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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