One of Michael JacksonThe alleged victims accused the executors of trying to defame and silence him, Us every week can exclusively report. The allegation comes months after executors accused him of a $44 million shakedown.
On October 6, Frank Cascio — who, along with four family members, received a settlement from Jackson’s estate after raising sexual abuse allegations — responded to Jackson’s estate in court.
Cascio claimed the petition filed by the executors John Branca And John McClainjust like The Michael Jackson Company, was not made in “good faith”.
He said it was an “attempt to [the executors and the company] to protect himself and Michael Jackson’s estate from public accountability and scrutiny.
“[The executors] seeking to weaponize an illegal agreement to silence, defame and discredit victims of childhood sexual abuse [Cascio and his family members]and preserve Michael Jackson’s carefully protected legacy and the estate’s reputation and financial interests.
Cascio’s lawyer, Marc Geragosargued that the settlement signed by his client before representing him was unenforceable. “California has made clear that confidentiality and nondisclosure provisions intended to conceal sexual abuse are unlawful and contrary to public policy,” the filing states.
Geragos said the regulation “aimed to prevent [Cascio and his family] to ever speak publicly about their experiences with Michael Jackson – precisely the type of restriction that lawmakers have deemed illegal. Cascio said that even if the settlement was valid, he should be allowed to vacate it due to “duress, undue influence and the estate’s failure to give them the opportunity to retain counsel or provide meaningful consent.”
Cascio’s lawyer said the executors’ accusation that his client was engaging in “civil extortion” was both “baseless and revealing.”
“This is a transparent attempt to distract from [the executors’] “[Cascio and his team] have at all times acted responsibly and in good faith, striving to resolve extremely serious matters by lawful and appropriate means.
Michael Jackson
Ron Wolfson/WireImageGeragos said Cascio and his family had intimate contact with Jackson from the early 1980s until at least 2009.
In his filing, Gergaos claimed: “This abusive contact occurred over a period of decades and involved hundreds of cases. Each of the Cascio children was groomed, brainwashed and severely manipulated into believing that each was ‘special’ to Michael and that their relationship with him was exclusive.”
“This deliberate emotional manipulation was designed to secure the loyalty of each family member and ensure their silence, making them feel indebted to Michael and isolated from any source of protection or perspective,” Cascio’s attorney claimed. “Through years of psychological conditioning, Michael cultivated dependence and fear in young Cascios, which [Cascio and his family members] believe they had no choice but to comply and had no safe way to break free.
“The effects of this conditioning persisted into adulthood, leaving Respondents with a deeply ingrained belief that speaking out would constitute betrayal – a dynamic that the Estate continued to exploit in its dealings with them,” the filing states.
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Cascio’s lawyer said after the 2019 documentary Leave NeverlandOr Wade Robson And James Safechuck After accusing Jackson of abusing them as children, Cascio and his family members shared their experiences of their alleged abuse for the first time.
Geragos said around the same time: “the estate orchestrated a secret settlement process in an attempt to silence [Cascio and his family members]. The psychological control and dependence instilled in the Cascios during their youth made them particularly vulnerable when interacting with representatives of the Estate.
Cascio’s lawyer said the estate rushed a settlement disguised as an agreement over “rights to life.”
“This false characterization was a last-minute device intended to mislead [Cascio and his family members]the probate court and the beneficiaries of the estate, and constituted a bad faith misrepresentation intended to conceal the true nature of the transaction and deprive them of knowledge of the settlement,” the documents state.
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“To move this project forward, the estate caused the creation of various new companies through which payments would be channeled to the five Cascio children,” Geragos added while asserting that the estate “discouraged” the Cascios from seeking “independent legal advice.”
“The agreement is presented as a ‘rights to life’ agreement which makes no mention of [Cascio and his family members’] allegations of sexual abuse,” Geragos added. “By presenting the document as concerning ‘rights to life’ – a term commonly associated with entertainment and biographical storytelling – [the executors] concealed the true purpose and effect of the agreement: the permanent waiver and release of [Cascio and his family members’]“claims arising from Michael Jackson’s sexual abuse.”
The legal drama began on July 9 after Branca, McClain and The Michael Jackson Company sued Cascio.
Branca and McClain, in their role as executors, claimed that Cascio attempted a $213 million civil extortion scheme against the estate.
Wade Robson
Peter Kramer/NBC/NBC NewsWireThe executors claimed that Cascio spoke positively about her relationship with Jackson for decades. According to the lawsuit, Cascio was one of Jackson’s staunchest defenders during his criminal trials for child molestation and denied ever seeing the singer abuse children.
In the filing, the executors also pointed out that Cascio wrote a book in 2011 titled My friend Michael: an ordinary friendship with an extraordinary manwhich they call a more than 300-page tribute to Jackson that “honors and champions him during the 25 years Frank knew him.”
“However, following Michael’s death and the financial success of The Estate of Michael Jackson, [Cascio] and his acolytes threatened that if they did not receive substantial sums of money, they would abandon their ardent defense of Michael and instead publicly publish accusations that were completely contrary to their unwavering proclamations of his innocence,” the executors’ filing reads. “It was a shakedown.”
The executors said Cascio saw an opportunity to make money after the release of Leave Neverland.
In 2020, the Michael Jackson Company “reluctantly” entered into a confidential agreement with Cascio. Under the agreement, Cascio and his family members received payments over a five-year period. The executors said the deal was made to prevent Jackson’s children from hearing “further false allegations” and to protect Jackson’s inheritance.
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After the settlement was paid, the executors claimed that Cascio’s attorney at the time demanded that Cascio receive hundreds of millions, $213 million to be exact, or else he would file a “bogus lawsuit containing wild accusations against Michael that are completely contrary to their prior statements supporting and defending Michael. The executors have refused to comply with the demand.”
The petition states that Cascio recently decided to hire a new lawyer, Geragos. The executors point out that Geragos also defended Jackson in the press over the years.
Jackson’s team demanded that the dispute be heard in arbitration, which they said was a provision of the 2020 agreement.
Court documents claimed Cascio reduced his demand to $44 million once Geragos took over the case.
