Photo Credit: Jermaine Jackson (@officialjermainejackson / Instagram)
Jermaine Jackson was ordered to pay $6.5 million after failing to respond to a lawsuit filed by a woman who accused him of rape in a 1988 incident.
Jermaine Jackson has been ordered to pay over $6.5 million to a woman who accused him of rape, after he failed to respond to her lawsuit concerning an alleged 1988 incident. The default judgement was filed on Thursday (May 14) in Los Angeles County Superior Court.
The complaint, filed in December 2023 by Rita Butler Barrett, alleged that the now-71-year-old Jackson showed up uninvited to her home around the spring of 1988 and forced his way inside. She claimed he violently sexually assaulted her and left once he was “satiated.”
Barrett said that she knew Jackson through her husband, Ben Barrett, who worked closely with Motown Records founder and legend Berry Gordy. Her lawsuit claimed that Gordy had a “business and/or management relationship” with Jackson at the time of the alleged assault. Notably, Jackson was also married to Gordy’s daughter Hazel from 1973 to 1988.
She claimed she reported the incident to Gordy the following day and accused him and others in the business of concealing it to protect Jackson’s career. Barrett further asserted that there was a broader cover-up to conceal the alleged assault for “the purpose of profit and preservation of reputation.”
According to Barrett’s lawyers, they were unable to track Jackson down to serve the suit, but received court approval to executive service via legal notice. Since he never responded to the suit, the court issued a default judgement in Barrett’s favor.
The news comes as Jermaine Jackson finds himself in the spotlight again. He recently appeared alongside his son, Jaafar Jackson, at the Los Angeles premiere of Michael, the record-breaking biopic in which Jaafar plays his uncle, the late King of Pop.
Jermaine Jackson rose to fame alongside his brothers in the Jackson 5 as the bass guitarist and second vocalist after his younger brother Michael, from 1964 to 1975. He rejoined the group, renamed the Jacksons, in 1983 and consistently played with them in performances and recordings until 2020.
