Four siblings have sued the Michael Jackson estate, alleging that they were each sexually trafficked and abused by the singer over periods that collectively spanned more than a decade. The plaintiffs—Frank, Dominic, Marie-Nicole, and Aldo Cascio—recently appeared in court in an effort to void a prior settlement that they said was designed to “silence victims of childhood sexual abuse.” A ruling on that is set for March 5. The new lawsuit, filed on February 27 in Los Angeles, arrives a month after the siblings’ last appearance in court.
The Cascio siblings’ father reportedly met Jackson while working at a luxury hotel he often stayed at. According to the complaint, Jackson began sexually abusing each sibling when they were around seven or eight. He allegedly showed them pornography—including child pornography—and forced two boys to watch him assault Marie-Nicole, while telling her it was “a normal thing between a man and a woman.”
The lawsuit goes on to allege that Jackson plied the children with alcohol and hard drugs, as well as prescription drugs such as Xanax and Viagra. He reportedly used child-like language to encourage the consumption of these substances, calling wine “Jesus Juice” and hard liquor “Disney Juice.” The plaintiffs claim that Jackson’s employees were complicit in Jackson’s abuse, often procuring alcohol and drugs for him with the knowledge of what they would be used for.
Jackson is said to have stressed that the lives of the plaintiffs as well as their family would be ruined if anyone were to find out about their sexual acts. He allegedly instructed the children on what to say if an adult were to ask them if they had been molested. The lawsuit also claims that Jackson repeatedly employed manipulation tactics—such as isolating the siblings from each other, convincing their parents to homeschool them, and taking them on interstate and international trips (arranged by the Jackson organization)—to gain more access to them. The abuse reportedly continued until days before Jackson’s death in 2009.
A lawyer for the Cascio siblings, Howard King, told Pitchfork in a statement: “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. 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.”
The Cascio family had previously supported Jackson during a 2003 trial in which the singer, who was later acquitted, was charged with molesting Gavin Arvizo, who was 13 years old at the time of the alleged abuse. In media appearances, the siblings often described themselves as Jackson’s “second family.” Frank Cascio explicitly countered many of the allegations against Jackson in his 2011 memoir, My Friend Michael. “My greatest is hope is that, as you read this book, you can put aside all the scandals, all the rumors, all the cruel jokes that surrounded him later in his life, and come to know him through my eyes,” he wrote in the book.
It was the 2019 documentary Leaving Neverland that allegedly “deprogrammed” the siblings, allowing them to “become conscious of the reality: Jackson’s abuse was wrong and had severely damaged them.” That same year, prior to securing legal representation, they signed a Confidential Acquisition and Consulting Agreement which, they claim, was explained to them as being a “life rights” agreement. However, the contract included non-disparagement and binding arbitration clauses which would have prevented the siblings from going to the police with their allegations or suing the Jackson estate in open court.
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