Wade Robson's lawsuit against the Michael Jackson estate was dismissed by a California court on Monday.
In the lawsuit, Robson alleged the late pop star icon had abused him for seven years from 1990 and claimed two of Jackson's companies—MJJ Productions and MJJ Ventures—had facilitated the abuse.
"There is no evidence supporting Plaintiff's contention that Defendants exercised control over Jackson," L.A. County Superior Court Judge Mark A. Young wrote.
"The evidence further demonstrates that Defendants had no legal ability to control Jackson, because Jackson had complete and total ownership of the corporate defendants. Without control, there is no special relationship or duty that exists between Defendants and Plaintiff. In addition, there is no evidence of misfeasance by Defendants."
Robson, featured in HBO's 2019 documentary Leaving Neverland, along with other men who claim Jackson had abused as children.
Robson met Jackson when was five years old after winning a competition run by MJJ Productions in Australia. Two years later, aged seven, he and his family traveled to California, as his dance company performed at Disneyland.
According to the lawsuit, Robson's mother contacted Jackson's assistant Norma Staikos to set up a meeting with the pop star and they were invited to visit him at his Neverland Ranch in California.
Here, Robson claimed he slept in Jackson's bed, while his family stayed in separate guess quarters. That's when the abuse started.
"It felt like I'd known him for years," he told The Guardian in 2019, shortly after Leaving Neverland premiered on HBO.
"His posters were in my living room, his music in my ears. I'd known him, I thought."
Robson said the abuse ranged from being forced to give oral sex, to penetrative intercourse.
"Michael tried to penetrate me in my anus with his penis, trying for a while, and I guess was able to a bit, but it was really too painful too for me, so he stopped," Robson said in Leaving Neverland.
Jackson described the abuse as "how to show love", but insisted he should never tell anyone. The claim was echoed by James Safechuck, who also featured in the four-hour, two-part documentary.
"You and I were brought together by God. We were meant to be together and this is us showing each other that we love each other," Robson recalled Jackson telling him in the documentary.
Being allegedly molested by the pop star, however, "didn't feel strange" because of the status Jackson held in Robson's eyes, he reflected during his interview with The Guardian.
"He made me feel complicit, that I wanted it at least as much, if not more than him," Robson explained.
"And the thing is, the abuse didn't feel strange because it was being done by this man that was like a god to me. So much of it was validation for me. But what does that mean, that I liked it? Like, I'm a freak too."
Asked whether he felt anger at his parents for allowing him and his sister to sleep away from them—and in Jackson's bed—at Neverland, Robson replied: "I've definitely gone through multiple stages of anger at my parents and maybe it's done now, but I really can't say."
Jackson was twice accused of child sexual abuse, in well-publicized trials. In 1993, he was accused of having abused Jordy Chandler. A decade later, he was accused of abusing child cancer survivor Gavin Arvizo.
Jackson reached a settlement in the first trial and was acquitted in the latter trial.
In 1993, the Robsons defended the pop star on TV, while Safechuck claimed in the documentary that he was forced to commit perjury in the trial to protect the singer.
When Jackson faced trial again 10 years later, he again contacted Robson and Safechuck. He allegedly threatened the latter to reveal he had perjured himself in 1993, while Robson was convinced to testify by his mother.
"You and Macaulay Culkin are the only two people in the world that can save him," she allegedly said.
The documentary was met with a fierce backlash from Jackson fans and the Jackson estate, which filed a $100 million lawsuit against HBO.
"Wade Robson has spent the last eight years pursuing frivolous claims in different lawsuits against Michael Jackson's estate and companies associated with it," Jonathan Steinsapir, an attorney representing Jackson's companies, said on Monday.
"Robson has taken nearly three dozen depositions and inspected and presented hundreds of thousands of documents trying to prove his claims, yet a Judge has once again ruled that Robson's claims have no merit whatsoever, that no trial is necessary and that his latest case is dismissed."
