Judge throws out sex abuse claim against Michael Jackson

A US judge has thrown out a lawsuit against Michael Jackson filed by a man who claimed that the pop star molested him more than 20 years ago.

The alleged victim claimed he repressed the memory of the assault until 2003.

US District Judge Eldon Fallon dismissed the suit brought by Joseph Bartucci, who claimed he was lured into Jackson’s limousine during the 1984 world’s fair in New Orleans and held for nine days, during which he was both sexually and physically assaulted. The lawsuit sought unspecified damages.

“We’re pleased with the results,” Jackson spokesman Brian Oxman said last night. “It’s time to get on to new and better things.”

The judge’s order was posted on the court website. His reasons for the dismissal were not immediately released.

“I’m basically shocked,” said Bartucci’s lawyer, Louis Koerner.

The lawsuit was filed in 2004. There is a one-year statute of limitations on filings in such crimes when victims are adults. Bartucci, who was 18 in 1984, had argued that the statute applied only from 2003, when he says he recovered a memory of the event.

Bartucci alleged he was sexually assaulted by Jackson and battered, held at gunpoint and cut with razor blades by the singer’s bodyguards during a drive to California and back.

Bartucci claimed he remembered the incident only when he saw a TV show about child molestation charges brought against Jackson in California. Jackson was acquitted in that case.

Koerner had argued that Bartucci was so badly injured by Jackson’s bodyguards - including having his head slammed on the pavement – that the trauma caused him to blank out all memory of it.