“Raising awareness”?

In the previous chapter we discussed the legal side, now let’s see the “purpose” side of this lawsuit. Wade Robson claims that the purpose of his lawsuit was not money, but raising awareness. He wrote on his blog:

“I then also made a big decision to take legal action against Michael Jackson’s Estate and entities. My intention for doing this was to create a serious legal platform from which to raise awareness about child sexual abuse, the abuse of power, and all of the people along the way that help facilitate the child abuse, directly or indirectly. As well as to hopefully play any role in helping other victims of Michael Jackson’s and/or victims of any child abuser feel less alone.” [1]

(Emphasis added.)

The problem with that claim is that his lawsuit does not actually raise awareness about the people who “help facilitate the child abuse” – at least not in an honest way. If Wade’s claims were true then the biggest facilitator of his alleged abuse would be his mother, there is no question about that. The mother who pursued the relationship with Jackson. The mother who asked Jackson to help them move to the United States. The mother who admittedly and knowingly allowed Wade to sleep in Jackson’s bedroom – and that even after the 1993 Chandler allegations. The mother who, if Wade’s story is true, did not pay attention to her son enough to realize that something was wrong.

One would think that if Wade’s purpose with this lawsuit was really raising awareness about people who help facilitate child abuse, then he would shout his mother’s responsibility from the rooftops. Instead, his mother is hardly even mentioned in his complaint. When she is mentioned then only as a passive bystander, an afterthought, not as someone who is a main player and responsible for anything. In actuality, as we have seen in the chapter about the civil lawsuit, her actions are twisted into being the actions of Norma Staikos and the companies (eg. about who really orchestrated certain meetings). Wade tries hard to make the companies and their employees, especially Norma Staikos, responsible for his alleged abuse, while his mother’s responsibility is completely missing from the narrative in his complaint.

In actuality, in his 2016 deposition, Wade blames Staikos (and Jackson’s personal assistant after Staikos, Evvy Tavasci) more than even Jackson himself:

“Michael was like a child in a lot of ways, like, he could do his work, he could do his art, right, but beyond that, everyday life stuff, I mean, he could heartly (sic) work a microwave. So, Michael wasn’t organizing any of that stuff, [Norma Staikos and Evvy Tavasci] were helping to facilitate all of that stuff.” [2; page 235]

In his 2016 deposition Wade is directly asked about his mother’s responsibility, but while he claims he did have anger and resentment towards her initially (although his anger and resentment actually predated his alleged realization of sexual abuse and seemed more to do with his career crisis, as we have discussed in the chapter “Wade goes into therapy”), he excuses her by saying that she was just “brainwashed” and “groomed” by Jackson just like he was as a child [2; page 123-124]. The problem with that is that Joy Robson was not a child. She was the mother, the care-giver responsible for Wade’s well-being, so if we are really “raising awareness” with the lawsuit about the alleged facilitators of abuse then she should not be excused by comparing her state of mind to a child Wade’s under Jackson’s alleged “brainwash” (such as Jackson giving her gifts). Moreover, if Jackson’s alleged “brainwash” was so powerful that he was able to convince Joy Robson of his innocent intentions, then why should we expect Norma Staikos and others to be able to see through him?

On pages 229-242 of his deposition Wade blames Jackson’s employees, especially Norma Staikos [2; page 229-242]. He says absurd things like that Staikos should have called the authorities when the Robsons contacted Jackson in January/February 1990. (And what exactly authorities would have done with the fact that a family from Australia was trying to contact Jackson?) He also blames Staikos because “[Jackson] didn’t know about me again until [Staikos] made the connection”, once again “forgetting” that it was his mother who initiated that connection, not Staikos.

He also says that Staikos knew about Jackson’s so-called “pattern” with children – ie. that he befriended many children, bought them gifts and that from time to time children slept in his room. This makes Staikos more responsible than his mother, according to Wade. The problem with that claim is that none of the things he claims Staikos knew were things that his mother did not know too. By her own testimonies, Joy Robson was aware of all of the above. She also testified many times – in 1994, in 2005 and in 2016 – that Wade slept in Jackson’s bedroom with her full knowledge and permission. Joy Robson was also well aware of the 1993 Chandler allegations, but even after that she never cut connection with Jackson or even stopped the sleepovers. The Robsons were interviewed several times by authorities and the media during the Chandler allegations and they have always defended Jackson. So what could Staikos or any other employee have done there? What would make a personal assistant more responsible than Wade’s primary care-giver, his mother?

That Norma Staikos is made out to be the main “facilitator” of Wade’s alleged abuse instead of his mother, is a big red flag regarding what this case really is about. It has all to do with the fact that this is the way Wade could try to sue Jackson’s companies for money. Coupled with the fact that his mother’s responsibility is completely missing from his lawsuit, this shows Wade’s dishonesty when claiming that his lawsuit is for “raising awareness” about people who facilitate sexual abuse. His lawsuit and his public communication of it did nothing to raise awareness about his mother’s role and responsibility. The mother who was his primary care-giver and who was aware of every information that Staikos was aware of.

“Helping other victims of Michael Jackson’s”?

Wade also claimed that his lawsuit was for helping “other victims” of Michael Jackson, but his treatment of those other alleged victims was certainly inconsistent with that. In his deposition he was asked whether he had ever attempted to reach out to Gavin Arvizo, the boy at the center of the 2005 trial. Wade’s answer: “No. Not that I recall, no.” [2; page 160-161]. So despite of his claim that he filed this lawsuit, not for money but as some sort of advocacy for Jackson’s other “victims”, he never bothered to reach out and apologize to the boy whose justice Wade obscured if we believe the current version of his story that he had falsely testified at that trial.

He did “reach out” to Jackson’s 1993 accuser, Jordan Chandler, but not in the way one would expect from a compassionate fellow “victim”. His “reaching out” was trying to depose Jordan in support of his lawsuit, despite of Jordan obviously being opposed to it. Jordan, as he always does whenever it is time to tell his allegations in a court, ran away once again and refused to be served with the subpoena. As Wade’s legal team could not find him, they tried to depose his sister and his fianceé, who filed motions making it very clear that they do not want be dragged into Wade’s case. Instead of respecting the Chandlers’ obvious wish to stay away from the case, Wade’s legal team aggressively pursued them, filing counter-motions and trying to force them to testify. They even bragged in a tabloid article that they were trying to hunt down Jordan wherever he was hiding from them [3].

They also aggressively pursued Jonathan Spence, a man who befriended Jackson in the 1980s as a child. Spence never accused Jackson of any wrongdoing and he still says that Jackson never did anything wrong to him, but he was one of those boys that the prosecution at the 2005 trial tried to represent as a “victim” despite of him saying otherwise. In a motion where Spence opposed Robson’s strong-arm tactics to depose him without any sign of willing to compromise on the date when Spence could be available for a deposition, among other things, we read: “Plaintiff Wade Robson (“Plaintiff”) and his counsel have treated Spence in the most abominable manner – without the slightest regard for Spence’s concerns and objections regarding Spence’s unilaterally-noticed deposition” and “[Robson’s] bullying behavior toward a non-party is inexcusable and speaks for itself.” [4]

Brett Barnes, another man who befriended Jackson as a child and always maintained that Jackson never molested him, but whom Wade’s mother during her deposition seemed to try to imply as a possible victim, did not want anything to do with Robson and his so-called “advocacy” either. When Robson’s allegations became public on May 8, 2013, Brett Barnes tweeted: “I wish people would realise, in your last moments on this earth, all the money in the world will be of no comfort. My clear conscience will.” [5]

The previous chapter: The legal side

The next chapter: Wade’s Witnesses – Mark Quindoy

Source:

[1] Wade Robson’s blog “Wade’s Window” – Break to Heal, Part II (November 24, 2017)
http://www.waderobsoncreations.com/wadeswindow/breaktoheal2

[2] Deposition Transcript of Wade Jeremy William Robson (December 12, 2016)
https://themichaeljacksonallegationsblog.files.wordpress.com/2018/06/wade-robson-deposition-extracts.pdf

[3] Michael Jackson’s first molestation accuser, Jordan Chandler, is being sought by lawyers for other alleged abuse victims (New York Daily News, July 8, 2017)
http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/gossip/confidential/michael-jackson-accuser-sought-article-1.3309673

[4] Non-Party Jonathan Spence’s Notice of Motion and Motion for Protective Order and Request for Monetary Sanctions in the Amount of $5,135.00; Memorandum of Points and Authorities and Declaration of Sean M. Hardy in Support Thereof (filed on August 29, 2017)
2017.08.29 Jonathan Spence Motion WM

[5] Brett Barnes’ Twitter post (May 8, 2013)
https://twitter.com/IAmBrettBarnes/status/332153562991837184