Um juiz federal afirma que as alegações, embora "horríficas", pertencem a uma arbitragem confidencial.
Four siblings who claim they were abused by Michael Jackson have hit a roadblock in their child sex trafficking lawsuit against the King of Pop’s estate.
In a Wednesday (Aug. 12) ruling, first obtained and reported by Billboard, Judge Hernán D. Vera booted the claims brought by Edward, Dominic, Marie-Nicole and Aldo Cascio out of a public courtroom.
The federal judge said that under the clear terms of a 2019 settlement between the family and the Jackson estate, all related disputes must be handled in confidential arbitration.
The Cascio siblings grew up with Jackson and once referred to themselves as his “second family.” While previously staunch defenders of the star against pedophilia claims, the family members alleged in a February lawsuit that Jackson raped and molested them as children over the course of more than a decade.
The Cascios now say that settlement is void and unenforceable because they were coerced into signing it. Judge Vera ruled on Wednesday that those arguments, “while serious”, clearly do not belong in a public courtroom under the terms of the settlement.
A decisão ecoa outra decisão alcançada em março por um juiz diferente no tribunal estadual da Califórnia, que supervisionou um procedimento legal relacionado às alegações de agressão sexual de Frank.
Nesse caso, o juiz decidiu que a assinatura de Frank no mesmo acordo de acerto exigia arbitragem de todas as disputas adicionais.
A lawyer for the Cascio siblings, Howard King, told Billboard on Wednesday, “It’s disappointing, but not surprising, that the decision on whether the Cascios were duped into signing an unconscionable agreement with an arbitration clause will be made by an arbitrator rather than a jury of peers.”.
Reps for the Jackson estate did not immediately comment on the decision.
The estate has previously characterized the claims as a “desperate money grab,” pointing out that the Cascios “spent decades defending and affirming Michael’s innocence” before changing their tune.
The siblings stated during a 2010 appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show, for example, that Jackson was “never” inappropriate with them, and Frank wrote in a 2011 memoir, “Michael’s love for children was innocent, and it was profoundly misunderstood.”.
Jackson, who died in 2009, 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.
But such allegations have continued to dog his legacy, most notably when Leaving Neverland amplified claims from two men, Wade Robson and James Safechuck, in disturbing detail.
A equipe de Jackson nega veementemente todas as alegações de conduta sexual inadequada e chamou Leaving Neverland de "um trabalho de ataque unilateral" em uma ação judicial que terminou com a remoção do documentário da HBO.
Robson e Safechuck continuam a processar alegações civis de abuso contra a equipe.
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Informação baseada em material público de Billboard, reescrito pela redação ULTRA NOTÍCIAS.
