The Jackson family singer never showed up. He never hired a lawyer. He never filed a response. And now Jermaine Jackson has been ordered to pay a rape accuser more than $6.5 million without ever stepping foot in a courtroom.
A Los Angeles judge entered a default judgment against the Jackson 5 legend after he completely ignored a lawsuit filed against him in December 2023. The ruling orders him to pay Rita Butler Barrett just over $6.5 million in damages plus medical expenses and court costs.
Barrett filed her lawsuit under California’s Sexual Abuse and Cover Up Accountability Act, a law designed to give survivors more time to bring forward older claims that would otherwise be barred by statutes of limitations. She alleges that in the spring of 1988, Jackson showed up unannounced at her Encino home, forced his way inside, and violently raped her.
According to court documents, she knew Jackson through music industry connections and his ties to the Musicians’ Union. During the alleged attack, she says she feared for her life and believed she was in imminent danger of serious bodily harm or death . The lawsuit states that Jackson stopped abruptly after several minutes and left her home, leaving her traumatized.
Here is where the case takes a strange procedural turn. Barrett’s legal team says they could not find Jackson through traditional methods of serving a lawsuit. They obtained court approval to serve him through legal notices published in the Los Angeles Times instead. Notices ran for four consecutive weeks in August and September 2025.
Then they had to do it again. The court approved a second round of publication notices in February 2026 to serve Jackson with a statement of damages . Both rounds ran without any response from the singer.
Under civil procedure rules, a default judgment is what courts issue when a defendant fails to respond to a lawsuit within the required timeframe . The judge reviews the claim, confirms procedural requirements were met, and rules in the plaintiff’s favor. No trial. No defense. No defendant required in the room.
The singer has not publicly responded to the allegations or the judgment. Court records show he never filed an answer to the lawsuit. His legal team did not appear. For reasons unknown, he chose not to engage with the proceedings at all.
Barrett is also seeking to recover more than $7,100 in legal costs tied to filing fees and the publication notices. If the judge approves the full request, Jackson could be held liable for the entire amount with very limited options to challenge it after the fact.
The judgment comes at a moment when Jermaine is otherwise in the public eye. He recently announced an updated edition of his memoir about his late brother Michael, titled You Are Not Alone: Michael, Through a Brother’s Eyes, set for release in April 2026. The book features a new introduction reflecting on Michael’s lasting legacy.
For Barrett, the judgment represents years of persistence through an unusual legal process. For Jackson, it is a multi-million dollar loss incurred by silence alone.
