After years of avoiding a lawsuit, Jermaine Jackson must now face the music.
The former Jackson 5 vocalist, and father of Michael star Jaafar Jackson, has been ordered to pay more than $6.5 million to a woman who sued him for rape and sexual assault in December 2023.
On Thursday, a default judgment filed in Los Angeles Superior Court ruled that Jackson must compensate his accuser Rita Butler Barrett for damages, according to PEOPLE.
The alleged incident took place back in 1988, when Barrett claims Jackson forced his way into her home and sexually assaulted her with “force and violence.” According to her lawsuit, Barrett “feared for her life.”
Jackson had been known to Barrett for years, she stated, due to their “professional and personal connections”: her husband, Ben Barrett, worked with Motown Records founder Berry Gordy, who signed the Jackson 5 in 1968. Five years later, Jermaine married Gordy’s eldest daughter Hazel Joy, with whom he had three children.
At the time of the alleged incident, Jackson was separated from Hazel, who filed for divorce in November 1987 after he had a child with mistress Margaret Maldonado.
In the 2023 complaint, Barrett stated she reported the alleged assault to Gordy the very next day; however, he “withheld and concealed the acts” to protect Jackson, who was signed to Motown Records as a solo artist.
As a result of the incident, Barrett claims she “suffered severe emotional, physical, and psychological injury, including humiliation, shame, guilt, economic loss, economic capacity, and permanent emotional distress,” according to the lawsuit.
Credit: yahonews.com
