New allegations against Michael Jackson have emerged in a lawsuit filed in Los Angeles, where four New Jersey siblings have accused the late singer of long-term sexual abuse and accused his estate of covering their claims.
Cascio Siblings Claim Michael Jackson ‘Groomed and Sexually Assaulted’ Them
The complaint, filed in federal court in February, centers on the Cascio siblings — three brothers and a sister — who say they were abused for several years during their childhood. The case drew wider attention after the siblings spoke at length to The New York Times about their experiences and their legal battle with Jackson’s estate.
The suit names the estate and its executors, John Branco and John McClain, along with private investigator Herman Weisberg. The siblings allege that individuals connected to Jackson’s legal team falsely represented themselves as acting in the family’s best interests during settlement discussions.
The complaint filed by the Cascio siblings states the following:
Michael Jackson was a serial child predator who drugged, raped and sexually assaulted each of the accusers over a decade, starting when some of them were seven or eight years old. Jackson’s attacks on these siblings continued over a long period of time, including locations around the world and when Jackson and his children were guests at the plaintiffs’ family home. Jackson modified and brainwashed each accuser, unbeknownst to the others or their parents, during their childhood.
Jackson inserted himself into the lives of the 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 began, he isolated them emotionally and sometimes physically from responsible adults and from each other. He filled them with drugs and alcohol. He showed them pornography, including pictures of naked children, to normalize the abuse and desensitize them. He instilled in them fear and distrust of others by convincing them that not only his life but their lives and the lives of their family members would be destroyed if anyone found out what he was doing to them.
Jackson inserted himself into the plaintiffs’ family life. He spent holidays and special occasions, including Thanksgiving, Christmas and his own birthday, with the plaintiffs and their family, often during extended stays at their New Jersey home with his own children. Jackson won prosecutors’ sympathy by complaining about his own childhood and repeatedly telling them that he lacked a bond with his own family and that they were his real family. Jackson secured the plaintiffs’ loyalty and acceptance of embezzlement with rewards, including unique access to his celebrity lifestyle and increasingly extravagant gifts. These included suitcases full of video games and electronics, private toy store shopping, exclusive visits to theme parks, meeting other celebrities, and interstate and international travel. The trip included extended concert tours during which Jackson’s organization assured Jackson of the privacy he needed for his sexual assaults.
He forced two young boys who were under his ‘care’ to watch him abuse Marie-Nicole, telling her that the abuse he inflicted on her was ‘a normal thing between a man and a woman. Jackson used child-friendly language to address the accuser and conceal the assaults and drug and alcohol use from others. “Can I have a date,” “Yogi tea,” “Neverland,” and “Go to Disneyland” were his code words for encouraging children to engage in extreme sexual acts with him. These acts were as bad, if not worse, than anything that can be described or imagined. He called the wine “Jesus Juice” and the hard liquor “Disney Juice.” He associated alcohol with gambling, including by encouraging the accusers to drink with him when they were in the basement of his Neverland Ranch gaming room, which he called the ‘Wine Cellar’.
Members of Jackson’s organization kept coming up with evidence of Jackson’s sexual activities with prosecutors. They saw Jackson bringing victims, including prosecutors, to spend the night in their private bedrooms. They washed the children’s bedding and linen. The Jacksons brought pornography and photos of clothed children. They procured drugs and alcohol that they knew Jackson would give to prosecutors to meet his demands. They saw plaintiff and other children drunk and in an alcohol-induced stupor. Jackson’s inappropriate displays of affection toward the accusers were regularly witnessed, including Jackson fondling his victims in public areas at Neverland Ranch and elsewhere. They followed Jackson’s orders not to disturb him when he was alone with the accusers because they knew he was sexually violating them. They installed security systems in Neverland to prevent outsiders from discovering Jackson’s crimes.
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The legal dispute between the family and the estate dates back to 2019, following the release of the HBO documentary Leaving Neverland, which explored individual allegations of abuse. The estate tried to settle with the siblings that year, the complaint says. Each sibling was initially offered $100,000, but the deal later changed to annual payments of $690,000 over five years, for a total of $2.8 million per person, according to the estate.
The siblings now claim that during those negotiations, the lawyers misled them into believing they were acting on their behalf. The complaint also alleges that in 2024 the family was contacted with an offer of increased compensation in exchange for continued silence.
Read the full statement from Jackson’s estate attorney Martin Singer of Lavely & Singer:
The lawsuit is a desperate cash grab by other members of the Cascio family, who have jumped on the bandwagon with their brother Frank, who is already being sued in arbitration for civil racketeering. The family has steadfastly defended Michael Jackson for more than 25 years, testifying to his innocence of inappropriate behavior. This new court filing is a transparent forum shopping tactic in their plan to extract hundreds of millions of dollars from Michael’s estate and companies.
Statements by the Cascios, including those appearing in dozens of passages in Frank Cascio’s 2011 book, as well as in interviews with Oprah Winfrey and others, directly contradict what is now being claimed. The Cascios constantly and repeatedly claimed that Michael had never harmed any of them or anyone else.
For example, in a 2010 nationally televised interview, Oprah Winfrey asked Eddie, Frank, and Marie Nicole, “Were there ever any improprieties between you and Michael Jackson? and all three responded in unison, “Never, never” and shook their heads.” Eddie added: “Michael couldn’t, couldn’t hurt a fly. I mean, he’s such a kind and gentle soul.” When Oprah asked them what they thought when Michael went to trial for the charges against him, Eddie replied, “That’s ridiculous,” adding that “You know, Michael was the target and unfortunately he was the target.”
With the Estate’s growing financial success, the Cascios, through two different lawyers, threatened to publish vile allegations that completely contradicted their previous statements in defense of Michael unless his Estate paid staggering sums of money. Last year, Cascio’s attorney Howard King sought $213 million. After Howard King was temporarily replaced by attorney Mark Geragos, Geragos filed a new, but equally unsubstantiated, $40 million demand on behalf of the Cascios. The Cascios, still looking for their multi-million payday, have brought back Howard King and are grasping at straws in this frivolous take.
This is not the first time the Cascios have tried to use their connection to Michael for financial gain. In the midst of a media frenzy following a 2019 HBO documentary full of false allegations, they threatened to file charges that were the opposite of their decades of previous statements in support of Michael unless they were paid millions of dollars. The estate executors, on the advice of legal counsel, reluctantly paid the Cascios $2.8 million each over five years to protect Michael’s family and future projects important to Michael’s legacy and fans, which were worth hundreds of millions of dollars to the Estate for Michael’s beneficiaries.
Former Cascio family attorney Mark Geragos was Michael’s defense attorney before he was released in 2004, spending years testifying to Michael’s innocence, including several statements in his 2013 book and in an interview with the Huff Post in which he called the allegations against Michael “shocking.”
Michael was unanimously acquitted by a jury after a 5-month trial, of which Geragos wrote, “The only thing that surprised us was that it took them more than fifteen minutes to reach this decision. The Cascios spent decades defending and establishing Michael’s innocence. Remarkably, these shakedown attempts come more than 15 years after Michael’s death, so they are at no risk of being sued for slander.Unfortunately, in death as in life, Michael’s talent and success continue to make him a target.
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The case continues in federal court.
