Michael Jackson ’s estate has won a major procedural fight after a Los Angeles federal judge ruled that four Cascio siblings must take their sexual abuse and trafficking claims to private arbitration instead of a public trial. The ruling enforces a 2019 settlement agreement, meaning Edward, Dominic, Marie Nicole, and Aldo Cascio cannot currently litigate their allegations against the estate in open court. Judge Hernán D. Vera acknowledged the seriousness of the allegations but concluded that the agreement’s arbitration language left him no legal option to keep the case in federal court. The siblings’ attorney, Howard King, said the family wanted a jury to decide whether they were misled into signing an unfair contract, while the Jackson estate’s representatives were contacted for comment. What Happens to the Claims Now? The Cascio siblings allege that Jackson abused and sexually trafficked them as children from the late 1980s through 2009, when Jackson died. According to their lawsuit, Jackson supplied alcohol and drugs through employees, separated the siblings from one another, and warned that their family would be “ruined” if they disclosed the alleged sexual conduct. The family had publicly supported Jackson during his 2003 trial involving allegations from 13 year old Gavin Arvizo; Jackson was acquitted. The siblings later said the 2019 documentary Leaving Neverland changed how they understood their relationship with Jackson, after years of calling themselves his “second family.” In 2020, the family reached a roughly $16 million settlement with the estate over five years, but the deal included confidentiality, non-disparagement, and binding arbitration provisions. Their eldest sibling, Frank Cascio, filed a separate lawsuit, and a California judge sent that case to arbitration in March under the same agreement.