Jermaine Jackson, the older brother of the late Michael Jackson and member of the Jackson 5, is being accused of sexual assault in a new lawsuit.
According to the suit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on Wednesday, Jackson, 69, is being sued by Rita Barrett, who claims the singer sexually assaulted her in 1988. Barrett is suing Jackson on claims of sexual battery, battery, sexual assault and negligence. She is pushing for a jury trial to resolve the suit.
Barrett, who was the wife of Ben Barrett, a friend and business partner of Motown record label founder Berry Gordy, alleges Jackson “with force and violence sexually assaulted” her in or around the spring of 1988, after forcing his way into her home. The suit says Barrett “feared for her life” during the alleged assault and that she has suffered “in silence and shame for decades.”
Barrett also claims Gordy, now 94, who was a family friend at the time, “withheld and concealed the acts, further perpetuating the coverup.”
“Because of his relationships with both” Jackson and Barrett’s family, the lawsuit states, “Mr. Gordy was uniquely situated to both report” the assault and help Barrett after the incident.
USA TODAY has reached out to reps for Jackson and Gordy for comment.
The lawsuit names Jackson’s companies, Jermaine L. Jackson Music Productions and Work Records, as co-defendants.
Barrett filed her lawsuit under California’s Sexual Abuse and Cover-Up Accountability Act, which allows civil suits in cases of sexual assault that are now beyond the statute of limitations where “one or more entities are legally responsible for damages and the entity or their agents engaged in a ‘cover up.'”
The act allows for lawsuits to be filed through the end of 2023, or the end of 2026 for assaults that have occurred since 2009.
Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee and Mike Greene, the former Recording Academy CEO, have been accused of sexual assault in separate suits filed under the law earlier this month.
A similar law in New York saw lawsuits filed against Sean “Diddy” Combs and his former Bad Boy president Harve Pierre, Jamie Foxx, Axl Rose, Russell Brand, Interscope Records co-founder Jimmy Iovine, music executive L.A. Reid, Cuba Gooding Jr., and more.
Pop music magnate Michael Jackson was also accused prior to and following his 2009 death of sexual abuse, with lawsuits against him being revived by an appeals court earlier this year. The younger Jackson brother is accused in lawsuits from Wade Robson and James Safechuck of sexually abusing them for years when they were boys.
Adult Survivors Act: Why so many sexual assault lawsuits have been filed under New York law
