Just as Michael It opens in theaters across the country, where a family that was very close to the late Michael Jackson now accuses him of sexual assault in a new lawsuit.
Dominic and Connie Cassio and their five children say Jackson abused four of the children at Neverland Ranch, on rides, and at tour stops.
The family previously defended the singer against allegations of abuse on Oprah Winfrey’s talk show in 2010 and in other media. They have long described themselves as a pop singer’s “second family.”
But as reported New York TimesThe Cascios family had previously contacted Jackson’s estate with these allegations years ago. The family and the estate entered into a confidential agreement under which the family would be paid $16 million over five years. When payments stopped in 2025, another round of negotiations collapsed, and now a lawsuit has been filed. Jackson first met Dominic when he was a manager at a luxury hotel in Manhattan where Jackson often stayed.
The estate’s attorney, Marty Singer, issued a statement calling the family’s effort a “desperate cash grab” and added: “The family has vigorously defended Michael Jackson for more than 25 years, demonstrating his innocence of improper conduct. This new court filing is a transparent cyber-shopping tactic in their scheme to extract hundreds of millions of dollars from Michael’s estate and companies.”
The family said they were motivated in part by watching the 2019 documentary released on HBO Now Leaving NeverlandJackson was accused of sexual assault, stating that it helped them “deprogram” them and helped them process what happened.
The complaint accuses Jackson of being a “serial child predator who, over the course of more than a decade, drugged, raped, and sexually assaulted each of the plaintiffs, starting some as young as seven or eight years old,” and “groomed and brainwashed them,” giving the family “obsessive attention, lavish gifts, access to his famous lifestyle, and declarations that he loved and needed each of them.”
The suit also alleges that Jackson was “constantly under the influence of drugs and was frequently intoxicated,” while also giving the young plaintiffs “alcohol, marijuana, hard illegal drugs, and prescription drugs, including Xanax, Vicodin, and Viagra.” He also called wine “Jesus juice” and hard liquor “Disney juice.” They allege Jackson had code phrases for the abuse sessions that included “Can I have a meeting” and “Go to Disneyland.”
The family says Jackson “repeatedly emphasized that all of their lives, and the lives of plaintiffs’ family members, would be destroyed if his sexual activity with them was discovered” and “coached them on what to say if a police officer or other adult asked if he was harassing them.” The suit adds that Jackson’s employees, advisors, lawyers and doctors “knew of, aided and abetted Jackson’s abuse, whether by facilitating or concealing it.”
Michael It opens this weekend and is expected to set a box office record for a musical biopic.
These accusations come in the wake of Leaving Neverland says director Dan Reed Hollywood Reporter That’s popular Michael I mean, “People don’t care that he was a child molester. Literally, people don’t care…so I think a lot of people will kind of accept any doubts they might have and kind of say, ‘Well, that’s a great movie musical’ and completely ignore the fact that this guy was worse than Jeffrey Epstein.”
