’s companies, MJJ Productions and MJJ Ventures, Robson argues that due to his alleged sexual abuse he would never be able to work in entertainment again, therefore he needs financial compensation. "But for the psychological injury, illness and damage caused by the childhood sexual abuse as alleged herein, [Robson] would have continued on as one of the most successful talents in the entertainment industry. Few individuals to date in the entertainment industry have achieved success in so many diverse areas. Very few others have been able to achieve success in so many diverse areas, all of which has now come to an end.
As a direct and proximate result of [Jackson's companies'] failure to protect [Robson] from Michael Jackson's acts of childhood sexual abuse, rather than continue on his career path and become an international superstar, [Robson] now only associates the entertainment industry with the psychological injury, illness and damage resulting from [the Jackson companies'] despicable conduct. [Robson] has been unable to work and has been forced to decline many prestigious and lucrative job offers, such as directing the opening number for the Academy Awards (Oscars), major worldwide tours for major recording artists, and various stage and stadium concert productions for other superstars. In addition, [Robson] is unable to continue writing songs or producing music, as well as being unable to continue performing and directing in any manner or capacity whatsoever." [4AC, 80-81](Emphasis added.) In his 2013 declaration, Robson says that he needs “a new life” for himself and his family as he is no longer able to be in entertainment and “can never be again”. "Since beginning to talk about the abuse, everything in my life has changed. I am no longer in the entertainment business and can never be again. I need a new life for myself and my family; this civil action, which for me involves finally speaking the truth as loud as I suppressed it all these years, is a part of that process."On his blog in 2017 Wade wrote: "I could no longer bear to dance, make music, watch or make films. In my mind, heart and body, Michael was the reason I started doing all of those things, therefore they were all deeply intertwined with the sexual abuse I suffered at his hands from seven to fourteen-years-old. I could no longer be a part of the entertainment business because it too was synonymous with Michael for me and therefore the sexual abuse." [Nov. 24, 2017]
Fact is, however, that Wade never really abandoned those entertainment activities. While he claimed in his lawsuit that he was “unable to continue directing in any manner or capacity whatsoever” (emphasis added), he actually continued to direct short films in Hawaii and advertised himself on his website, video channel and elsewhere as a film director. Although at first those were just short commercials for non-profit and other local Maui organizations, but soon he sneaked his way back to doing the kind of entertainment activities that he claimed in his lawsuit he could not do any more. Among others, he directed several dance and music videos for aspiring singers and dancers in Los Angeles – all the while claiming in his court documents (and never modifying or deleting those claims all through his four amended complaints) that he was unable to do those kind of jobs and never will be able to do them again, therefore he needed financial compensation. He also did not terminate his two entertainment companies, Wajero Entertainment and Light Tree Productions, which again seems to defy the claim that he was not expecting to work in the entertainment industry again. Not only did Wade direct dance videos all the while claiming that he was so traumatized by such activities' association with Michael Jackson that he would never be able to do them again, but he also taught his son to dance during that period and that using the same advice that Michael Jackson would use when advising people in dance. On June 19, 2015 Wade's wife, Amanda posted a photo of Wade teaching their son to dance on her Facebook and on her Instagram ( http://instagr.am/p/4H7HOClu98 "Wade wisdom #1: "Don't think. If it feels good, you're doin it right."
Rather than it being Wade’s own wisdom, it actually echoes Michael Jackson’s philosophy in dancing and something that he would likely tell Wade as a child while teaching him to dance. In a series of taped interviews that Rabbi Shmuley Boteach conducted with Michael Jackson in the early 2000s, Jackson said the following about dancing: "I'll hear music playing and wonder why nobody else is moving. My body just has to. A real dancer is a person who can interpret the sounds he hears. You become the bass, you become the drum, you become the violin, the oboe. And this is all internal, not external. It's not about thinking. That's why when a dancer starts to count – one and two and three - he's thinking and all that should be gone. You can see it on their face if they're counting. Your expression has to be in line with what you're feeling in your body. So, in what I do, I don't even know where I'm going. It's just improvisation. It creates itself. But you still have to put your body through hell to express yourself. You have to be that dedicated." (Emphasis added.) (Rabbi Shmuley Boteach - Honoring the Child Spirit: Inspiration and Learning from Our Children (Vanguard Press, 2011)) So Wade had no problem teaching his son the same activity that he claimed was so triggering to him and so associated with child sexual abuse that he would never be able to do it again, therefore he needed financial compensation from Jackson's Estate and companies. That is even more bizarre when we consider Wade's above cited claims about visualizing his son in sexually abusive situations and that being Wade’s trigger for the realization of his alleged childhood sexual abuse at Jackson's hands. By now Wade has declared himself healed from those bad associations and he is back into all the entertainment activities that he claimed he would never be able to do again due to their association with Jackson to him: directing, dancing, choreography. “Being that Michael Jackson was my foremost dance inspiration, my relationship with dance had been crumbling for years and could not initially withstand this healing shift in my life. Thankfully, enough healing has occurred that I am now able to consciously take back what I now know was always mine: my relationship with dance”, he said in an interview with Dance Informa in which he announced his participation in the JUMP dance convention in September 2017. (Wade Robson returns to the dance scene as faculty of JUMP, September 5, 2017, www.danceinforma.com/2017/09/05/wade-robson-returns-to-the-dance-scene-as-faculty-of-jump/)Conveniently, his “healing” coincided with his lawsuit becoming more and more likely to be tossed in court. To be continued...
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Post by respect77 on Dec 15, 2017 5:29:27 GMT
A book and a lawsuit After his first telling of his allegations to his therapist on May 8, 2012, Wade told about them to his family and friends. According to his blog, on the very same day that he first told his therapist, he told his older brother, Shane and his sister, Chantal with whom he had a family outing at Food Truck Tuesdays in Venice, California. According to Wade's story, his brother's wife, strangely, just had a dream the night before about the allegations of Jackson molesting Wade being true and his brother “in a playful tone” told him about that while going to get some food from the truck, which prompted Wade to blurt “It’s true”. [November 24, 2017] Whether Wade takes some liberties with the sequence of events and details of the story here, we cannot tell, but certainly it sounds like an incredible coincidence that his sister-in-law would have a dream about Wade being sexually molested by Jackson on the night before Wade first told such a story to his therapist – allegedly not yet knowing about his sister-in-law’s dream. A few weeks later Wade also told his mother about his allegations (according to court documents on or about May 27, 2012). In his blog Wade says that to tell her he “organized for her to come into a therapy session with me, enabling me to have the Therapistʻs support” [Nov. 24.]. In discovery for Wade’s civil lawsuit against MJJ Productions and MJJ Ventures it was revealed that Wade and his mother exchanged numerous e-mails during the year between Wade’s “realization” of his alleged abuse on May 8, 2012 and his filing of his creditor’s claim and civil lawsuit against Jackson’s Estate and companies on May 1, 2013. It appeared that Wade needed that information to put together a coherent story. In his deposition in 2016 he said that at the time he was writing a document "to just kind of reprocess my life and the truth of my story with Michael, and then began to turn into this being a goal, to turn it into a book". Not only a book, but he was also preparing his lawsuit. In a September 7, 2012 e-mail that he sent out to over 30 relatives and friends about his allegations and a “transformational time” in his life, he told them that it was “an extremely sensitive legal matter”. (This e-mail will gain significance during the Probate Court proceedings as you will see later.) Indeed, many of those questions sound like interrogatories for a lawsuit, with Wade dispassionately asking Joy a huge number of questions about the events and circumstances surrounding their relationship with Jackson [To see the tone and content of those e-mails click here]. From the e-mails it is clear that Wade does not have much independent memory of his own about those events, he has to heavily rely on his mother's recollections to construct his story. Later he “evolved” some of those recollections into his own. For example, in an e-mail on September 12, 2012 one of the questions he asks his mother is “What was the driving arrangement when we all went to Neverland that first time?” At his deposition in 2016 he already claims this story as his own, independent memory. "I -- Michael asked if myself and my sister wanted to drive with him in his car and, and we did. And so we drove with him to Neverland while my parents and grandparents followed behind.
Question: So it was just you and your sister and Michael?
Wade Robson: Yeah, in the car.
Question: Do you remember that specifically or is that something that you've been told since that time?
Wade Robson: No, I remember that." [Wade, page 95]Those e-mails also revealed in discovery that in late 2012-early 2013 Wade was shopping a book about his allegations. With the help of his long time entertainment lawyer, Helen Yu (not to be mistaken with Susan Yu who was on Jackson’s defense team in 2005, no relation) he contacted several book publishers, but apparently they all turned him down. In a privilege log provided during discovery we can see 73 e-mails between Wade, a literary agent Alan Nevins and Helen Yu in the period between December 12, 2012 and February 22, 2013. Although we do not see the content of those e-mails in public court documents, it is safe to say those e-mails all have to do with Wade trying to sell his book. In actuality, among the discovery documents we do have an e-mail that we can see and that Eddie Pletzak sent to Alan Nevins (both from Renaissance Literary & Talent agency) on February 27, 2013 regarding Wade’s book. In that e-mail we can see Wade writing to Nevins and inquiring about what publishers he contacted for his book. From the answer it turns out that the publishers, Pan Macmillan and New American Library had already turned down the book and Harper Collins was still reading the draft at the time []. In another e-mail we can also see that Wade had a conference call with Harper Collins in January 2013. [] During Wade's deposition in 2016, Katherine Kleindienst, an attorney for the Jackson companies revealed that she spoke to Alan Nevins on the phone and he volunteered to her that Wade had asked for "a large amount of money" [depo page 31] for his book. Wade denied this. In his deposition Wade said that he eventually stopped pursuing the idea of a book deal around the first quarter of 2013. When asked why did he stop pursuing it, he said because he realized that a lawsuit would be more impactful in getting his message out and that he would be more in control of his story, so that it would not turn into tabloid sensationalism [depo 35-36]. This seems to be a hypocritical comment considering the fact that he and his lawyers used tabloid sensationalism to tarnish Jackson several times during the course of the case. When the case became public on May 8, 2013, Wade's lawyer at the time, Henry Gradstein, immediately talked to the tabloid website TMZ, declaring Jackson "a monster". There are also sings of Wade's legal representatives feeding stories to one of the most low-brow, most sensationalist and most unreliable tabloids, Radar Online (which is essentially the online National Enquirer) and when Radar Online published a story about his case with the most graphic, tabloidish and sensationalist headline and coverage that is imaginable, Wade and several of his relatives, such as his sister Chantal and his wife Amanda, reposted it on their social media recommending it to their followers. [The original article: [Jen Heger - Wade Robson Asks Michael Jackson Estate To Admit The King of Pop Anally Raped Him And More — READ The Documents - August 4, 2014, radaronline.com/exclusives/2014/08/michael-jackson-wade-robson-sexual-assault-anal/, The follow-up article that mentions Robson's recommendation of their previous article: 'Silence Perpetuates Abuse’ — Wade Robson Opens Up About Graphic Michael Jackson Anal Rape Claims, And Why He Kept Quiet For So Long - August 8, 2014, radaronline.com/exclusives/2014/08/wade-robson-mj-anal-rape-claims-facebook-post/]. At other times his second lawyer team during the case, Vince Finaldi and John Manly, put out press releases written in a sensationalist tone. In his deposition he also said that writing a book was still a possibility for him [depo page 76]. This book shopping will have more significance when we discuss the legal side of the Probate Court proceedings, because Wade somehow “forgot” to mention it in his court documents (Jackson’s side only learned about the book during discovery in 2016) and it was not an irrelevant omission considering certain things that Wade claimed to get around statutes of limitations. More about that later. Meanwhile Wade and Amanda moved from Los Angeles to Maui, Hawaii, where Amanda is originally from. In his November 24, 2017 blog post Wade claims that this was a part of his "healing process" from the alleged sexual abuse by Michael Jackson. "About nine months into the healing process, so much having changed in my families inner and outer life, the external details of our current life situation had begun to feel less and less relevant: most notably of which, the notion of continuing to live in Los Angeles. Amanda and I decided we were going to move to Maui, Hawai’i, where Amanda is from. This idea was terrifying and incredibly exciting: a new beginning." [Nov. 24, 2017]However, in an interview that Amanda gave to a Hawaii blog in 2015 she revealed that the idea of moving to Hawaii predated Wade’s alleged "realization" of childhood sexual abuse. “Since I graduated from Maui High in 1997, I was in San Francisco and California studying/working in various art focuses: Fashion, Culinary Arts, Floral Design, Entertainment. Then four years ago, I became a Mother and the arrival of our precious son, completely re-routed my mainland existence and paved a path for my family to come back to Maui.”(Emphasis added.) (http://www.createinhawaii.com/profiles/maui-childrens-bookstore-amanda Unfortunately the interview is no longer online.) Their son was born in November 2010, one and a half years before Wade’s alleged realization of childhood sexual abuse. So apparently, when Wade first made child sexual abuse allegations against Jackson in May 2012, he and his wife had long had a desire to move away from California to Maui. In actuality, Wade's desire to walk away from show business is foreshadowed already in a February 2008 article about him: "For all his success, though, Robson felt a tug in the opposite direction from the limelight. As the show (The Wade Robson Project, a dance show hosted by him that was on MTV in 2003) was coming to a close, he was beginning a relationship with Amanda Rodriguez, now his wife, who grew up far away from the entertainment industry in Maui, Hawaii. “I was going through so many changes in my life with her—learning and remembering a whole aspect of myself that I’d forgotten,” he says. “She had this whole other perspective that I saw and loved and wanted to be a part of. But at the same time, I was becoming a bit of a celebrity. It was a really strange contrast.”
Robson’s choice became clear as he shot the finale for the show. “I looked around and had one of these strange, surreal moments where I said, ‘Is this it? Is this really what I want?’ I saw people looking at me for all the wrong reasons,” he says. For the next two years, he disappeared from the public eye and immersed himself in his new love, experiencing life without dance."(Wendy Garofoli - Wade Robson: An Innovator at Work (February 22, 2008) www.dancemagazine.com/wade-robson-an-innovator-at-work-2306882196.html)(Emphasis added.) Fast forward to 2012, child abuse allegations against Michael Jackson had the potential to secure the finances for an early retirement for them and set them for life in Hawaii, comfortably, without all the pressures of Wade’s earlier show business career. In his 2013 declaration Wade says he first met with his lawyers, Henry Gradstein and Maryann Marzano on March 4, 2013. He claims that before that he was not aware of the administration of Michael Jackson’s Estate and that he could take legal action against them. These were lies to get around statutes of limitations as we will discuss in detail when we discuss the Probate Court proceedings in the next chapter. On May 1, 2013 Wade filed a creditor’s claim against Michael Jackson’s Estate in the Probate Court and a civil lawsuit against Jackson and two of his companies, MJJ Productions and MJJ Ventures. In both he demanded monetary compensation for Jackson having allegedly sexually molested him as a child. On May 8, 2013 the celebrity gossip website TMZ, which regularly checks court filings looking for celebrity cases, first reported about Wade’s allegations and with that the case entered into its public phase. On May 16, 2013 Wade went on NBC's The Today Show to give an interview about his allegations [] and he also gave a short interview to TMZ at the Los Angeles airport on his way back to Hawaii []. To be continued...
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Post by respect77 on Dec 15, 2017 5:36:14 GMT
The Probate Court case
Robson filed two types of legal action against Jackson's entities. A creditor's claim against his Estate in the Probate Court, and a lawsuit against Jackson and two of his companies, MJJ Productions and MJJ Ventures in the Civil Court. In both he demanded money for alleged childhood sexual abuse.
In this chapter we discuss the creditor's claim, then in the next chapter the civil lawsuit.
Under US law when someone dies, those who have any sort of claim against the deceased person can file those claims against the deceased person's Estate – this is called a creditor's claim. There are certain statutes of limitations to file a creditor's claim, though. A plaintiff has to file his creditor's claim no later than 60 days from the date when he first has knowledge of the facts reasonably giving rise to the existence of the claim AND the administration of the Estate.
In this case it meant that Robson should have filed his creditor's claim within 60 days of when he knew both of the following: 1. that he was allegedly sexually abused as a child by Michael Jackson, 2. that Michael Jackson had an Estate.
Robson claimed that he did not understand that he was sexually abused by Michael Jackson as a child until May 8, 2012, when he first disclosed those alleged acts to his therapist. Until then, he claimed, he thought those alleged acts were loving and consensual.
Even if we take Robson's word for this story, based on the first requirement of a timely claim, he should have filed his creditor’s claim within 60 days of telling his therapist that he was allegedly molested, ie. until July 7, 2012. There is a second requirement, though, the knowledge of the administration of the Estate. In his declaration and creditor's claim, Robson claims that he did not know about the administration of Michael Jackson's Estate until March 4, 2013 when he first met with his lawyers, Gradstein & Marzano. If this was true it would put Wade within the 60 days requirement, as he filed his creditor's claim on May 1, 2013, within 60 days of obtaining knowledge about the administration of Jackson's Estate.
That claim, however, is a lie, as it was shown during the Probate Court proceedings.
As it was revealed by Jackson's Estate during discovery, Wade was aware of the administration of Jackson's Estate years before he filed his creditor's claim. Even in the unlikely event of Wade somehow missing the very much publicized news of the administration of Jackson’s Estate after his death, there is evidence of him being so much aware of the Estate way before March 4, 2013 that he talked to them. Like discussed earlier in this document, in 2011 Wade was eager to work on Cirque du Soleil's Michael Jackson show that was created in a co-operation between Cirque du Soleil and Jackson's Estate. To discuss that show, in early 2011 he made a visit to the office of John Branca, one of the executors of the Michael Jackson Estate. As we have mentioned before Wade also made an entry in the book entitled The Official Michael Jackson Opus that was approved and endorsed by Jackson's Estate in 2009.
Moreover, as we have seen above, in late 2012-early 2013 Wade was shopping a book about his allegations and those negotiations were assisted by his longtime lawyer and family friend, Helen Yu. This is significant to the discussion of whether Wade knew about the Estate before March 4, 2013, because Yu wrote an article about the Michael Jackson Estate on November 25, 2009. Reading that article (http://yuleseberg.com/news/2015/9/24/musical-artists-worth-more-dead-than-alive) doesn’t it seem to you that Yu is pretty much aware not only of the administration of the Michael Jackson Estate, but she also kept a close eye on its dealings? This same lawyer then helped Wade to shop his book about his allegations from late 2012 on, so she obviously knew about both Jackson's Estate and Wade's allegations at the time. It is hard to believe that she would not share with Wade the information that Jackson had an Estate while helping him in shopping a book about his allegations - even if we assumed that Wade really did not have any idea about the Estate before that (which is not true, as shown above).
This information about Wade's book shopping and Yu's involvement in it, however, did not come out until after the Probate Court case was already closed. Jackson's defense came across this information only in 2016 while doing discovery for the civil lawsuit. During the Probate Court case Wade "forgot" to share this information, so it did not factor in the Court's decision about the creditor's claim. However, the evidence about Wade's encounters with the Estate in 2011 were enough to show that he lied when he claimed that he did not know about the Estate before March 4, 2013. Please note that Wade made that claim in a declaration, under penalty of perjury and also that Wade's claim is that he did not file these legal actions for money, but to fight for the "truth". How does one fight for the "truth" with lies?
Wade also tried to twist the requirement and besides claiming that he was not aware of the Estate's administration at all, he also claimed that he was not aware that he could seek a claim. ("Prior to March 4, I did not understand or was even aware that an Estate had been opened for administration or that I could seek to make a claim." [declaration]) In its decision about the creditor's claim the Court pointed out that the requirement is knowing about the administration of the Estate and not knowing that one has a cause of action. However, even if the requirement was knowing that he had a cause of action, Wade still could not have prevailed. Like mentioned before, the Estate discovered, that on September 7, 2012 Wade sent out an e-mail in which he shared his allegations with over 30 individuals. In that e-mail asking his recipients for discretion, he refers to his allegations as an "extremely sensitive legal matter", which shows that long before March 4, 2013, at the very least by September 7, 2012, he understood that he had a cause of action.
[Ruling on Submitted Matter - Motion for Summary Judgement - Wade Robson's Late Claim Petition (BP117321, May 26, 2015)]
To get around statutes of limitations, Wade also tried an equitable estoppel argument in support of his creditor's claim. Equitable estoppel is a doctrine that prevents that someone could take advantage of his wrongdoings - eg. misleading, fraudulent actions and claims – in court. For example, in relation to statutes of limitations, if a plaintiff fails to file a timely claim because the defendant mislead him on his rights or the defendant threatened him, then equitable estoppel can be invoked and in that case plaintiff’s complaint would not be dismissed even if statutes of limitations have already run.
In this case, Wade claimed that Michael Jackson’s alleged threats to him such as that they would both go to jail and their careers and lives would be over if anyone found out, prevented him to file a claim before May 1, 2013. Moreover, he claimed that the psychological effects of Jackson allegedly misleading him into believing that sexual relations between a child and an adult would be loving and consensual, prevented him from understanding that such relations were sexual abuse, until he went into therapy on May 8, 2012. ("[Robson] lacked any understanding that his long-term childhood relationship with [Jackson] included ongoing sexual abuse over a seven-year period - the acts giving rise to this claim - prior to May 8, 2012." [page 6, Notice of Petition and Petition for Order to Allow Filing of Late Claim Against Estate; Memorandum of Points and Authorities in Support Thereof, filed by Robson on July 27, 2013]).
The Court dismissed this argument. While we do not see much of what happened during the Probate Court process (eg. in depositions), the Court’s ruling stated that at least by the time of Jackson’s death, Robson was well aware of both that a sexual relationship between an adult and a minor was a crime and also that a victim does not go to jail for such alleged acts.
"[Robson] knew at the time of [Jackson's] death in June 2009 that it was a crime for an adult to engage in sexual conduct with a minor."
and
"[Robson] understood in June 2009 that minors are not criminally prosecuted when an adult engages in sexual conduct with them."
[Page 15, Creditor's Claim dismissal ruling]
This means that Wade could not invoke equitable estoppel, because on May 8, 2012 he knew all the alleged facts giving rise to his claim (that he was allegedly sexually abused, that such acts were a crime, and that he would not go to jail for them) and he was very much aware of the administration of Jackson’s Estate well before March 4, 2013 – despite of him claiming otherwise in his declaration under penalty of perjury. The Court also stated that any alleged intimidation that Robson claims Jackson has made to him would cease on the day of Jackson’s death, on June 25, 2009.
The Court actually pointed out that in a Probate Court case it is the Estate who is a party to the proceedings, not the decedent. Thus, citing precedent law in length, the Court said:
"While [Robson] conflates the Estate representatives and [Jackson] in his estoppel argument, it is the Estate representatives who are the parties to this Probate proceedings. As there is no evidence that the Estate's representatives did or said anything that prevented [Robson] from filing his claim, [Robson] cannot establish the elements of equitable estoppel against them." [page 8, ruling]
Despite of that the Court also examined what if Robson was right in his argument that it is the decedent’s alleged actions that should count for this equitable estoppel argument as opposed to the Estate’s representative’s actions, but even so Robson could not have prevailed, as we have discussed above.
In a ruling by Judge Mitchell L. Beckloff, the Court dismissed Wade Robson's creditor's claim on May 26, 2015. Although immediately after the ruling Wade’s lawyer, Maryann Marzano vowed to appeal, they eventually never did.
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To be continued... with a discussion of the Civil Lawsuit that I am working on now.
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