James Safechuck appeared with Michael in Pepsi commercial in 1987 and accompanied him on Bad tour. From James Safechuck' lawsuit in 2014 :
There were sweet letters in the beginning, as ‘sweet’ as letters could possibly be between a nine-year-old boy and a 28-year-old man, followed by frequent phone calls and visits to Jackson’s Hayvenhurst mansion. Before long Jackson started doling out gifts to Jimmy. On the first family visit to Hayvenhurst and while Jackson and Jimmy were alone, he gave the boy a globe and, in secret, $700 in cash. Jackson spent Thanksgiving at the Safechuck home in 1987 and later took the family on first-class, cross-country vacations ,young Jimmy and his parents, according to James’s Petition with the court, were thrilled to be “with someone who was a ‘star’ with celebrity status and wealth”
For his part in this seduction process, Jackson also expressed affection for his new friend and adopted family, as transcribed from part of a chat between the two taped on the boy’s cassette recorder in February 1988:
Plaintiff: “What do you think about lying?” Decedent: “People make up stories about [Michael Jackson].” Plaintiff: “Do you like performing?” Decedent: “Favorite things are writing songs, performing, and being with Jimmy.” Plaintiff: “Any new plans?” Decedent: “Smooth Criminal short film, new Pepsi commercial, best Pepsi commercial was the one with Jimmy because he had heart, best thing about Hawaii was spending time with Jimmy, love Jimmy’s family and want to spend time with them.” — Complaint, p. 6 – 7
The vacation to Hawaii was the first of many spoiling, all-expenses-paid trips for the Safechuck family . In Hawaii was also the first time, James says, that Jackson asked if the boy could sleep with him in his hotel room, Mrs. Safechuck rebuffed the request. He would try again in March 1988, approximately one month later, when Jimmy and his mother joined Jackson in New York. Paparazzi snapped one outing during that trip, as all three were accompanied by Liza Minelli to a Broadway showing of The Phantom of the Opera; Jackson and Jimmy were photographed holding hands and he later spoiled the boy with a shopping spree at the FAO Schwartz toy store. James recalls that while they stayed at the Trump Tower hotel in Manhattan, Jackson again pressed Mrs. Safechuck about the sleeping arrangements, and again she told Jackson that her ten-year-old son would stay with her.
But with Jackson nurturing what would become an inseparable bond between he and his new ‘special friend’, James’s Petition recounts that “as soon as James woke up in the morning, he went to stay in Decedent’s room with him.” While Bad tour rehearsals were underway in Pensacola, Florida, Jackson flew the Safechucks out for a vacation.
Accommodations were houses rented near the Pensacola Civic Center where Jackson practiced., he convinced the Safechucks, described in court documents as “unsophisticated”, to allow he and ten-year-old Jimmy to stay in one house while they stayed in another. James recalls that this was the first time he had ever stayed with Jackson during a trip.
When Jackson began staying over at the Safechucks’ Simi Valley home, James says his parents allowed he and Jackson to sleep together in James’s room or share a makeshift tent set up in the living room if the bedroom scenery bored them. James remembers Jackson “using white bandage tape … to form a shell to cover his nose” as a before-bed ritual.
According to James’s Complaint, “Decedent encouraged Plaintiff to dress like him and grow his hair long like Decedent’s. Decedent had coaxed Plaintiff to become a ‘miniature version’ of Decedent. Plaintiff did.” James says he and Jackson spent more and more time together as 1988 progressed, the ten-year-old and his parents were invited to join Jackson on the Bad tour.