Evolving “memories”
In his 2016 deposition Wade also said that his memories had “evolved” over the course of his case: “post disclosing the abuse in 2012 and beginning that healing journey, they’ve evolved as far as I remember more details about scenarios. As it goes along, you know, it evolves, details get added to.” [1; page 97] That is it to put it euphemistically that his story has changed even since he first made his allegations in 2012.
Let’s take, for example, what Wade claims about the first occasion that Jackson has allegedly sexually molested him.
In January/February 1990 the Robson family traveled to the USA from Australia and Joy Robson used that opportunity to contact Jackson again through his personal assistant, Norma Staikos. [More details about that when we discuss Robson’s civil lawsuit against Jackson’s companies.] Jackson then invited the family to his Neverland Ranch for the weekend. The kids, 7-year-old Wade and his three years older sister, Chantal asked to sleep in Jackson’s bedroom which both the parents and Jackson allowed. Wade now claims that on the first night, when all three of them slept together in Jackson’s bed nothing happened, but on the second night, when Chantal opted to sleep upstairs and Wade and Jackson were left alone in the downstairs portion of the bedroom, the star started sexually molesting him. This is Wade’s current story, but his book draft that he was shopping in late 2012-early 2013 tells a different one. [More about that book shopping in this chapter.]
According to extracts read from his book draft at his deposition in 2016, there he wrote that nothing sexual happened during those two nights, the alleged sexual abuse started after his parents, grandparents and sister had left Neverland for a trip the next week and they left him alone with Jackson at the Ranch.
Katherine Kleindienst: And it says after that, “I don’t believe anything out of the ‘ordinary’ happened that night.”
Is that consistent with your recollection?
Wade Robson: Yeah, I don’t really remember.
Katherine Kleindienst: On page 25, you just, you say, “My Mother, Father, Sister, Grandmother and Grandfather were now gone and it was just Michael, I and Neverland: 2,700 acres of impenetrable Michael Jackson country governed by one man only, Michael Jackson.” You see that?
Wade Robson: I see that.
Katherine Kleindienst: Did you write that?
Wade Robson: I believe so. That line speaks to my then understanding when I wrote it, you know, so that’s one of the examples of my growing understanding of how this all went down.
Katherine Kleindienst: Can you turn to page 26. The first paragraph that’s not in italics, you write, “Michael had already become quite affectionate with me over the first two days of our Neverland trip. I would curl up in his arms to go to sleep. He would kiss me on my head and tell me he loved me and I would tell him I loved him back; all seemingly innocent at the time.”
Am I correct in assuming that in that paragraph you’re describing your first trip to Neverland over that weekend with your family?Wade Robson: Yes.
Katherine Kleindienst: You continue: “Now that Michael and I were all alone, the rest of my family far away in an RV at the Grand Canyon, the nights became a very different experience. No longer your ‘average’ kids sleepover.”
“I believe the first night after my family had left, Michael began to fondle my penis over the top of my pajama pants.” [1; page 105-106]
(Emphasis added.)
By the time Wade filed his complaint, not only the time of the first instance of alleged abuse changed, but his alleged “memories”, interestingly, have become more detailed compared to the insecure “belief” in his book draft. In his complaint, he describes in minute detail what he and Jackson allegedly did together while Chantal was sleeping upstairs. Those details are also interesting considering that in this deposition he says “Yeah, I don’t really remember” about whether anything out of the ordinary happened at all that night. In his complaint, though, he does not only describe the alleged sexual abuse in detail, but also what they allegedly did before that and he quotes what Jackson allegedly told him verbatim. [2; paragraph 15, 16]
Another problem with his story is that it is not even consistent with his sister’s version.
In an apparent attempt at suggesting that Chantal already had some sort of subconscious suspicion of Jackson, Wade now claims that Chantal on the second night “expressed concern about sleeping in the same bed with Michael Jackson, and suggested they both sleep upstairs” [2; paragraph 15].
According to Chantal’s 2005 testimony, however, her state of mind could not have been further from what Wade alleges now. First of all, according to Chantal’s version, it happened the other way around: it was the first night that Wade and Jackson slept downstairs while Chantal went upstairs to sleep, and rather than any growing “concern” by the second night, Chantal actually became more comfortable with Jackson, so she too opted to sleep downstairs on the second night.
About her reason to sleep upstairs the first night she said in 2005: “Because I didn’t want to make Michael feel like two people were invading his space.” [3] Prosecutor Gordon Auchincloss tried to put words in Chantal’s mouth with a leading question: “Something about that first night made you feel uncomfortable, didn’t it?”
Chantal Robson: “No, not at all.”
Gordon Auchincloss: “Didn’t you say you felt more comfortable the second night to Mr. Ross [Jackson’s private investigator, Scott Ross] when you spoke to him a few days ago?”
Chantal Robson: “Comfortable with my friendship with Michael, yes.”
Gordon Auchincloss: “And that next night, you slept in the same bed with Michael Jackson?”
Chantal Robson: “I did.”
Gordon Auchincloss: “And your mother knew about it?”
Chantal Robson: “Yes.” [3]
Chantal never claimed to have witnessed any sexual abuse or inappropriate behavior by Jackson towards her brother.
During his deposition Wade also tried to “evolve” his memories on the issue of whether it was he and his sister who asked Jackson to sleep in his room: “I don’t remember how that went down, how that came up. I find it hard to believe that I [asked to stay in Jackson’s bedroom] because I was a really sort of shy, reserved kid. So, but I don’t remember how that went down. I don’t remember, you know, who asked who”, he said [1; page 95-96].
Then he was reminded that in his book draft he wrote:
Katherine Kleindienst: On the top of page 22 you wrote, “It came time to go to bed and my sister and I asked if we could ‘Please, Please’ stay with Michael. Michael said it was okay with him if it was okay with my parents.”
Wade Robson: I see that.
Katherine Kleindienst: Do you remember writing that?
Wade Robson: I don’t.
Katherine Kleindienst: Do you remember, or, do you know whether that came from your own recollection or it was told to you by someone else.
Wade Robson: I don’t know. You know, what these writings, like as I talked about, the original intention of how they started, which was just for the sake of my processing, right, and then it became for the purpose of a book. You know, this reprocessing of my entire life for me through this healing process, you know, has been and will continue to be, I imagine so, for the rest of my life, meaning, you know, my perspective on things, my understanding of things, is constantly evolving as I remove the clutter from it all, remove the, the emotional and perspective repression of it all that I had compartmentalized for 22 years. So, all that to say that you know, this process evolves as far as what I, what I remember, what comes clear and my perspective on things.
Katherine Kleindienst: So, have your memories changed as you’ve gone through that process?
Wade Robson: They’ve evolved. [1; page 96-97]
(Emphasis added.)
Joy Robson testified in her deposition that it were her children who asked to sleep in Jackson’s room: “And then it was getting late. And, you know, we talked about it getting late. And then the children asked if they could stay with Michael in his room.” [4; page 51]
It is worth noting that according to memory experts, human memory does not work like a recording device. Memory can be manipulated, it can be changed, and events those never actually happened can be added to it by suggestion, autosuggestion or visualization. [5]
The previous chapter: Strange visualizations
The next chapter: No more dance, films, entertainment?
Sources:
[1] Deposition Transcript of Wade Jeremy William Robson (December 12, 2016)
https://themichaeljacksonallegationsblog.files.wordpress.com/2018/06/wade-robson-deposition-extracts.pdf
[2] Wade Robson’s Fourth Amended Complaint – see as an attachment to Notice of Plaintiff Wade Robson’s Motion to Amend the Third Amended Complaint; Memorandum of Points and Authortities (filed on September 9, 2016)
https://themichaeljacksonallegationsblog.files.wordpress.com/2018/01/2016-09-09-robson-fourth-and-third-amended-complaint-motion-to-amend-third-amended-complaint.pdf
[3] Chantal Robson’s testimony at Michael Jackson’s 2005 trial (May 6, 2005)
https://themichaeljacksonallegationsblog.files.wordpress.com/2016/12/court-transcripts.zip
[4] Deposition Transcript of Lynette Joy Robson (September 30, 2016)
https://themichaeljacksonallegationsblog.files.wordpress.com/2018/05/joy-robson-deposition-extracts.pdf
[5] See, for example, lectures on the subject by Elizabeth Loftus, Elizabeth Loftus – How reliable is your memory (TED.com, June 2013)
https://www.ted.com/talks/elizabeth_loftus_the_fiction_of_memory
The Michael Jackson Allegations 