Michael Jackson trial
| People v. Michael Jackson | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Court | Santa Barbara County Superior Court |
| Full case name | People of the State of California v. Michael Joseph Jackson |
| Decided | June 13, 2005 |
| Court membership | |
| Judge(s) sitting | Rodney Melville |
People v. Jackson (full case name: 1133603: The People of the State of California v. Michael Joseph Jackson) was a 2005 trial involving American recording artist Michael Jackson, where he was found not guilty on all charges. A 13-year-old boy that Jackson had befriended named Gavin Arvizo accused him of sexual abuse. Jackson was indicted for four counts of molesting a minor, four counts of intoxicating a minor in order to molest him, one count of attempted child molestation, and one count of conspiring to hold the boy and his family captive at his 2,700-acre (11 km2) Neverland Ranch, as well as conspiring to commit extortion and child abduction. He denied all counts. On June 13, 2005, the jury found Jackson not guilty on all fourteen charges, which included all of the above plus four lesser misdemeanor counts.
In a 2003 Granada Television documentary titled Living with Michael Jackson, British journalist Martin Bashir interviewed Jackson extensively over a period of 8 months. The film was broadcast in the UK on February 3, 2003, and in the U.S. three days later. In one scene, Jackson introduces the Arvizo children and they talk happily about Gavin's unexpected recovery from cancer. Then Gavin and Jackson are interviewed together, Gavin holding Jackson's hand and at one point resting his head on Jackson's shoulder. At the trial, Gavin testified that Jackson initiated the hand-holding, but that he had put his head on Jackson's shoulder because he was "really close to Jackson" and Jackson was his "best friend". In the video, Gavin tells Bashir about a night when he slept in Jackson's bed. He says that he and Jackson both offered to sleep on the floor and give each other the bed, but in the end Jackson slept on the floor while Gavin and Star slept in the bed. Jackson stated in the documentary that many children, including Macaulay Culkin, his younger brother Kieran, and his sisters had slept in Jackson's bed. When Bashir asked if Jackson could see why some people might disapprove, Jackson said, "See, when you say 'bed,' you're thinking sexual. They make that sexual. It's not sexual; we're going to sleep."
Later, the boy complained that he had not realized that the footage would be broadcast all over the world and that, after it aired, he was teased by his friends. His mother stated that she had not given Bashir permission to film her son and was not even aware of the filming prior to the broadcast.
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