Trial of Michael Jackson - The Trial

The Trial

The jury selection for the trial started on January 31, 2005, and the trial ended on June 13, 2005, when the jury returned a unanimous Not Guilty verdict on all fourteen charges. Of the twelve jurors, eight were women and four were men. There were eight alternate jurors, consisting of four men and four women. Ron Zonen conducted jury selection for the prosecution; Tom Mesereau for the defense. Tom Sneddon gave the opening statement for the prosecution; Tom Mesereau for the defense. Ron Zonen gave the closing argument for the prosecution; Tom Mesereau for the defense. Tom Sneddon, Ron Zonen, Mag Nicola and Gordon Auchinloss examined witnesses for the prosecution; Tom Mesereau and Robert Sanger for the defense. Brian Oxman was eventually removed from the defense team in the middle of the trial by Mesereau and Yu. Outside the courtroom, there were 2,200 reporters covering the trial, more than the O.J Simpson and Scott Peterson trials combined. Because no television cameras were allowed inside the courtroom, E! and British Sky Broadcasting broadcast a re-enactment of the trial.

The first witness the prosecution called was Martin Bashir, who unsuccessfully fought his subpoena and brought an attorney with him from ABC. His direct testimony was short; he gave some career background and testified that he had produced the show Living With Michael Jackson, which was then played in its entirety for the courtroom. In cross examination, Bashir's attorney objected to most of the questions, citing the California Constitution's journalist shield law and the First Amendment privilege for journalists, which he believed exempted Bashir from questions relating to unpublished footage of his documentary, or information about how it was prepared and produced. Judge Melville decided that he would overrule the objections, giving Bashir the choice to answer or follow his lawyer's advice, and Melville would review the testimony later to decide about charging Bashir with contempt of court. Bashir refused to answer any of the questions his attorney objected to, which were mostly about what the defense suggested were examples of him deceiving and manipulating Jackson.

On the morning of March 10, 2005, Jackson was hospitalized due to a back injury. The judge threatened to issue an arrest warrant and forfeiture of the bail, if Jackson did not show up within an hour. Jackson was rushed to the courthouse still wearing pajama pants and slippers. This incident was heavily covered in the media, with Bill Fallon even suggesting Jackson's attire indicated his guilt, calling Jackson "a nut," "mentally ill," and saying, "if anybody has any question about Michael Jackson being able to commit this crime...this proves he doesn't listen to anybody."

The alleged first sexual act was Jackson masturbating Gavin on Jackson's bed. Jackson allegedly initiated the molestation by urging the accuser to masturbate, telling him that boys who didn't "might rape a girl." However, in a police interview before the trial, Gavin was asked what he knew about masturbation and he said, “My grandma explained it to me. She told me that...if men don’t do it...they might go ahead and rape a woman”. When asked about this coincidence, the accuser maintained that both his grandmother and Jackson had happened to tell him the same thing, but with different motives. The accuser testified that during that first sexual incident, he was wearing pajamas given to him by Jackson, and that the two of them "were under the covers." Jackson allegedly manipulated the accuser's genitals for about five minutes, causing the accuser to ejaculate (count 2). Afterwards, the accuser said, Jackson told him "it was okay" and they "just went to sleep." The next night, Gavin testified, "the same thing happened again" (count 3), in Jackson's bed, both of them wearing Jackson's pajamas, but now they were on top of the covers, and maybe "watching T.V. or something." This time, Jackson also tried to guide the accuser's hand to Jackson's genitals, but the accuser pulled away (count 6). Gavin couldn't remember for sure if he ejaculated the second time but he thought he did. In an early interview with Sneddon, the accuser claimed he had been molested before the rebuttal video, but in court he testified that all the molestation was after the video was filmed. The number of times he claimed to have been molested is also unclear, as he only testified in court to two incidents, but he had previously told Sergeant Steve Robel that he thought it was "between five and seven times."

The accuser's 14-year-old brother Star testified that he'd walked into Jackson's bedroom and seen Jackson masturbating himself and the sleeping accuser. He testified that he'd meant to go to sleep in Jackson's room, had found the door "kind of locked, so pushed it, and it opened" and walked some ways into the room and stopped when he saw what Gavin and Michael were doing. He testified they were on the bed "outside of the covers," Jackson was on his back with his eyes closed and Gavin was "curled up" facing away from Jackson and was "kind of snoring." Star couldn't remember what his brother had been wearing but said it might have been "pants or underwears," and that Jackson was wearing "socks, underwears and an undershirt," but later said Jackson's "hand was in his pants." He variously used the words "pants" and "underwears" for both Gavin and Jackson to describe what they were wearing. One aspect that made his testimony weak was that Star, the only witness to the alleged molestation, claimed he twice walked in on Jackson molesting Gavin and was completely unnoticed, even while tripping the alarm system in the hallway leading to Jackson's bedroom. There was an alarm or bell noise that sounded whenever someone approached, and Star claimed that on both occasions the alarm went off and Jackson just did not hear it, or see or hear the boy come and go. Star said he stood watching for about four seconds before he "just went back to the guest units." Star testified that two days later he had an almost identical experience. He allegedly walked into Jackson's bedroom and saw that "the same thing was happening," with Jackson "masturbating, stroking up and down" and his other hand moving around in Star's sleeping "brother's underwears." This time Star only stayed for three seconds before returning to the guest units. Star's account of the sexual act on the second occasion neither matched the description he gave during an interview with the psychologist Stanley Katz nor his statement given in police interviews in 2003. Star Arvizo said in an interview with the psychologist Stanley Katz on May 29, 2003, that he witnessed Jackson placing his hand on Gavin's crotch outside his clothes. On July 7, 2003, during his first interview with sheriff's investigators, Star's story changed. He claimed during the first incident Jackson placed his left hand under the front of his brother's pajama pants. Star Arvizo changed his account a third time in a police interview on August 13, 2003, when he claimed Jackson had placed his hand inside the front of his brother's boxer shorts. Dr. Katz' grand jury testimony about what Star had told him included a story about Jackson "rubbing his penis against Gavin’s buttocks" and another about smelling marijuana. In court, Star denied that he'd made the allegations and refused Mesereau's offer to "refresh recollection that page of testimony."

The accuser and his brother both testified that on one brief occasion, they saw Jackson naked, but the boys described the incident differently. According to Star, the brothers were watching a movie on Jackson's bed and Jackson came in to fetch "something." Star testified that Jackson "had a hard-on," and that he told the boys, who were "grossed out," that nudity was natural. Star said Jackson stayed for two minutes and sat on the bed, but neither brother spoke a word during that time. According to Gavin, the boys were "just laying there" when Jackson "ran up there and got something and went back downstairs," without saying anything. Gavin did not describe Jackson as having an erection.

The accuser's mother, Janet Arvizo, testified that on a flight from Miami to Los Angeles, she "saw Michael licking Gavin’s head" while he was asleep. Before she testified about it, she turned to the jury and said, "please don't judge me." Jackson allegedly had an arm around the boy and licked his hair "over and over" while everyone else on the plane was asleep. Janet said she didn't tell any one what she'd seen, and she continued to let her children stay at Neverland, and she later testified that at a point weeks after that incident, she still didn't have "any concerns about Mr. Jackson at all". Star contradicted his mother when he testified that he had been awake to also witness Jackson lick Gavin's head on the plane; he didn't say anyone was asleep, just that the accuser was not feeling well and had leaned against Jackson's chest. Cynthia Bell, a flight attendant on that flight, testified that she'd been awake and could see everyone, and that she saw no inappropriate touching.

Many witnesses testified that the Arvizo children were poorly behaved and demanding. Jackson staff members gave evidence that they broke into Mr. Jackson's wine cellar, and had been caught in Jackson's bedroom on their own and going through his things. The housekeeper Kiki Fournier testified that the guest quarters that were assigned to the boys were trashed by them and at one point the accuser's brother pointed a knife at her in Jackson's kitchen. Cynthia Bell, a flight attendant on a plane carrying the Arvizo children, Jackson and others, testified that Gavin was "very rude" and "obnoxious" during the flight, started a food fight, and bragged to her that Jackson would buy him anything.

Witness George Lopez, who has been a friend of the accuser's family, gave the family money, but had a falling out when the father kept asking for more. Lopez also described an incident when the Arvizos allegedly tried to con Lopez by framing him for stealing $300 from Gavin's wallet. This allegation was used to illustrate a pattern of family behavior. However, the accuser's sister, Davellin, testified that these problems were all caused by her father, before the divorce. Other popular comedians testified about their run-ins with the Arvizos. Chris Tucker claimed he had felt sorry for them and had taken them out, bought them things, and given them money but he felt the Arvizos expected too much, calling him their "brother" and taking advantage of him. He testified that he had warned Michael Jackson about the family, who he called "cunning." Jay Leno testified that Gavin Arvizo called him and praised him lavishly with a woman directing him in the background. He was suspicious and ordered his staff not to let any more of these calls through.

On the first day of her testimony, the accuser's mother, Janet Arvizo, took the Fifth Amendment regarding welfare fraud and perjury allegations. Melville ruled that she could testify without being questioned about the fraud and perjury allegations. The defense would later have the opportunity to present other evidence for the welfare fraud. She admitted that she had lied under oath in the J.C. Penney case, and other witnesses testified that Janet had lied about the alleged sexual assault by J.C. Penney employees, and that she had coached her children to corroborate her story.

After leaving Neverland, the accuser told his school administrator that Jackson had not molested him. During the trial, he claimed that this was a lie as he was teased after Living with Michael Jackson aired and reasoned that he didn't want them to think anything really happened. The timeline is unclear, because the alleged molestation did not occur until after the documentary aired. The accuser testified that he was always happy at Neverland, and that only as he was leaving did he realize he didn't want to be there anymore.