Los Angeles: The biopic on Michael Jackson is receiving a positive response in theatres, even as the late pop icon’s estate faces fresh molestation allegations, reigniting controversy around his legacy.
This time, the allegations have been levelled by four siblings from New Jersey who say they were groomed and abused for years and that the many handlers in his entourage willingly enabled it all, reports ‘Variety’.
The lawsuit by the four siblings, three brothers and a sister, was filed in February in Los Angeles federal court. It gained attention on Friday after the plaintiffs gave an extensive interview to the New York Times about the alleged abuse and the legal manipulation that the family claims they endured at the hands of the Jackson estate long after the superstar’s death in 2009.
As per ‘Variety’, the complaint names the Jackson estate and the attorneys who lead it, John Branca and John McLain, and private investigator Herman Weisberg as defendants. The complaint asserts that Weisberg and other lawyers affiliated with Jackson were falsely presented to the Cascio family as representing their interests in negotiating a settlement with the estate.
The complaint includes disturbing details of alleged abuse committed while Jackson was traveling in the U.S. and abroad on concert tours. It alleges that Jackson also abused the four siblings in their own home in New Jersey, when Jackson was visiting with his own children.
Representatives for the estate are calling the suit “a desperate money grab” and “shakedown attempt,” and they claim that the family sought money from the Jackson estate in exchange for not going public with their allegations.
The complaint stated, “Michael Jackson was a serial child predator who, over the course of more than a decade, drugged, raped and sexually assaulted each of the Plaintiffs, beginning when some of them were as young as seven or eight. Jackson’s attacks on these siblings went on for extended periods, including in locations around the world and when Jackson and his children were guests in Plaintiffs’ family home”.
“Jackson groomed and brainwashed each Plaintiff, without the knowledge of the others or their parents, throughout their childhood years”, they added.
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