Another Jackson brother is being accused of sexual assault. Michael Jackson’s older brother Jermaine is facing accusations of rape and sexual assault. The woman, Rita Butler Barrett, says the incident in question took place in the spring of 1988, and Jermaine conspired to keep it quiet to preserve his reputation.
Barrett filed the lawsuit in a Los Angeles Superior Court under the state’s Sexual Abuse and Cover Up Accountability Act, which grants civil suits in sexual assault cases that expired due to the statute of limitations if one or more parties are legally responsible or if there was a cover-up involved. Under the act, suits were able to be filed through Dec. 31, 2023. Her lawsuit comes after other major acts in the music industry, including Sean “Diddy” Combs, have faced similar allegations.
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Barrett claimed in the suit that she knew Jackson through her husband’s personal and business relationship with Berry Gordy. Gordy is the founder of Motown Records, which The Jackson 5 were signed to, and a string of popular acts of the 60s and 70s including Diana Ross & the Supremes, Smokey Robinson, Marvin Gaye, and The Temptations. Barrett claims Jermain forced himself into her home, and “with force and violence sexually assaulted” her, NBC News reports. She says she feared for her life during and after the alleged assault.ย
Despite such, she says she reported the assault to Gordy, but he did nothing about it, not even reporting it to the authorities. Instead, Barrett says Gordy used his influence to cover up the assault.
“Because of his relationships with both Defendant Jackson and Plaintiff’s family, Mr. Gordy was uniquely situated to both report Defendant Jackson’s acts and to aid Plaintiff during her time of trauma. Instead, Mr. Gordy withheld and concealed the acts, further perpetuating the coverup and allowing Mr. Gordy, Defendant Jackson, and others in the business relationship to continue to reap profits derived from Mr. Jackson’s work and reputation for years to come,” the complaint said.
