page_title: Trial of Michael Jackson
section_title: Background
hierarchical_section_title: Trial of Michael Jackson / Background
caption_attribution_description: Aerial:Neverland rides gone
context_page_description: People v. Jackson was a 2005 criminal trial held in Santa Barbara County Superior Court in Santa Maria, California, in which American singer Michael Jackson was charged with molesting Gavin Arvizo, a cancer patient in remission who was thirteen years old at the time of the alleged abuse. Jackson was indicted on four counts of molesting a minor, four counts of intoxicating a minor to molest him, one count of attempted child molestation, one count of conspiring to hold the boy and his family captive, and conspiring to commit extortion and child abduction. The trial spanned approximately four months, beginning with jury selection that began on January 31, 2005. The jury returned a not guilty verdict on June 13, 2005.
  Jackson had previously been accused of child sexual abuse in 1993. He denied the allegations and settled with the accuser's family out of court, which ended the lawsuit. Prosecutors dropped the criminal investigation after the accuser refused to cooperate. In the 2005 case, Jackson was accused of abusing Arvizo at his Neverland Ranch estate in Los Olivos, California.
context_section_description: In 1993, Jackson was accused of child sexual abuse by a 13-year-old boy, Jordan Chandler. The abuse allegedly took place at Jackson's Neverland Ranch home in Santa Barbara, California. In January 1994, Jackson settled the lawsuit made against him for $23 million, with $5 million going to the family's lawyers. Prosecutors pursued the criminal case and presented the evidence to two separate grand juries, neither of which indicted.
  Gavin Arvizo was introduced to Jackson by Jamie Masada in 2000, when Arvizo was diagnosed with cancer. Arvizo's father, David Arvizo, separated from Arvizo's mother, often asked celebrities for money to support his son's cancer treatments. Arvizo was receiving chemotherapy and required the removal of his spleen and left kidney. Jackson and Arvizo became friends, and Jackson invited Arvizo and his family to Neverland Ranch. Arvizo thanked Jackson for "helping [him] be happy and beat cancer". After a few visits at Neverland, Arvizo claimed Jackson suddenly stopped calling him and felt abandoned.
  In 2002, Jackson invited Arvizo, now 12 years old, to be a part of an ITV documentary, Living with Michael Jackson. Presenter Martin Bashir interviewed Jackson over eight months for the film. Jackson and Arvizo were seen holding hands, and Bashir asked Jackson about the appropriateness of a grown man having sleepovers and sharing a bed with a young person. Jackson insisted that it was not sexual. The controversial conversation went:
  Bashir: But is it really appropriate for a 44-year-old man to share a bedroom with a child that is not related to him at all?
  Jackson: That's a beautiful thing.
  Bashir: That's not a worrying thing?
  Jackson: Why should that be worrying? Who's the criminal? Who's Jack the Ripper in the room? There's some guy trying to heal a healing child.... I'm in a sleeping bag on the floor. I gave him the bed because he has a brother named Star. So, him and Star took the bed and I'm on the floor on sleeping bag.
  Bashir: Did you ever sleep in the bed with them [Gavin and Star]?
  Jackson: No. But I have slept in a bed with many children. I slept in a bed with all of them when Macaulay Culkin was little: Kieran Culkin would sleep on this side, Macaulay Culkin was on this side, his sisters in there.... We all would just jam in the bed, you know. We would wake up like dawn and go in the hot air balloon, you know, we had the footage. I have all that footage.
  The film drew controversy and calls for Jackson's children to be removed from his custody. Jackson called the documentary deceptive and a "gross distortion of the truth". Bashir defended his interview and dismissed accusations of distortion: "Here's an individual who is 44 years old, sleeping in the bed of children who have no biological relationship with him. I did not set out to ensnare him with a child." A two-hour special, The Michael Jackson Interview: The Footage You Were Never Meant to See, recorded by Jackson's production team, was screened by Fox Television in attempt to vindicate him. Jackson decided to release the tape after feeling betrayed by Bashir. Macaulay Culkin went on Larry King Live to defend Jackson and said, "Everything that's going on is unfortunate.... Nothing happened [at the Ranch]. We played video games... I don't think [they] understand. Michael Jackson's bedroom is two stories and has three bathrooms. When I slept in his bedroom, you have to understand the whole scenario. The thing is that, with Michael, he isn't very good at explaining himself."
  Santa Barbara district attorney Tom Sneddon initially said, under Californian law, merely sleeping with a child without "affirmative, offensive conduct" was not a criminal offense, and "sleeping in bed with a kid is not a crime that I know of". Gloria Gruber, president of Prevent Child Abuse California, wanted state authorities to interview the children with whom Jackson shared a bed. "The fact that he sleeps with children who are unrelated to him is definitely a red flag and concern," she said. Arvizo's mother, Janet Arvizo, criticized Bashir's documentary as a "gross distor
caption: Jackson's Neverland Ranch in 2008, the site of the alleged sexual abuse
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