Four adult siblings who claim Michael Jackson abused them when they were minors have filed a bombshell child sex trafficking lawsuit against the late musician’s estate.
The new complaint, filed Friday in federal court in Los Angeles, comes one month after the siblings — Frank, Dominic, Marie-Nicole, and Aldo Cascio — appeared in a Beverly Hills courthouse amid a related effort to void a financial settlement with Jackson’s estate that they described as “an unlawful agreement to silence victims of childhood sexual abuse.” Reps for the estate asked the court to order the parties into arbitration, but the judge withheld a final ruling and set a follow-up hearing for March 5.
“Michael Jackson was a serial child predator who, over the course of more than a decade, drugged, raped, and sexually assaulted each of the plaintiffs, beginning when some were as young as seven or eight,” the 23-page lawsuit, obtained by Rolling Stone, states. The filing alleges that the abuse occurred over extended periods in multiple locations worldwide, including during visits when Jackson and his children stayed at the siblings’ family home.
The complaint alleges that Jackson “groomed and brainwashed” the siblings using his wealth, celebrity status, and network of employees and advisers. According to the lawsuit, Jackson met the brothers and sister through their father, who worked at a luxury hotel Jackson frequently visited. After gaining the family’s trust with gifts, declarations of affection and sustained attention, Jackson allegedly isolated the children from responsible adults, plied them with drugs and alcohol, exposed them to pornography, and then abused them individually.
“This lawsuit is a desperate money grab by additional members of the Cascio family who have hopped on the bandwagon with their brother Frank, who is already being sued in arbitration for civil extortion. The family staunchly defended Michael Jackson for more than 25 years, attesting to his innocence of inappropriate conduct,” Martin Singer, a lawyer for Jackson’s estate, said in a statement to Rolling Stone. “This new court filing is a transparent forum-shopping tactic in their scheme to obtain hundreds of millions of dollars from Michael’s estate and companies.”
According to the new lawsuit, Jackson sexually assaulted Edward during interstate and international travel, including stops connected to the Dangerous World Tour, visits to Elizabeth Taylor’s home in Switzerland and Elton John’s residence in the United Kingdom, and at his Neverland Ranch in Santa Barbara County.
Dominic claims he was abused in Florida, New Jersey, New York, France, and South Africa, including during the HIStory World Tour, at Neverland Ranch, and at the Cascio family’s New Jersey home. Aldo contends he was assaulted during international trips, at Neverland Ranch, in New York, at the family residence, and at video shoots and recording sessions. Marie-Nicole claims she was assaulted during similar travel, including at Neverland Ranch, at the family home, and in New York, Las Vegas, and Florida. The filing also claims Jackson attempted an assault on Marie-Nicole in Bahrain.
The Cascio family previously referred to themselves as Jackson’s “second family” in media interviews. They were among his defenders during his criminal trial, which ended with an acquittal on charges of child sex abuse in 2005. Jackson did settle a different civil claim in 1994 while maintaining his innocence. After Jackson’s death in 2009, Wade Robson, a choreographer and director, and James Safechuck, a writer, actor, and director, stepped forward with claims Jackson molested them in the 1980s and 1990s, sometimes during overnight stays at Neverland Ranch. They detailed their allegations in the 2019 documentary Leaving Neverland. According to the Cascio siblings, the documentary led them to reckon with and share their experiences as well.
Speaking in court last month, Singer said representatives of Jackson’s estate “categorically dispute” the siblings’ accusations. He claimed the allegations were linked to an “extortion demand of $213 million last summer.” In his statement issued Friday, Singer said the siblings saw “the estate’s financial success growing” and “threatened to go public with heinous accusations that completely contradicted their previous statements defending Michael unless his estate paid staggering sums of money.”
The new lawsuit, signed by lawyer Howard King on behalf of the siblings, includes claims for child sex trafficking, negligence, intentional infliction of emotional distress, breach of contract, negligent hiring, and fraud. It’s seeking a trial to determine compensatory and punitive damages.
“Ignoring threats from the Michael Jackson Estate of financial ruin, and faced with the Estate’s false public accusations of extortion and lying, the Cascios have elected to remain silent no longer,” King said in a statement to Rolling Stone on Friday. “Not only do they seek fair compensation for more than a decade of abuse of an entire family, they hope their filing will embolden other victims and enablers to come forth and shake off the shackles of their silence.”
Jackson was 50 years old when he died of an accidental overdose of the surgery-strength anesthetic propofol at his rented mansion in Los Angeles on June 25, 2009. Since then, his estate has been wildly successful at making money off his music and legacy. After years of delay, a biopic about the singer’s life is finally set to hit theaters in April.
Ryley Paskal