A motion was granted for arbitration after four siblings alleged that Jackson “groomed and brainwashed” them in a complaint
The estate of Michael Jackson has secured a legal victory after a court ruled that a dispute involving allegations from former associates should be handled through private arbitration rather than in open court. The decision shifts the case into a more confidential legal process.
In a statement shared with PEOPLE on Wednesday, March 4, attorney Marty Singer, who represents the Jackson estate, said that the court found “that there is a valid and binding arbitration provision” and “rejected” Frank and his four siblings’ argument that “the agreement was unconscionable.”
Per the March 4 ruling obtained PEOPLE and filed by the Superior Court of Los Angeles, Frank claimed he faced “immense pressure” to sign a settlement agreement with Jackson’s estate from his own family but was able to “negotiate a larger payment,” which negated his argument that it was “unconscionable.”
According to the filing, the court rejected each of Frank’s arguments to avoid arbitration.
“For decades, Frank Cascio and his siblings consistently and repeatedly insisted that Michael Jackson never harmed them or anyone else. That includes their statements lauding Michael in a nationally televised interview with Oprah Winfrey which directly contradicts what they are claiming now,” Singer said in a statement.
He added, “The MJC Parties filed their pending Arbitration for Civil Extortion and related claims against Frank after the Cascios, through multiple attorneys, threatened that unless they were paid $213 million, they would go public with accusations against Michael that were completely contrary to their profuse prior statements defending him.”
In a statement shared with PEOPLE, the Cascio family’s attorney Howard King said that “the only matter moving to arbitration is the Estate’s groundless claims against Frank Cascio that he attempted to extort the Estate.”
“Given that Frank was already participating in an arbitration, the decision was not noteworthy. The decision does not affect the Federal Court action brought against the Jackson companies by the other 4 Cascio children,” he added.
In a complaint filed on Feb. 27 and obtained by PEOPLE, Frank Cascio’s siblings Edward, Dominic, Marie-Nicole and Aldo Cascio alleged that Jackson — who died in 2009 at age 50 — “groomed and brainwashed” them when they were minors using his wealth, celebrity status and network of employees and advisers.
The Cascio siblings claimed in the suit that Jackson met them through their father, who worked at a luxury hotel the late pop star visited multiple times.
The family alleged that Jackson gained the family’s trust with gifts, affection and attention and claimed he allegedly isolated them from many adults, gave them drugs and alcohol, exposed them to pornography and individually abused them.
The 23-page suit claimed that 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 were as young as seven or eight.”
It also alleged that “the abuse occurred over extended periods in multiple locations worldwide, including during visits when Jackson and his children stayed at the siblings’ family home.”
At the time, Singer shared a statement with PEOPLE calling 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.”
He further said that the Cascio family “staunchly defended Michael Jackson for more than 25 years, attesting to his innocence of inappropriate conduct.”
“This new court filing is a transparent forum-shopping tactic in their scheme to obtain hundreds of millions of dollars from Michael’s estate and companies,” Singer said at the time.
He added, “Statements by the Cascios, including those appearing in dozens of passages throughout Frank Cascio’s 2011 book, as well as in interviews with Oprah Winfrey and others, directly contradict what is being alleged now.”
Singer said that the Cascio family “consistently and repeatedly asserted that Michael never harmed any of them or anyone else.”
“With the Estate’s financial success growing, the Cascios, through two different attorneys, threatened to go public with heinous accusations that completely contradicted their previous statements defending Michael unless his Estate paid staggering sums of money,” he said.
The complaint was filed one month after the Cascio family appeared in a Beverly Hills, Calif., courthouse for a related financial settlement with Jackson’s estate that they described as “an unlawful agreement to silence victims of childhood sexual abuse.”
In a Feb. 28 interview with the Daily Mail, Aldo Cascio, now 35 — along with parents Dominic and Connie and sister Marie-Nicole — reflected on the alleged sexual abuse, which Aldo claimed began when he was 7 years old.
“I was just sitting on the bed with him during the day, and I was just playing my Game Boy,” he said. “And I remember he just went to me and pulled down my shorts.”
Aldo continued, “It didn’t stun me or anything. I remember being like, just keep playing my Game Boy, and he took down my shorts and started performing oral sex and I was still… I didn’t ask him anything.”
He claimed that was how Jackson expressed love. “This was Michael. I know Michael, I know he loves me, and I love him,” he said.
Marie-Nicole also told the publication that after staying with the Cascio family for four months in 2001, Jackson began abusing her, too.
Edward alleged that he was sexually assaulted by Jackson during interstate and international travel, including stops on the singer’s Dangerous World Tour and visits to Elizabeth Taylor’s Switzerland home and Elton John’s U.K. residence, as well as Jackson’s Neverland Ranch in California.
Dominic claimed he was abused by Jackson in Florida, New Jersey, New York, France and South Africa. The filing also alleges that Jackson attempted to assault Marie-Nicole in Bahrain.
If you or someone you know has been a victim of sexual abuse, text “STRENGTH” to the Crisis Text Line at 741-741 to be connected to a certified crisis counselor.
If you suspect child abuse, call the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child or 1-800-422-4453, or go to www.childhelp.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.
