“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 in statement.
Four siblings who were friends of Michael Jackson have filed a lawsuit accusing the late pop icon of being a “serial child predator” who regularly victimized children as young as “seven or eight” years old.
According to NBC News, the lawsuit was filed on behalf of plaintiffs Edward, Dominic, and Aldo Cascio, as well as their sister, Marie-Nicole Porte. In court documents, the siblings called Jackson a “serial child predator” who, “over the course of more than a decade drugged, raped, and sexually assaulted each of the plaintiffs.”
The siblings say that they met Jackson through their father, who worked at a hotel that Jackson stayed at. The lawsuit names defendants including the Michael Jackson Co. and multiple individuals associated with the administration of Jackson’s estate, trust, and remaining production companies.
“Plaintiffs reject the Jackson Estate’s morally bankrupt efforts to control and silence them,” attorney Howard King wrote in the lawsuit, which was filed last week in a California-based federal court.
“Plaintiffs bring this action to hold the Michael Jackson Estate, its affiliates and the persons who control or work on their behalf, accountable for Jackson’s conduct and their own wrongdoing,” the lawsuit alleges.
In response to the allegations, Martin Singer, an entertain executive industry representing the Jackson estate, called the lawsuit a “desperate money grab.”
“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 in statement.
Singer noted that Edward Cascio, in 2011, wrote a book entitled, “My Friend Michael: An Ordinary Friendship with an Extraordinary Man.” Throughout the book, Singer says, Cascio and his family members made statements “consistently and repeatedly assert[ing] that Michael never harmed them or anyone else.”
Singer also said that Cascio and his siblings denied that Jackson ever abused them in a 2010 interview with Oprah Winfrey.
“The Cascios spent decades defending and affirming Michael’s innocence,” Singer said. “Notably, these shakedown attempts come more than 15 years after Michael’s death, thus carrying no risk of being sued for defamation. Sadly, in death just as in life, Michael’s talents and success continue to make him a target.”
King, for his part, said that his clients had been “brainwashed” by Jackson and the human vestiges of his legacy.
“Jackson’s years of brainwashing prevented Plaintiffs from seeking help when he was alive and for years afterward,” King wrote.
Sources
Michael Jackson accused of child sex trafficking in new lawsuit
Michael Jackson estate sued for child sex trafficking by former friends
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