I agree there are many plot holes in his story, but that doesn't mean something didn't happen.
The level of proof needed in a criminal cause is much lower. It will probably be difficult finding jurors who haven't already made up their minds. Sometimes these cases get swayed by a personal experience of a juror and they ignore concrete evidence in exchange for feelings.
I think to find someone guilty in a civil case it just has to be plausible/likely that it happened.
That's why you sometimes hear about 100 million dollar rulings. I'm a huge Michael Jackson fan, but I question many things.
Hanging out with children just doesn't make sense to me. Even hanging out with young adults would be weird.
He claimed it was because he missed out on his childhood.
That might be true, but I'm unsure that explains things. Does anyone know if Michael saw a therapist regularly?
I ask because we've haven't heard from them.
I think we'd all agree that his behaviors should have been studied and talked out with professionals.
The plastic surgery, depression, ptsd, obsession with collecting things, and the relationships with children.
He was obviously struggling with a variety of things for years.
No excuse in the world should make sleeping in a bedroom with other peoples children OK. Doesn't matter if it's 100% platonic.
He shouldn't have even been speaking with them on the phone. I've read interviews where he'd spend the entire day talking to kids on the phone. That's weird to me.....
Could Wade and others be lying? Sure.... But so much time has passed... Memories change. A victim can't remember traumatic situations accurately decades years later. That would be difficult for someone without the trauma.
Like try and recall your childhood. You only have short glimmers of experiences. Like instead of remembering an entire birthday party, you only remember the cake or gift. Can you remember just an average day? What about a vacation? Probably very little huh?
When sexual trauma happens, victims often fill in memory gaps to come to terms with things. It's like solving a puzzle. Pieces are missing. For the mind to come to terms with trauma it sometimes fills in gaps that aren't always accurate. It's also easy for others to influence your memory. It's possible Wade and others recall things happening that never happened simply because of questions, conversations, or drawing conclusions. Also please keep in mind that predators often drug their victims. I feel like that's missed on a lot of people. Drugging happens in most cases like this.
I think the statistic is pretty high that like 1 out of 5 people will have their food or drink spiked/poisoned at some point throughout their life.
Many of those people probably aren't aware it happened. I think the statistics also say at least 1 out of 10 people will be sexually assaulted or raped sometime throughout their life. The number is lower among men, but that's because men don't report it as often.
Some of these drugs erase the memory or make it more difficult to recall.
For instance, something like a roofie can make a victim forget an entire day. Sometimes up to 48hrs.
Because of this, a victim could wake up completely oblivious that anything happened. Especially if they weren't raped. For instance, if a victim is molested/penetrated in a way that doesn't cause pain nothing would appear off when they awoke. There wouldn't be evidence unless a drug screen was done. In these cases, that was never done.
Sometimes victims aren't aware of the abuse until years later. Like a kid probably isn't going to realize they are being drugged. That doesn't mean something didn't happen. The victim just had no idea anything was wrong so they didn't pay attention to certain things. In the moment, a victim can accept behavior as loving and caring, but years later interpret it differently. This is because our knowledge of the real world changes. Our understanding of right and wrong changes. Certain things can trigger memories that weren't registered as off/weird at the time.
If someone doesn't know the signs of being victimized in their sleep would they register they were? If they were drugged just enough to sleep through the night would they realize anything happened? Would they register pain with anything other than normal? I myself was victimized as a child. For years, my neighbor gave me sodas that caused me to pass out. It took me years to realize what was going on. Due to so much time passing and drugs likely involved I'll never know exactly what happened. Not knowing haunts me.
I could give you a detailed account of my memories, but I'm sure they are flawed. Times, dates, and specifics would be off. That doesn't mean it didn't happen. I know it happened. It's why I feel for every victim. If Wade and others are truly victims I'm really sorry they went through that. Everyone involved should be in prison. It's soul crushing. I'm not saying Michael is guilty. None of us will ever know.
