Four adult siblings are suing the estate of Michael Jackson for alleged child sex trafficking, claiming in Los Angeles federal court that the late entertainer abused them when they were children at the homes of Elizabeth Taylor, Elton John and elsewhere, according to court papers obtained Monday.
The lawsuit filed Friday by siblings Edward, Dominic, Marie-Nicole and Aldo Cascio alleges that Jackson “groomed and brainwashed” them using his wealth, celebrity status and network of employees and advisers from the 1990s onward.
Jackson died in June 2009 in Los Angeles at age 50 from an overdose of propofol and other prescription painkillers.
The 23-page suit says Jackson met the Cascio siblings through their father, who worked at a luxury hotel Jackson visited multiple times. The family contends that the singer won the family’s trust by offering them gifts, affection and attention, and isolated them from adults, fed them drugs and alcohol, exposed them to pornography and individually abused them.
“Jackson groomed and brainwashed each plaintiff,” the lawsuit alleges. “After the abuse started, he isolated them emotionally, and sometimes physically, from responsible adults and from each other. He plied them with drugs and alcohol. He showed them pornography, including pictures of unclothed children, to normalize the abuse and desensitize them.
“He made them fear and distrust others by convincing them that not only his life, but also their lives and the lives of their family members, would be destroyed if anyone found out what he was doing to them.”
The filing claims the alleged incidents took place during the “Dangerous” and “HIStory” world tours in the 1990s, at Neverland Ranch, and at the homes of Taylor in Switzerland and John in England.. The lawsuit does not indicate that the celebrities were aware of the alleged abuse.
A fifth sibling, Frank Cascio, has made similar sex abuse claims in a separate pending legal proceeding.
Marty Singer, an attorney for the Jackson estate, described the lawsuit as “a desperate money grab” and linked it to the plaintiffs’ brother Frank. Singer described the suit as a “transparent forum-shopping tactic in their scheme to obtain hundreds of millions of dollars from Michael’s estate and companies.”
The Cascios, who grew up with Jackson and have referred to themselves as his “second family,” were once public defenders of the pop star against pedophilia claims. However, after HBO’s “Leaving Neverland” documentary in 2019, the five now-adult siblings claim they were all abused by Jackson as minors.
Without admitting any wrongdoing, the Jackson estate signed a multimillion-dollar settlement with the Cascios in 2019 in exchange for a release of all claims and a promise of confidentiality. But the siblings have since sought to reopen the matter, leading the estate to bring extortion claims against Frank Cascio in arbitration in 2024.
Jackson 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.
The Cascios live in South Carolina and San Bernardino, according to the suit.