A long-running legal fight involving Michael Jackson's estate and the Cascio family — once described on national television as the late superstar's "second family" — just took a major turn.
On Friday, February 27, siblings Edward, Dominic, and Aldo Cascio, along with their sisterMarie-Nicole Porte, filed a federal lawsuit in Los Angeles accusing Jackson of child sex trafficking, according to Rolling Stone, which obtained the 23-page complaint.
But in a ruling first reported by TMZ on March 6, a judge ordered the case into private arbitration, finding the Cascios had signed a prior settlement requiring disputes to be handled behind closed doors.
In a statement to USA Today earlier this week, Marty Singer — the high-profile Hollywood attorney representing the Jackson estate — called the lawsuit "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." Singer added that the filing is "a transparent forum-shopping tactic in their scheme to obtain hundreds of millions of dollars from Michael's estate and companies."
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The attorney also told the outlet that the estate had “reluctantly paid the Cascios $2.8 million each over five years” — roughly $11.2 million combined — following the release of the 2019 HBO documentary Leaving Neverland. According to Singer, those payments were made only after the family “threatened to go public with heinous accusations that completely contradicted their previous statements defending Michael unless his Estate paid staggering sums of money.”
For decades, however, the Cascios publicly told a very different story. Jackson faced criminal child molestation charges in 2005 and was unanimously acquitted by a jury after a five-month trial — and the Cascio family was among his most vocal defenders throughout. During a 2010 episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show, host Oprah Winfrey asked three of the siblings directly whether there had ever been any impropriety with Jackson. All three responded in unison: “Never, never.” Frank reinforced that stance in his 2011 memoir My Friend Michael, writing that Jackson’s love for children was “innocent” and “profoundly misunderstood.”
The Cascio family's new Michael Jackson abuse claims have zero credibility.They defended him fiercely for 25+ years calling him family and innocent, as seen on Oprah's TV Special: "If Michael ever laid a finger on me, I would not be in this chair right now."Why now? They are… pic.twitter.com/RUFCJC3noO
— JR (@jamster83) March 2, 2026The estate has also pointed to the family’s shifting legal strategy. The Cascios initially hired attorney Howard King, then later replaced him with former Jackson defense lawyer Mark Geragos — who once called abuse accusations against the Grammy-winning singer “a shakedown,” according to CNN — before ultimately bringing King back.
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In a statement to Page Six, Singer said both lawyers pressed for massive payouts on the family's behalf. "Last year, the Cascios' attorney Howard King demanded $213 million. After Howard King was replaced for a second time by attorney Mark Geragos, Geragos made a new but equally baseless $40 million demand on behalf of the Cascios," he explained. "Still looking for their multi-million-dollar payday, the Cascios brought back Howard King and are grasping at straws through this frivolous filing."
The decision to move the case into private arbitration lands weeks before Michael, the Jackson biopic starring his nephew Jaafar Jackson, hits theaters April 24.
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