Four siblings who allege they were abused by Michael Jackson as children were in the courtroom as a judge indicated that they likely won’t be able to sue the King of Pop’s estate due to an earlier settlement.
Frank, Aldo, Marie-Nicole and Dominic Cascio, along with their parents, traveled to Los Angeles for a Wednesday (Jan. 14) hearing in their legal battle with the Jackson estate. Along with their brother Eddie, the four Cascio siblings spent much of their childhoods with Jackson and were considered his “second family.”
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After years of defending Jackson against pedophilia allegations, all five Cascio siblings changed tune after the release of the HBO documentary Leaving Neverland and began claiming the singer sexually abused them as children. The estate signed a multimillion-dollar settlement with the siblings in 2019, though it has always maintained that the Cascios fabricated these claims to cash in on the cultural moment and settled only to avoid public pain for Jackson’s children.
Now, the Jackson estate claims the Cascios have violated the settlement with an “extortionate” threat of initiating litigation unless they’re paid hundreds of millions of dollars more. The Cascios’ A-list lawyer, Mark Geragos, contends in response that the settlement is entirely invalid because the siblings were pressured into signing it without consulting lawyers.
Geragos argued during Wednesday’s court hearing that the settlement should also be invalidated because its strict non-disclosure clause is a “violation of public policy.” The estate’s lawyer, Hollywood heavyweight Marty Singer, called Geragos’ arguments “nonsense” and said the Cascios clearly signed the settlement willingly and even negotiated more money for themselves.
Judge Michael E. Whitaker appeared likely to side with the Jackson estate, writing in a tentative ruling that the evidence submitted by Frank Cascio “does not support his characterization that he was forced to sign the agreement on a take-it-or-leave-it basis.” The judge said he’ll likely shut the door on litigation and order the parties into arbitration, though he wants to think it over some more before issuing a final decision.
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The Cascio family sat in the courtroom gallery throughout the arguments, and at least one sibling grew visibly emotional during the hearing. Speaking to the press afterward, Geragos said the family made the trip to Los Angeles because they “wanted to see for themselves the estate calling them liars.”
Geragos said he’ll appeal if the judge ultimately enters an order compelling arbitration. Another lawyer working with the Cascios, Howard King, told the press that he has 10 hours of sworn video testimony from all five siblings about the alleged abuse.
Singer, the estate’s lawyer, declined to comment following the hearing.
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.
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The Jackson estate vehemently denies all claims of sexual misconduct and has called Leaving Neverland a “one-sided hit job,” suing HBO and getting the documentary removed from the streaming platform. Robson and Safechuck are continuing to litigate civil abuse claims against the estate.
The Cascio allegations, meanwhile, emerged in private in 2019 and have just recently surfaced through the current legal dispute. The estate has accused the Cascios of a “shakedown,” noting that the siblings publicly defended Jackson against sex abuse claims for years.
In a 2010 appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show, for example, the siblings said Jackson was “never” inappropriate with them. And in a 2011 memoir, Frank Cascio wrote, “Michael’s love for children was innocent, and it was profoundly misunderstood.”
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