Michael Jackson‘s estate is facing a new wave of molestation allegations levelled at the late pop star, this time from four siblings from New Jersey who say they were groomed and abused for years and that the many handlers in Jackson’s entourage willingly enabled it all.
The lawsuit by the four siblings — three brothers and a sister — was filed in February in Los Angeles federal court. It gained attention on Friday after the plaintiffs gave an extensive interview to the New York Times about the alleged abuse and the legal manipulation that the family claims they endured at the hands of the Jackson estate, long after the superstar’s death in 2009.
The complaint names the Jackson estate and the attorneys who lead it — John Branca and John McLain — and private investigator Herman Weisberg as defendants. The complaint asserts that Weisberg and other lawyers affiliated with Jackson were falsely presented to the Cascio family as representing their interests in negotiating a settlement with the estate. The complaint includes disturbing details of alleged abuse committed while Jackson was traveling in the U.S. and abroad on concert tours. It alleges that Jackson also abused the four siblings in their own home in New Jersey, when Jackson was visiting with his own children. A representative for Branca did not immmediately respond to a request for comment.
“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 of them were as young as seven or eight. Jackson’s attacks on these siblings went on for extended periods, including in locations around the world and when Jackson and his children were guests in Plaintiffs’ family home,” the complaint states.
The plaintiffs, who are now adults, are Edward Joseph Cascio, Dominic Savini Cascio, Marie-Nicole Porte and Aldo Cascio. The complaint states the family came into contact with the superstar through their father, who is described as having worked “at a luxury hotel where Jackson frequently stayed.” The siblings maintain the abuse started when they were as young as seven and continued into their teenage years. They complaint asserts that the Cascio’s parents were unaware of the abuse and were also subject to emotional manipulation to maintain Jackson’s access to the siblings.
The Cascio family has come forward with its story on the day of the premiere of Lionsgate’s Jackson biopic “Michael,” which is expected to perform well at the box office this weekend.
The lawsuit paints a lurid picture of Jackson giving the siblings drugs and alcohol and exposing them to child pornography, all to help facilitate the abuse and manipulation.
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“Jackson insinuated himself into the lives of Plaintiffs and their parents with obsessive attention, lavish gifts, access to his celebrity lifestyle, and declarations that he loved and needed each of them. After the abuse started, he isolated them emotionally, and sometimes physically, from responsible adults and from each other. He plied them with drugs and alcohol. He showed them pornography, including pictures of unclothed children, to normalise the abuse and desensitise them. He made them fear and distrust others by convincing them that not only his life, but also their lives and the lives of their family members, would be destroyed if anyone found out what he was doing to them,” the complaint states.
Jackson is depicted as conniving and quick to use his wealth and fame to overwhelm the family.
“Jackson insinuated himself into Plaintiffs’ family life. He spent holidays and special occasions, including Thanksgiving, Christmas and his own birthday, with Plaintiffs and their family, often during lengthy stays at their New Jersey home with his own children. Jackson gained Plaintiffs’ sympathy by complaining about his own childhood and telling them repeatedly that he lacked a bond with his own family and that they were his true family,” the complaint states. “Jackson secured Plaintiffs’ loyalty and acceptance of the abuse with rewards, including unique access to his celebrity lifestyle and increasingly extravagant presents. These included suitcases full of video games and electronics, private shopping trips to toy stores, exclusive visits to theme parks, introductions to other celebrities, and interstate and international travel. The travel included extended concert tours during which Jackson’s organisation assured Jackson the privacy he needed for his sexual assaults.”
The complaint offers disturbing specific details about the abuse claims, including incidents at the homes of Jackson’s famous friends Elizabeth Taylor and Elton John, as well as at Jackson’s Santa Barbara-area compound known as Neverland Ranch.
“He made two young boys under his ‘care’ watch him abuse Marie-Nicole and told her that the abuse he inflicted on her was a ‘normal thing between a man and a woman,” the complaint states. “Jackson used child-friendly language to appeal to Plaintiffs and conceal the assaults and drug and alcohol use from others. ‘Can I have a meeting,’ ‘Yogi Tea,’ ‘Neverland,’ and ‘Go to Disneyland’ were his code words for encouraging the children to engage in extreme sex acts with him. Those acts were as bad as, if not worse than, anything that can be described or imagined. He called wine ‘Jesus Juice’ and hard liquor ‘Disney Juice.’ He associated alcohol with playing, including by encouraging Plaintiffs to drink with him while they were in the basement of his Neverland Ranch game room, which he called the ‘Wine Cellar.’ “
The suit takes square aim at those in Jackson’s inner circle, accusing them of failing to act despite of signs of abuse and wholly inappropriate behaviour.
“Jackson organisation members constantly encountered evidence of Jackson’s sexual activities with Plaintiffs. They saw Jackson bringing victims, including Plaintiffs, to spend nights in his private bedrooms,” the complaint states. “They did the children’s bedding and laundry. They brought pornography and photographs of unclothed children to Jackson. They procured drugs and alcohol that they knew Jackson was going to give to Plaintiffs to make them comply with his demands. They saw Plaintiffs and other children inebriated and in alcohol induced stupors. They regularly witnessed Jackson’s inappropriate displays of affection to Plaintiffs, including Jackson fondling his victims in public spaces at Neverland Ranch and elsewhere. They followed Jackson’s orders not to disturb him when he was alone with Plaintiffs, knowing that he was sexually violating them. They installed security systems at Neverland designed to prevent outsiders from discovering Jackson’s crimes.”
The family became legally entangled with the Jackson estate in 2019 after the HBO docu-series “Leaving Neverland” was released on HBO. That series explored unrelated sexual abuse claims by two men who were minors when they first encountered Jackson.
In 2019, the estate proactively sought to reach a settlement with the Cascio family. In the course of negotiating that agreement, the complaint alleges that lawyers Howard Weitzman, who died in 2021, and Bryan Freedman, misled the family into believing that they were representing their interests when in fact they were working for the Jackson estate. The same claim is made about private investigator Weisberg, who was a key conduit for the 2019 agreement. Freedman, who is not named as a plaintiff, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
From Variety US