Michael Jackson Child S*x Abuse Case: MJ’s Estate Wins Arbitration Ruling As Cascio Siblings’ Lawsuit Gets Dismissed

A federal judge has dismissed a child sex trafficking lawsuit filed by four members of the Cascio family against Michael Jackson’s estate, saying their dispute must be resolved in private arbitration, not a public courtroom. Jackson, often called the King of Pop, died in 2009 and was never criminally convicted. In 1994, he settled a civil sexual abuse claim without admitting any wrongdoing and was acquitted of all charges at his 2005 criminal trial. However, accusations against the singer have continued to be a major part of the debate surrounding his legacy, particularly after the release of Leaving Neverland in 2019.

US District Judge Hernán D. Vera issued the ruling on August 12 (Wednesday), but it didn’t touch on the merits of the Cascio siblings’ claims against  . Instead, the judge found that a 2019 settlement agreement between the Cascio family and Jackson’s estate includes an arbitration clause that covers the dispute.

“Although the allegations are horrific, the court is without discretion to do aught but enforce the language of the arbitration clause,” the judge noted, according to Billboard.

Edward, Dominic, Marie-Nicole and Aldo Cascio filed their lawsuit in February 2026, saying Jackson sexually abused them as children over a period of more than a decade. The siblings grew up close to Jackson and had previously referred to themselves as his “second family.” They also publicly defended the singer against allegations of sexual misconduct.

Their accusations were raised privately in 2019, after HBO’s Leaving Neverland, which included allegations from Wade Robson and James Safechuck. At the time, the Cascio family said they re-evaluated their experiences with Jackson after watching the documentary.

The   estate has vehemently denied the claims made by the Cascio siblings.

The Cascio siblings had argued the $3.5 million settlement with the Jackson estate in 2019 should be invalidated. They claimed they were forced to sign the agreement and that the settlement was unconscionable.

“While plaintiffs are fully within their rights to raise questions about unconscionability, those challenges must be presented later before an arbitrator,” Judge Vera said. According to him, the challenges to the settlement must first be presented to an arbitrator under the terms of the agreement’s arbitration provision. This removed the siblings’ claims from the public federal court process.

Their lawyer, Howard King, was critical of the ruling, saying the family had hoped for a public trial on their allegations and how they were allegedly treated by Jackson’s advisers. The family would now take the matter to private arbitration, he said.

“It’s a desperate money grab,” the Jackson estate said about the Cascio siblings’ lawsuit, especially considering their prior public pronouncements of support for Jackson.

The siblings appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show in 2010 and said Jackson had never acted inappropriately toward them. Their brother Frank also came to Jackson’s defence in a 2011 memoir. The estate argued that the earlier statements are inconsistent with the claims made years later.

But the latest ruling does not settle that factual dispute. It simply finds that the Cascio family’s current legal battles must proceed to arbitration under the 2019 settlement.