Overview
- Rita Butler Barrett asked a Los Angeles judge on Friday to enter a default for $6.5 million plus about $7,100 in costs, which would award damages without a defense if granted.
- Her lawyers say they could not locate Jackson for personal service, and a judge allowed legal notices to run in the Los Angeles Times across August and September 2025.
- A second set of notices ran in February 2026 to serve a statement of damages, according to the court filings.
- The suit, filed in December 2023 under California’s Sexual Abuse and Cover Up Accountability Act, alleges Jackson forced his way into Barrett’s Encino home and raped her in spring 1988.
- All three outlets report the request is pending, and some coverage notes the development comes as public attention refocuses on the Jackson family with the new “Michael” biopic.