Four siblings who claim they were abused by Michael Jackson have hit a roadblock in their child sex trafficking lawsuit against the King of Pop’s estate.
In a Wednesday ruling, first obtained and reported by Billboard, Judge Hernán D. Vera booted the claims brought by Edward, Dominic, Marie-Nicole and Aldo Cascio out of a public courtroom. The federal judge said that under the clear terms of a 2019 settlement between the family and the Jackson estate, all related disputes must be handled in confidential arbitration.
“Although the allegations are horrific, the court is without discretion to do aught but enforce the language of the arbitration clause,” wrote Judge Vera.
The Cascio siblings grew up with Jackson and once referred to themselves as his “second family.” While previously staunch defenders of the star against pedophilia claims, the family members alleged in a February lawsuit that Jackson raped and molested them as children over the course of more than a decade.
The Jackson estate strongly denies these claims, which the Cascios first raised in 2019 after the release of the explosive HBO documentary Leaving Neverland. The four siblings, along with their fifth brother Frank, claimed privately at the time that this documentary “deprogrammed” them. The estate paid them a $3.5 million settlement without admitting any wrongdoing.
The Cascios now say that settlement is void and unenforceable because they were coerced into signing it. Judge Vera ruled on Wednesday that those arguments, “while serious”, clearly do not belong in a public courtroom under the terms of the settlement.
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“While plaintiffs are fully within their rights to raise questions about unconscionability, those challenges must be presented later before an arbitrator,” wrote the judge.
The ruling echoes another decision reached in March by a different judge in California state court, who oversaw a related legal proceeding over Frank’s sexual assault claims. In that case, the judge ruled that Frank’s signature on the same settlement agreement required arbitration of all further disputes.
A lawyer for the Cascio siblings, Howard King, told Billboard on Wednesday, “It’s disappointing, but not surprising, that the decision on whether the Cascios were duped into signing an unconscionable agreement with an arbitration clause will be made by an arbitrator rather than a jury of peers.”
“The family had hoped the court would allow for a public trial over the decades-long molestations of the Cascio siblings by Michael Jackson and the ensuing cover-up by his advisors,” added King. “Instead, the family will seek justice from the dark confines of a private conference room.”
Reps for the Jackson estate did not immediately comment on the decision. The estate has previously characterized the claims as a “desperate money grab,” pointing out that the Cascios “spent decades defending and affirming Michael’s innocence” before changing their tune. The siblings stated during a 2010 appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show, for example, that Jackson was “never” inappropriate with them, and Frank wrote in a 2011 memoir, “Michael’s love for children was innocent, and it was profoundly misunderstood.”
Jackson, who died in 2009, was never convicted or held legally liable for any accusation of child sex abuse during his lifetime; he settled a civil claim in 1994 without admitting any wrongdoing, and he was acquitted at a criminal trial in 2005. But such allegations have continued to dog his legacy, most notably when Leaving Neverland amplified claims from two men, Wade Robson and James Safechuck, in disturbing detail.
The Jackson estate vehemently denies all claims of sexual misconduct, and it called Leaving Neverland a “one-sided hit job” in litigation that ended with the documentary being removed from HBO. Robson and Safechuck are continuing to litigate civil abuse claims against the estate.
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