Jackson's Mom Loses Court Battle Over Will

An LA judge shot down Katherine Jackson’s request to keep control of her son’s estate today, handing the keys instead to the executors named in Michael’s 2002 will, the LA Times reports. Katherine Jackson said she wasn’t challenging the will’s legitimacy, but argued that a more recent will may exist. She said she was concerned that the named executors, John Branca and John McClain, weren’t the right men for the job.

Jackson fired Branca in 2006, but rehired him recently. Attorneys for McClain and Branca said an exhaustive search hadn’t revealed another will, and noted that Katherine had known the two for 40 and 30 years respectively, so it’s “not like Katherine didn’t know them.” The judge said the will’s age wasn’t out of the ordinary, and set another court date for August 3. (More Michael Jackson stories.)