The late singer's production company asks the Superior Court of Los Angeles to deny Wade Robson and James Safechuck's subpoena requesting access to the 'Thriller' hitmaker's 'lurid' pictures.
- Apr 5, 2024
AceShowbiz - Michael Jackson's team is fighting his alleged victims' attempt to gain access to his naked pictures. The late singer's production company has clapped back at Wade Robson and James Safechuck's "gross attempt" to unseal some of police records that contain "photographs of Michael Jackson's genitalia and naked body taken by police."
On Wednesday, April 3, MJJ Productions asked that the Superior Court of Los Angeles deny Wade and James' subpoena requesting access to the documents. They argued that the "highly sensitive" and "private" documents in question were already "sealed by a court-entered protective order from the Santa Barbara Superior Court."
According to the filing, the photos in question were taken in 1993, around the same time the "Thriller" singer was accused of sexually abusing a then-13-year-old boy. "Plaintiffs' attempt to obtain this sensitive, private, and irrelevant information over this Court's prior order to quash is particularly egregious," MJJ Productions said in the court docs filed this week.
The motion read, "Beyond violating the clear language of the Court's July 2018 Order, Plaintiffs' subpoenas seek highly sensitive private documents related to non-parties, are an attempt to circumvent the protective order in another case from another court, and fail to comply with California law on pre-subpoena notices to consumers."
Lawyers for Michael's company added, "Specifically, California's statutory and common law recognize privacy rights to images of deceased persons. Plaintiffs' demand for certain documents-including photographs of Michael Jackson's genitalia and naked body taken by police-represents an egregious violation of these privacy rights, and is simply beyond the pale."
According to lawyers, they informed Wade and James they should back off the subpoenas but they still persisted. "Plaintiffs' March 2024 Subpoenas are an appalling intrusion and violation of these privacy interests and have no legitimate purpose. These subpoenas seek, in relevant part, a highly sensitive and discrete set of documents," the motion stated.
"Here, there is no legitimate justification for Plaintiffs' gross attempt to violate the privacy of a man who has been deceased for almost a decade and to disturb his family's peace of mind and tranquility with our sensation-seeking culture," the lawyers argued.
They went on saying, "Plaintiffs' subpoenas must be quashed insofar as they are seeking these lurid images of Mr. Jackson. Indeed, allowing Plaintiffs to proceed with these subpoenas is particularly inappropriate given the circumstances surrounding the photographs."
