A LOS Angeles judge has named Michael Jackson’s mother as the permanent guardian of the singer’s three children but ordered a court investigator’s report in eight weeks on how they are being cared for.
Judge Mitchell Beckloff also approved the payment of a monthly allowance to the three children from Jackson’s estate but declined to make public the amount.
The judge rejected a move by an attorney for Jackson’s dermatologist Arnold Klein to block the granting of custody of the children, who range in age from seven to 12, to Katherine Jackson.
After Jackson’s death on June 25th, Dr Klein denied that he was the biological father of the singer’s children, telling CNN that “to the best of my knowledge” he was not their father.
The judge said that Dr Klein did not have legal standing to object to the award of custody, but that he was free to make objections in the future.
The judge revealed that that Jackson’s two oldest children, Prince Michael and Paris Michael, filed declarations stating their wishes for who would raise them but he declined to give details of the declarations.
The decision to grant custody to Mrs Jackson (79) follows a deal agreed last week between the Jackson family and Debbie Rowe, the mother of two of the children.
Under the agreement, Ms Rowe will be allowed to see her children in visits co-ordinated by a child psychologist. Lawyers for both sides said that Ms Rowe, who received an $8.5 million (€5.9 million) divorce settlement from Jackson almost a decade ago, will not receive any further payment under the new agreement.
Later yesterday, the judge was due to consider a challenge by Mrs Jackson of the lawyer and former music executive named as executors in Michael Jackson’s will.
Mrs Jackson’s attorneys filed a petition last week accusing attorney John Branca and music executive John McClain of being “intent on keeping her in the dark” about deals they have made or are in the process of negotiating on behalf of the estate.
More than a month after his fatal collapse, the cause of Jackson’s death remains a mystery and the Los Angeles coroner’s office has indefinitely delayed the release of the results of an autopsy.
In an interview on Fox News this week, Mrs Jackson said she did not believe her son had died of natural causes.
“All I know is that my son is dead, and I don’t think he just died of natural causes or whatever,” she said.
“He’s too young for that. Something happened, I don’t know what it was and I can’t say.”
Police last week searched the Las Vegas home and office of Conrad Murray, the doctor who was with Jackson and tried to revive him before he died.
Dr Murray has not been named as a suspect and officials have declined to give details of the investigation into Jackson’s death.
Media reports suggest that investigators are focusing on the possible role powerful, painkilling drugs may have played in the singer’s death.