Retired judge to rule over Jacko 'family matter'

Michael Jackson and his ex-wife, Deborah Rowe, have agreed to hire a retired judge to handle an unspecified “family law matter”, according to a court document.

The matter is believed to concern custody and visitation arrangements for the couple’s two children – a boy, seven, and a girl, who is five or six, who reportedly live with Jackson.

In an order filed on Friday, a judge approved an agreement reached by Jackson and Rowe on January 27 to have retired Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Stephen Lachs preside over the case. Lachs works with a centre for alternative dispute resolution that allows parties in civil disputes to hire private judges for €640 an hour.

“They hire private judges so that everything can be done behind closed doors,” said lawyer Dana Cole, an expert in family law who is not involved in the case.

It has been reported that Rowe wants to change the terms of the custody and visitation agreements involving the two children.

With Jackson facing trial on child molestation charges, Cole said such a request would not be unusual.

Rowe’s lawyer, Iris Finsilver, did not immediately return a call for comment. A call to Jackson lawyer Lance Spiegel was answered by a recording saying Spiegel’s law firm did not respond to media requests for comment.

Cole noted that the private judge’s rulings would be as binding as if they were made in a regular family court, but would also remain private.

Rowe and Jackson were married in 1996 in Sydney, Australia, after they announced that Rowe, who worked as a nurse for Jackson’s plastic surgeon, was carrying the pop star’s child.

She gave birth to a son, Prince Michael, who recently turned seven, and the couple later had a daughter, Paris, who is five or six. Jackson has a third child, Prince Michael II, who is believed to be about 10 months old, but he has not disclosed the identity of the boy’s mother.

It was Prince Michael II Jackson who made headlines last year when Jackson dangled him from the balcony of a Berlin hotel for fans to see.

The Jackson-Rowe marriage ended in 1999 after Rowe filed for divorce, citing irreconcilable differences.

Meanwhile, in Indianapolis yesterday, a federal judge removed Jackson from a copyright infringement suit.

The judge ruled that the Indiana-born entertainer had no involvement in a disputed compilation of songs performed by the Jackson 5 decades ago.

Members of a Gary-based rhythm and blues group had accused Jackson of misrepresenting their work as his own on the 1996 release Pre-History: The Lost Steeltown Recordings.

Their lawsuit accused Jackson and the other Jackson 5 members – Tito, Marlon, Jackie and Jermaine Jackson – of trade-name and copyright infringement. The four others reached an out-of-court settlement in December.