Michael Jackson: The Verdict (2026) s01e01 Episode Script
Episode 1
[dramatic music playing]
[tense music playing]
[sheriff 1] Sheriff's Department.
We need to talk to you a minute.
We're basically shutting down the gate.
We're gonna be controlling
who comes and who goes, okay?
- It's out of your control.
- What is the nature of…
That's not your business.
We're serving a search warrant.
[man over comm] 430, can you copy?
[sheriff 2] Now we're through the gate.
The subject, I repeat,
the subject is not on property.
Do you copy?
[sheriff 1] Here's the bridge
we gotta go over.
And the house is right there.
[tense music continues]
[sheriff 1] You guys see a uniform?
- [man 1] Hi.
- [sheriff 1] How are you doing?
Sheriff's Department.
We have a search warrant.
[tense music continues]
[man 2 on TV] This is a Fox News alert.
Police right now
searching Michael Jackson's
Neverland Ranch in California…
[woman 2] We are told this is part
of an ongoing investigation.
[man 3] …alleging criminal misconduct
on the part of Michael Jackson.
Come this way.
[indistinct police radio chatter]
- [sheriff 2] Copy.
- [sheriff 1] Okay.
And this is Mr. Jackson's main area?
Sheriff's Department.
[sheriff 2] Yeah, go ahead.
[sheriff 1] Whose office is this?
[woman 1] This is his office.
[sheriff 1] This is Michael's?
[woman 1] Mr. Jackson's office.
[sheriff 2] Are there any secret rooms?
- [woman 1] Secret rooms?
- [sheriff 2] Yeah.
Behind a wall or something like that?
- [woman 1] Just the bathroom.
- [man 1] Only behind doors.
[sheriff 2] No hidden doors or anything?
[woman 1] No.
[tense, pensive music playing]
[man 4] The phone rings, and he says,
"Brian, the police
are raiding Neverland Ranch."
I go, "What are they doing there,
Mr. Jackson?"
"I don't know. I don't know."
He says, "Get your leads. Find out."
Wow.
Okay.
[sheriff 2] There could
be something in here.
[sheriff 1] Somebody needs
to go through it.
[sheriff 2] Hey, Jeff?
We have an upstairs.
[Brian] The search warrant indicates
that there is an accusation
by a 12-year-old boy
who says that he was molested.
It appears that they think
there's some kind of forensic evidence
which would be available to them,
which would include DNA,
hair samples, blood samples.
We don't know.
We don't know the identity of the child.
We don't know the specifics
of the accusations.
[man 5] When you're investigating
an allegation of child sexual abuse,
you rarely have witnesses to it.
We're looking for anything
that we could find
that tell us that this child
is giving us accurate information.
[crowd clamoring]
[man 6] He's the most famous man
in the world,
who's being accused
of the most heinous crime in the world.
[man 7] An arrest warrant
for Mr. Jackson has been issued
on multiple counts of child molestation.
[woman 3] Finally,
we're going to get some answers.
Is he guilty, or is he not guilty?
[ominous music playing]
Hm. Um…
I met Michael Jackson in, uh, 1970.
He was 12. I was 14.
- And we became friends.
- [pensive music playing]
- I told you that I love Michael.
- Uh-huh.
You love Michael.
[Randy] As a musician, you can see
the genius of Michael Jackson.
[man 1] On stage since the age of five…
[woman] Michael Jackson is a superstar.
[Reagan] …for the outstanding example
you have set for the youth of America…
[man 2] The album is still number one
after 57 weeks.
[Randy] Thriller is still, to this day,
the biggest-selling record of all time.
[man 3] His album Thriller,
the winner of seven Grammy Awards,
was still selling a million copies a year
15 years after its release.
[girls screaming]
[Randy] Without exaggeration,
I think Michael was
the most famous person in the world.
All the amazing talent.
[crowd screaming]
But then, you know,
you began to see the changes in him.
[woman] I mean, let's face it,
he's a little weird.
You know? He's just a little weird.
[unsettling music playing]
[Randy] The media was terrible
to Michael Jackson.
With all the Wacko Jacko stuff,
which was horrible.
"What's with the hyperbaric chamber?"
"What's with the plastic surgery?"
And Michael, he felt like
he was lonely and isolated.
But he was determined
to live his life his way.
Michael became friends
with all these kids.
You know, he didn't think it was strange,
but other people did.
A 13-year-old boy alleges a sexual
relationship with Michael Jackson.
[unsettling music continues]
The idea of Michael Jackson being
a pedophile was, like, mind-blowing.
It was the most far-fetched,
ridiculous thing you could have imagined.
The pop star angrily rejected
accusations he molested a young boy,
and lashed out at police and the media.
There have been many
disgusting statements made recently
concerning allegations
of improper conduct on my part.
These statements about me
are totally false.
[Randy] After all these
terrible allegations about Michael,
he had a hard time not just artistically,
but personally too.
I saw the hell
that it had inflicted on him.
He was so traumatized by that time.
He needed, like, a reset,
where he could actually tackle
some of these issues
and his image in the public eye.
- [music fades]
- [birds singing and chirping]
[pensive music playing]
[man] The first time I met Michael,
in London, June 2002…
his face is very heavily made up.
His hair's kind of messy.
He looks as though
he hadn't slept for very long.
[speaking indistinctly]
And it had been some years
since he was the King of Pop.
And yet, there's nobody comparable
to the size and magnitude
of a Michael Jackson.
And the other thing that obviously caused
an enormous amount of interest
were the scandals that surrounded him
and allegations of child sexual abuse
some years previously.
I said, "I'd love to make a film with you
if you were interested."
He said,
"Okay, come and see me in California."
[Randy] Talking about it with Michael,
I came to understand the reason
Michael was interested in Martin Bashir
was because of his interview
with Princess Diana,
who was somebody
Michael really kind of idolized.
[speaking indistinctly]
[Randy] He wanted to be portrayed
in a more human way
by the guy who did it for Princess Diana.
But Michael didn't do enough research
because if he had, he would have realized
that the Martin Bashir/Princess Diana
interview was kind of a disaster.
[Martin] Do you think
Mrs. Parker Bowles was a factor
in the breakdown of your marriage?
Well, there were three of us
in this marriage,
so it was a bit crowded. [laughs sadly]
That was the interview in which
she talked about three in a marriage,
and it really set her at odds
with the Royal Family,
and it… it…
it was a public relations disaster.
But Michael didn't follow the story
all the way to that.
He just stopped at the point
where he wanted to do it
because Princess Diana did it.
Michael trusted Martin Bashir,
and then Martin Bashir,
he was looking for a great story.
And Michael sort of handed him
this opportunity on a silver platter.
We didn't think that Neverland
was going to be the place
where this whole thing unraveled.
[ominous music playing]
[Martin] When I got onto Neverland,
I couldn't believe what I was seeing.
It was extraordinary.
There was this Ferris wheel,
a massive fairground.
And then I rode towards the zoo,
and I can remember seeing elephants,
giraffes, and a bear.
I made it clear
that I wanted to understand his life.
I thought he had
a strange relationship with children.
There had been allegations before.
There had been settlements.
Do you come out here on your own?
- Yeah.
- How often?
- All the time.
- You just come out on your own?
- Yes.
- What, and go on a ride?
Yup.
Usually the carousel. I'll play music.
I love playing classical music
on the carousel.
And what about the Ferris wheel?
I like the Ferris wheel.
It makes you wish and dream and…
- [Martin] Can we go on it?
- [Michael] Sure.
[Martin] Let's go on it.
When I met him,
he was increasingly isolated as a figure.
[pensive music playing]
There was none of the kind
of lawyers and PR and publicists
that normally surrounds
a major global superstar.
He was in control.
It was his idea
that we film in the dance studio.
I knew I had to ask him certain questions
that were going to be quite difficult.
But it was quite intimidating.
When you're dealing with
someone like Michael Jackson,
you don't tell him
what you're going to film.
But if we behaved appropriately,
and if he liked us,
then things would happen.
Use your heel to slide back.
- That is not easy. That is not easy.
- Really?
- [laughing] That's not easy.
- That's very good, though.
- That's the idea.
- You're a very kind man.
[pensive music continues]
I bought these.
- These. Right?
- [Martin] You got enough space for it all?
- [Michael] Yeah, I do.
- [Martin] You do?
[Michael] Yeah, and these we bought.
Okay, let's have a look at these ones.
They're beautiful.
[Martin] That's only 275,000 each.
I was getting on well with him.
The filming had gone really well.
He seemed to have enjoyed it.
Yet I knew
that for this section of the film,
I actually had to put all of that aside
and behave as if
I was confronting him for the first time.
[music turns ominous]
I had to ask him about the allegations
of child sexual abuse.
I was anxious
about what was going to happen
when I put these
difficult questions to him.
But as we moved towards
the end of the filming,
he said, "I want you to meet somebody."
So I said,
"Right, who do you want me to meet?"
He said, "He's a little boy,
and we've healed him of cancer."
Michael then gets up and goes out
and brings the child in front of us.
[unsettling music playing]
I think what was
going through his mind was,
"Here's an example
of a child that I've helped."
"That's what I want you
to put in your film."
And then Michael volunteers
during the conversation
that they sleep in the bed together.
Why can't you share your bed?
The most loving thing to do
is to share your bed with someone.
- You know?
- [Martin] You think that?
Yeah.
[unsettling music continues]
[scoffs] And we're just utter--
All of us, the production team,
are completely gobsmacked.
I mean, we can't believe
what's going on in front of us.
But haven't you got a spare room
or a spare house here
where he could have stayed?
Yeah, but no-- Yes, we have guest units.
But whenever kids come here,
they always want to stay with me.
He'd actually made a disclosure on camera
about something that had always
been queried around him,
that people had always suspected
there's something wrong
about the way he interacts.
I realized that we had something
that was hugely significant,
but I didn't realize the extent
of the bombshell until the broadcast.
[orchestral music swelling]
Michael Jackson's home, Neverland,
is a 3,000-acre ranch
three hours north of Los Angeles.
He thought about it, and then he said,
"Yes, come to Neverland."
What do you think
people would say if I said,
"Well, I've invited some
of my daughter's friends round,
or my son's friends,
to sleep in the bed with me tonight?"
- [Michael] That's fine!
- [Martin] What would their parents say?
[Michael] If they're wacky,
they would say, "You can't."
But when you say "bed,"
you're thinking sexual.
They make that sexual. It's not sexual.
- [Martin] But…
- We're going to sleep.
I tuck them in,
I put a little, like, music on,
do a little story time, I read a book.
It's very sweet.
Put the fireplace on, give them hot milk.
You know, we have little cookies.
- It's very charming, very sweet.
- Are you sure?
[Randy] I'm watching Michael
on television,
and there's a moment,
and if you knew him like I did,
you can see him suddenly calculating
in his head that this is terrible.
He finally said, "Okay, if you love me,
let's sleep on the bed."
I was like, "Oh man."
[Randy] You can see it.
You can look at that moment
in the Martin Bashir documentary,
and you can actually
pin the end of his life,
you know, to that very moment.
[dramatic music playing]
Did you see that documentary
on Michael Jackson?
He says he was devastated by it.
Well, he talked about his plastic surgery
and how he still invites
little children to sleep in his bed.
Of course, I tuned in.
My husband and I were watching, rapt.
And then I saw that boy
sitting on the sofa next to him
holding Jackson's hand,
putting his head on his shoulder,
looking up at him dreamily.
And I looked at my husband,
and I said, "Uh-oh."
I thought, "Here we go again."
It drew me right back in to a story
that I had done ten years earlier.
[unsettling music playing]
The boy's name was Jordy Chandler.
It never came to trial.
Michael Jackson settled with the family
for about $20 million.
I suppose the problem for many people
is what happened in 1993,
or what didn't happen.
What didn't happen.
"Nothing ever happened." It was a mantra.
"Nothing ever happened."
And I thought to myself…
"Maybe it did."
[Martin on TV] The reason that's been
given for why you didn't go to jail
was because you reached
a financial settlement with the family.
Yeah.
I don't want to do a long,
drawn-out thing on TV like OJ.
I want to go on with my life.
[Diane] Here it was, in my face again,
all those years later,
and I couldn't ignore it.
You can't ignore it.
[unsettling music continues]
[man] I just remember watching
the documentary with the Jackson family.
And they were shocked.
And Michael, he called his mom,
and her whole demeanor changed.
Like, all she could say was,
"They set him up. They set him up."
[man 1 on TV]
Devastated and utterly betrayed.
A gross distortion of the truth
and a tawdry attempt to misrepresent
his life and his abilities as a father.
That's the star's reaction
to Living with Michael Jackson.
[Randy] People thought something's
going on with Michael and this kid
because of what we saw on TV.
But Michael was determined
and ready to fight.
Raymone Bain
is Michael Jackson's spokesperson.
Ms. Bain, good morning to you.
Good morning. How are you?
Well, I've been, uh, very blessed
because I worked with Muhammad Ali,
Boyz II Men, Serena Williams…
And it was through Serena
recommending me to Michael Jackson
that I began working for Michael Jackson.
I thought that the Bashir documentary
was outrageous.
It was a "I got you" kind of thing.
After that, Michael was guilty
until found innocent.
And I asked him point-blank,
looking dead in his face,
"Did you do this?"
And I was convinced when he told me no
because had he told me yes,
or had I thought that he was guilty
of molesting children,
I wouldn't have represented him.
One of the things
that I was concerned about,
it was just uncontrollable.
When you are bigger than life,
which he was,
nothing goes unreported.
And there were some during that time
to make sure everything was reported.
[Diane] I got on the line to all
my best sources within law enforcement
to try to find out who this kid
in the Bashir documentary was.
They said his name is Gavin.
That's all I know.
[pensive music playing]
[man] Everyone is saying,
"Who is the kid?"
It's a bit like there's blood in the water
and the sharks are hungry.
And we were some of those sharks.
We were circling.
We were circling Neverland
to find that kid.
You've got to remember how many people
are employed at Neverland.
You've got people shoveling giraffe shit.
You've got fairground workers.
There's so many sources there.
There's so many employees.
You know, we're… we're paying a few.
[ominous music playing]
It doesn't take long to get the name.
The boy's surname was Arvizo.
Gavin Arvizo.
The difficulty, of course,
is you're dealing with a child,
so we're going after the family.
The dad, David Arvizo, we found him.
The dad was ostracized from the family.
So you've got a financially needy family
whose head could be turned
by a large check.
But in the case of the Arvizos,
they weren't selling their story.
They never went for the money.
There was a story to be had.
We just couldn't get it.
[ominous music continues]
[woman] A few years
prior to the documentary,
I met the Arvizo family
at the Laugh Factory.
And Gavin was a really funny,
bright, sparkly kid.
They were living in what you would call
a bachelor apartment. It was one room.
They had mattresses on the floor.
They had sheets
strung up for some privacy.
Janet was a good mom.
I found her to be childlike
in her enthusiasm for everything.
And then one day, I get a phone call
from Janet, and she's screaming,
"Gavin has cancer."
[poignant music playing]
As soon as I could,
I went down to the hospital.
He was at Kaiser in Hollywood.
They were going to try everything,
but the likelihood was that he would die.
I would visit him frequently
at the hospital.
He lost all his hair.
He… He couldn't eat.
He was just rocking and moaning.
One day, I walked into Gavin's room,
and there was
a specially large gift basket.
It was the size of half the room.
I said, "Hey, Gav,
you know, who sent you that?"
And he just said, "Michael."
And I said, "Michael who?"
"Michael Jackson."
Okay, cool.
I just sort of accepted it
because we've all seen him
visiting all of these sick children
and needy children.
[women yell enthusiastically]
Children will always
hold a special place in my heart.
[children clamoring]
[Louise] You'd just see a row of kids,
and Michael Jackson in the center.
[woman on TV] Michael Jackson
was a modern-day Pied Piper to children.
He did tell me the children
coming to Neverland lifted his spirits.
[Louise] A few months later,
Janet called me
and told me they had been to Neverland.
And she told me how wonderful Michael was.
And I thought that he was dying,
and why shouldn't he go enjoy Neverland?
Well, way later, when I watched
the Martin Bashir documentary,
my heart sank.
I just immediately thought,
"The press is gonna hound these people."
I did not want them in this whirlwind.
I called Janet, I called Janet's mom,
and every number I called
was disconnected.
Their phones being disconnected
I found very alarming.
[music fades]
I didn't know their whereabouts.
I didn't know if they were safe.
[ominous music playing]
[man] I just had graduated college.
I was very excited to work
in the entertainment industry
and for Michael Jackson.
When I arrived in Los Angeles,
I walked into a very busy house,
comparable to, like,
walking into, like, a busy newsroom.
People running around,
phones ringing off the hook.
The media agencies were calling nonstop.
So I walk into this damage control,
and then they said,
"You're gonna take care
of the Arvizo family."
The media wanted answers
after the fallout of the Bashir special.
Michael graciously opened up his arms
and allowed the Arvizos back to the ranch.
So they were
weathering the storm at Neverland.
[music crescendos, fades]
These photos are from the ranch.
I've kept them for the last 20 years.
This is Gavin's mother, Janet Arvizo.
She writes, "Dearest loving Michael,
we appreciate you being our family."
"What God brings together,
no man can undo."
"We love you."
[unsettling music playing]
This is Star Arvizo, Gavin's brother.
"I love you, my daddy Michael.
Your son, Blowhole."
These are the nicknames that Michael
would give these… these young boys.
There was individuals in the media
questioning Michael's relationship
with children.
So the Jackson camp felt a need to hire
a criminal defense attorney, Mark Geragos,
to look over the legal aspects of this.
[man] I had received a call
from a gentleman
who was representing Michael.
And he asked if I would
meet Michael at Neverland.
The DNA of being a criminal defense lawyer
is you're always thinking about
the worst that can happen.
I realized that this is not just
a reputation management issue.
This is potentially criminal exposure.
- And that is a problem.
- [ominous music playing]
I saw that this was red meat
for a prosecutor who was determined
to take down Michael.
The Jackson associates
decided to make a video.
Janet Arvizo and family was to be filmed,
providing truthful statements regarding
Michael Jackson and their relationship,
and more importantly,
Gavin's relationship with Michael Jackson.
Wait, you know how these Bashir…
Hey, you know how Bashir
zoomed in on him holding hands?
- Do that, the same thing.
- 'Cause you know how…
Because that's what a mother
or a father does with a son.
And I feel that Janet, in front of me,
while I was watching,
gave her side of the truth
about her relationship
with Michael Jackson
that was not scripted.
When I would tell him,
"The doctors are saying
there's no chance,"
Michael said, "I will not have that."
"You bring him to me,
and we will coat him with love."
We may be broken. Michael fixed us.
[Vincent] I physically watched
and believed her responses to be true,
and nothing ever occurred
untoward to them by Michael Jackson.
When I first met Michael, all I thought
was he was a loving, kind, humble man.
And… and all he wanted to do was good.
[Mark] This video is an insurance policy
should the Arvizo family
make an allegation against Michael.
If somebody's on the stand
and they say something,
you could have a snippet ready
on video and show a jury.
"Well, you said that then
and this is now."
And then that forces the witness
to have to explain themselves.
I believe Michael
didn't trust this family.
So they had a private detective
watching over the Arvizo family.
I received a phone call from Janet.
She was panicky and whispery,
and she was saying,
"They're listening to everything I say."
"I can't talk very long."
She really wanted to leave Neverland,
but she was being told,
"We're trying to keep you safe.
You need to stay here."
But she just felt like something was off.
Janet called a good friend and said,
"Do you know of any lawyers?"
He recommended a lawyer who watched
the Martin Bashir documentary and said,
"These children
need to speak to a psychologist."
[ominous music playing]
[man] The children,
particularly Gavin and Star,
I think really loved Michael Jackson.
I think that he was very important
at a time when there was chaos
in their life, economic, medical.
And I think both Star and Gavin
looked to him for some stability.
It was very shocking to me
when I learned about his experiences
and his familiarity with Michael Jackson.
I felt like the boys were credible,
and I felt there was enough information
for me to reasonably suspect
Gavin had been the victim
of child sexual abuse.
And in the State of California,
health professionals in general,
if you have a reasonable suspicion,
you must, under penalty of law,
make a report
to the appropriate authorities.
[ominous music continues]
[Ron] At the time, I was prosecuting
predominantly sex crimes.
I was one of the few men
who actually did that,
and did a lot of them.
Rape cases, child molest cases,
crimes against women,
crimes against children.
That became one of my specialties.
And I got a call
from the district attorney,
and I went down to his office,
and he handed me a report.
And it took a moment before I finally
saw the name Michael Jackson.
The most recognizable person in the world.
[music fades]
But to find out, is there
a credible accusation of sexual abuse,
almost always the first thing
detectives do is interview the child.
[officer] Okay, we're rolling.
You need to sit right there, buddy.
[unsettling music playing]
How long is it going to take?
[officer] Well, as far as how fast
you answer our questions
and how you feel and all that stuff.
Rolling.
So he grabbed me.
- [officer] He grabbed you?
- Yeah.
[officer] Where did he grab you at?
Private area.
[officer] He grabbed you
in your private area?
Where were you at when this happened?
On his bed.
[officer] In bed?
Were you lying in bed
or were you sitting on the bed?
I was lying on his bed,
and we were talking.
[officer] And did you
have clothes on or off?
On?
- Yeah. I had his pajamas.
- [officer] Okay.
And what did he end up doing?
He told me…
'cause he said
that if I knew how to do it and he said…
And if I don't, he'll do it for me.
So he started…
[officer] Speak up a little bit.
I can't hear you, buddy.
I know it's hard.
[Ron] You can expect to see a child
who's talking about a subject matter
that's difficult to talk about.
Life is so much easier if you just say,
"Nothing happened."
And the questions stop.
[unsettling music continues]
You watch kids,
they just sit there and implode.
Not explode, implode.
They sort of shrink into themselves.
Their shoulders come in,
their head drops down.
It's as if they're trying
to disappear into the floor.
[officer] And what did he do next?
He started masturbating me.
[officer] Okay.
Then… [sniffles] …after a while,
I told him I didn't want him to do that.
[officer] Did he stop?
I told him no.
He kept on doing it.
I told him… He kept saying that
he wants to teach me, and…
I told him… I told him no.
[Ron] At some point after the release
of the Martin Bashir documentary,
Michael Jackson had sexually abused Gavin.
That's what Gavin told us,
and we believed him.
What I saw, I thought,
was a very typical interview
of a child
who had experienced sexual abuse.
[officer] Was there anything else
where you had seen naked pictures
or naked women before?
Both being with Michael?
Yeah.
[officer] Where was that at?
He had a black suitcase.
He said, there's a black suitcase,
and it's full of, like, naked pictures
and magazines of women.
[officer] Of women?
And girls.
[officer] Did you see them?
He showed it to me.
[officer] I really am
very proud of you, Gavin.
I'm very proud of you.
[Stan] I learned that both Star and Gavin
had been shown pornography.
Star told me that he had
seen Michael put alcohol
into soda cans,
called it Jesus Juice.
Gavin told me
that he had Jesus Juice on planes.
Gavin told me he had Jesus Juice
in Michael Jackson's room.
[Ron] When you're prosecuting a case
involving a crime against a child,
you rarely have witnesses to it.
So we want to see if we can corroborate
what Gavin had told us
about what was going on
in Neverland with Michael Jackson.
And that included executing
a search warrant on his property.
[ominous music playing]
[news theme plays]
This is a Fox News alert.
A search warrant
has been issued and executed
by the Santa Barbara County Police.
[tense music playing]
Dozens of investigators are swarming
Michael Jackson's ranch in California,
looking for evidence in what is being
called an ongoing criminal investigation.
- [sheriff 1] What's all this shit here?
- [sheriff 2] That's a filming crew.
- Yeah, definitely.
- [sheriff 1] Damn it.
They're taking pictures.
[tense music continues]
[indistinct police chatter]
[sheriff 2] Okay, well,
let's do our checks.
You don't have a job
until we secure this house.
[Ron] If we think
that we have a good chance
of being able to get a conviction
on this case, then we should do it.
We shouldn't not do it
because he's a celebrity.
[sheriff 1] Search warrant.
[tense music continues]
[woman on TV] Right now,
Target Neverland is underway.
As many as 60 investigators are inside
at this point, searching the ranch.
To my left, you'll see the mass
of media from all over the world here.
It goes down about a quarter mile…
[Ron] We had a very realistic
understanding of what was going to happen.
The constant presence of the press.
It never crossed our mind
that that would be a reason
that we wouldn't
prosecute Michael Jackson.
We knew what it would mean
nationally and even internationally.
Those investigators
are still on the scene.
Somebody very close to this investigation
says it does involve child molestation.
[tense music continues]
[Vincent] I was at home.
All of a sudden, there's a news flash.
There was a raid at Neverland.
I almost dropped to the floor.
I knew inherently
that this was the Arvizo family.
How could they accuse Michael
of molesting their child?
I wholeheartedly
believed in his innocence.
I felt that it just
didn't make logical sense
that Michael would harm a child
after the deposition
and the family
speaking so positively of him.
[sheriff 2] No surprises?
[man] No surprises.
This goes right in here.
Right now, I put some…
luggage one of the guests…
[sheriff 2] We're going this way?
[Ron] We want to see if we can corroborate
what Gavin had told us.
Where the stairway is…
[sheriff 2] Okay.
- Go ahead, Curtis.
- [sheriff 1] Sheriff's Department.
- [sheriff 2] You have another light?
- [sheriff 1] No.
[Ron] Where the bed is.
[tense music continues]
I knew that in Jackson's interview
in the documentary by Martin Bashir,
he was saying, "These kids,
they want to stay in my bed."
[Michael] When you say bed,
you're thinking sexual.
They make that sexual. It's not sexual.
We're going to sleep. I tuck them in.
I put a little, like, music on,
do a little story time, I read a book.
I give them hot milk.
You know, we have little cookies.
It's very charming.
Very sweet.
We want to see if there was the briefcase
that Gavin said existed in the bedroom
that had all of the pornography in it.
[music intensifies]
Yes, we found the briefcase.
Yes, it was the same color.
Yes, it had pornography in it.
[unsettling music playing]
[sheriff 2] When's Mr. Jackson
gonna be back?
You don't know.
[sheriff 1] Hey,
how come the fireplace is on?
[sheriff 2] Jose turned it on yesterday.
I asked the same.
[Diane] I stood outside Neverland
for hours and hours and hours that day,
watching whether or not they're gonna
bring Michael Jackson out.
He's not there.
The sheriff's office, all they have said
is that this is a property search,
an ongoing investigation,
and tomorrow morning
at about eleven o'clock,
we'll have a news conference
with both the DA and the sheriff.
- [man 1] Okay. We're 30 seconds.
- [reporters murmuring]
[tense, pensive music playing]
The basis for this investigation
regarding Mr. Jackson
involves allegations of child molestation,
288A of the California Penal Code.
Additionally, an arrest warrant
for Mr. Jackson has been issued
on multiple counts of child molestation.
For years, pop star Michael Jackson
has denied having
inappropriate contact with children,
and he has never been charged.
But tonight, Jackson is wanted by police.
[man 2] Jackson could be a flight risk.
Could he be a flight risk?
There's always that potential,
but we are pursuing the arrest warrant.
[man 3] Do you know where he is now?
- No.
- [spokesman] No, we do not.
Ask Diane. She knows everything
about Michael Jackson.
[Diane] I already had this history,
this knowledge, this source base.
And they were calling me, these sources,
as often as I was calling them.
Every hour, I was finding out
more and more things,
and I get some real hard facts.
I came to discover that Michael Jackson
was not at Neverland,
but somewhere in Las Vegas.
[ominous music playing]
[man] The 45-year-old's whereabouts
are a mystery.
Some say he's been at the Four Seasons.
Others say up the Strip at The Mirage,
where he reportedly owns a villa.
And still others say,
"No, he last stayed here at the Bellagio."
Fact is, it seems nobody in this town
knows where Michael Jackson last stayed,
let alone where he is tonight.
[Kevin] We're outside Neverland,
we're in Vegas,
we've got people stationed everywhere.
And it's a bit embarrassing
that we don't know where he is right now.
[ominous music continues]
[Brian] Those of us
who know Michael, we think…
I think the world of him,
and I just cannot fathom
that this would be true.
At the time,
Michael wasn't talking to nobody.
He was hoping
that the furor would go away.
Mrs. Jackson had a theory about life.
If you ducked and covered enough,
the storm would pass you by.
And Michael practiced that very carefully.
[Diane] I find out from a source,
he's holed up in this villa,
and he only opens the door wearing
a colorful dashiki muumuu garment,
only enough to get the food brought in,
and then he slams the door.
And he's having wild parties.
There were cigarette burns
in the leather couches and chairs.
There were food containers everywhere.
There were empty liquor bottles
on every table.
And this is where Michael Jackson
had been for several days,
entertaining young teenage boys
who all spoke German.
And he said, after the raid,
Michael Jackson was informed,
"Oh my God,
the cops are at Neverland again."
And he left just like that.
[ominous music continues]
[Diane] Michael Jackson remains
a wanted man this morning,
and everyone's waiting
to see when he'll turn himself in.
Jackson's spokesman says
the singer will return to Santa Barbara
to confront and prove
that the charges are unfounded.
We have to go.
My producer's telling me we have to go.
The next thing I hear,
Michael Jackson negotiates
with the district attorney's office
as to the "surrender."
[tense music playing]
[man] We were hearing that this aircraft
may be connected
with Michael Jackson's arrival.
He is rolling out right now
on runway seven.
[Diane] He flew in in a private jet,
into a hangar in Santa Barbara,
and my sources were telling me
he voluntarily flew there to surrender.
They put the handcuffs on him
and put him in a car.
That car was also outfitted with audio.
[man 1] Okay.
[Michael] Can we put some air on, please?
[man 1] Okay.
[man 2] That okay for you, Mr. Jackson?
[Michael] It's wonderful. Thank you.
Thank you very much.
[Diane] They did not want
any false reports of police brutality.
- [protesters yelling indistinctly]
- [tense music continues]
[man 1] Coming in the back.
[man 2] The back.
[man 1] He's coming in.
[man 3] It's the car starting to pull
into the sally port area.
[speaking indistinctly]
[Michael] They hurt.
They're tight, aren't they?
[man 2] Just, if you want
to scoot forward a little bit.
There you go.
[man 3] All right,
somebody's coming out of the vehicle now.
[Diane] There he is. It's Michael Jackson.
He's in handcuffs.
- [man 3] I believe he's in handcuffs.
- [Diane] Mike, he's in handcuffs.
[man 3] Yes.
[man 4] So after that 24-hour mystery
about his whereabouts,
Michael Jackson has now surrendered
into police custody behind me.
A crushing humiliation
for one of the world's great entertainers,
right now being read those charges
of child molestation.
Minutes are ticking by.
I'm still live on the air.
I'm thinking, "Is he going to be booked,
fingerprinted, mugshot?"
"What happens next?"
And then it popped up
in my monitor. [gasps]
And I was stunned.
I'm live on the air,
so I have to be careful what I say.
I thought, number one, he looks so pale.
It looked ghoulish.
It looked like a deer in the headlights.
I almost felt sorry for him.
When I saw him with his hands cuffed,
and then that mugshot,
I realized this is not
just at the allegation stage anymore.
Michael Jackson is now
in the American criminal justice system.
He's in the system.
And the system
was not going to let him go,
and my sources were telling me
there was going to be a criminal trial.
[ominous music playing]
[man] Seven counts of lewd
and lascivious acts against a child
with the intent of arousing,
appealing to, and gratifying the lust,
passions, and sexual desires
of Jackson and the child,
and two counts of administering
an intoxicating agent,
reportedly alcohol,
with the intent
of committing child molestation.
[Mark] He's come back specifically
to confront these charges head-on.
He is greatly outraged
by the bringing of these charges.
Uh, he considers this to be a big lie.
He was enormously stressed.
All of a sudden, there is a reality
to what has been theoretical.
[ominous music continues]
I watched him just disintegrate.
Literally disintegrate.
The ingestion of substances
was just astronomical.
There was a time when I actually saw him
in the fetal position on the floor,
and I thought, "What do we do?"
I mean, you don't want his death
to be on your hands
because you took some inaction.
It was a horrific time for him
and for those around him,
and we had genuine concerns as to whether
he could even withstand a trial
physically, mentally.
[ominous music continues]
Michael is hearing all of these heinous
accusations on a day-to-day basis,
and he's wanting people to step up and say
that's not true, and to defend him more.
[Joe] We know our son.
We know that he's not a pedophile
like some of these newscasters are saying.
This is ridiculous.
We have a lot of wicked people out there,
and they know what they're doing.
[Raymone] Michael is saying,
"What is this obsession with me?"
"Why am I a target?"
It seemed to me that there was
a deliberate attempt to try to get him.
It is racism. It is.
Katherine's not going to say it,
but I will say it.
It is racism.
[Stacy] When the charges
were announced against Michael,
of course, the family,
they were heartsick.
But for Michael's siblings, it was never
about guilt or innocence for them.
It was about legacy.
"They can't do this to us.
They want to destroy what we built."
It's what I kept hearing
over and over again.
We are the Jacksons,
as Randy Jackson would say, you know,
"We're royalty. We're the Black Kennedys."
[tense music playing]
My mother, my father,
my sisters, my brothers
are overwhelmed at the outpouring
of the support from the fans,
both here in the United States
and all around the world.
It was all about the brand.
Michael Jackson, the brand.
The Jacksons, the brand.
We've got to protect the brand.
Thank you very much.
That's all I've got to say.
[Stacy] I remember Jermaine calling me up
and says, "Guess what?"
"You know, Michael says, when the trial
is over, we're going to go on tour again."
And I got to realize that
that's what this was really about for--
At least for Jermaine.
We've got to support him
because he's got to come through this,
he's got to beat these charges so they can
make more music and go out on tour.
He's innocent.
And he knows that. We know that.
And the public knows that too.
He's innocent.
Our response is, here we go again.
Michael has 24-hour-a-day
supervision with him
for the specific purpose of protecting him
against these kinds of claims.
Did he want to have children around him?
Yes, he did. No question about it.
But to groom children for molestation?
What, he was the wicked witch
in Hansel and Gretel?
How nonsensical.
Michael Jackson was the biggest superstar
in the history
of the country and the world.
Adults would get into Michael's presence,
and they were all atwitter,
and it was impossible for him to function.
But with children, they didn't care.
He was just one of the guys.
And that's why he liked
being with children.
- [crowd clamoring]
- [unsettling music playing]
I remember on the day of the arraignment,
I'd never seen anything like it.
Michael Jackson presents himself in court,
and the formal charges
are read against him.
I knew we were watching
the potential demise of a superstar.
- [music turns tense]
- [crowd clamoring]
- [woman] Michael.
- [man] Michael.
He knows there are two
parallel battles underway.
There is the legal battle underway
inside that courtroom,
and then there is
the public relations skirmish
that is also underway.
[girls chanting] Michael!
[Stacy] Michael had
an entire army with him.
The huge crowd there.
News stations take this garbage
and then report it as fact?
- You should be ashamed of yourselves!
- [man] Ashamed.
[women whoop]
[girls chanting] Michael!
I believe he's 100% innocent, and I don't
think he would do something like this.
He doesn't have the heart to do it.
We believe in his innocence,
and we're supporting him all the way,
and we're thinking about him,
and we're going to be here for him.
- What do we want?
- [crowd] Justice!
- When do we want it? Now!
- [crowd] Now!
[Stacy] I'll never forget Bob Jones,
Michael's longtime manager,
and I were standing next to Michael.
And Bob had his back to him.
And he says,
"I know he's gonna do something crazy.
I just know he's going to."
[crowd screaming]
[woman] Oh my goodness, look at this.
He's jumping on top of the car.
- [man] Oh yeah, we see him.
- [woman] Truly performing for his fans.
I remember looking up, kind of gobsmacked,
and I thought he was
gonna start moonwalking.
[crowd screaming]
[Mark] I was immensely impressed
with the physicality
of hopping onto the top of an SUV
in the state or condition he was in.
He's one of the greatest performers
of the century.
He can turn it on.
[Brian] He said,
"Brian, how do guilty people leave court?"
I said, "They kind of are embarrassed
and they hide."
He says, "Yeah, they put their jacket
over their head, and they hide."
"How do innocent people
leave the courthouse?"
"They let the whole world see them."
"They stand tall, and they stand proud."
- [ominous music playing]
- [crowd screaming]
In his own inimical way,
Michael Jackson knew
how to tell the world he was innocent.
[unsettling music playing]
[Diane] I would not be surprised
if somewhere down the road,
some of the people
surrounding Michael Jackson
might have at least the threat
of charges against them,
aiding, abetting, allowing children in,
knowing full well
what the heck might happen.
[on recording] Hey, Vincent.
Sergeant Robel again.
I want to hear from you,
whether you want
to speak to me with your attorney.
Giving you the opportunity, bud,
because the ship is sinking pretty fast.
So, please, Vince, give me a buzz.
[Ron] You know, we knew that Vinny was
one of the people who was at Neverland
and had an association with the kids
when they were there.
So we were interested in talking to Vinny
to see if he could help us in any way
in terms of what was going on
with the kids.
I defended him.
And I believed in his innocence.
One of the reasons
was because of my friend Frank.
Michael was like a father to Frank.
Frank was a young child
when he met Michael,
and he grew in the ranks,
and he became his personal assistant.
Basically anything Michael wanted,
he would have to do.
Frank Tyson is thought to be
one of Jackson's closest friends.
They met when Tyson
was just five years old,
and he's admittedly
slept in Jackson's bed.
[Vincent] I said, "Frank,
you're the closest person to Michael."
I said, "Is this true?"
He's never given me an indication
that he is interested in boys
or sexual attraction to boys.
It's the opposite.
[Vincent] He told me, "No,
Michael would never do this with a child."
"I know Michael…
all my life."
"He would never do this."
And I trusted Frank.
But they were raiding other Jackson
associates' houses and properties.
[sirens wailing]
Frank cleaned out his house of anything
that came from the Neverland Ranch.
And he hands me a Nike bag.
I took the bag, and, um, I'm driving home,
and I felt something's
a little suspicious.
And I said, you know,
"Let me take a look in this bag."
I start taking videos to document this.
[unsettling music playing]
I open the bag.
I start looking, and I see a magazine.
Start flipping through it…
and there was a Sharpie…
circles around the video ordering section.
Someone's wanted these videos,
circled the ones they want.
These videos,
which are children that are naked.
Some with family,
some just naked children.
[unsettling music continues]
I… I… I confronted Frank.
I said, you know,
"Frank, what is this magazine?"
I said, "Because, you know,
there's circles around
video with naked children."
He says, "That's just a phase
that Michael and I went through."
"You know, he circled
the videos he wanted, I ordered them,
and it was a phase we went through."
They watched them together.
When I heard that, I was in disbelief.
I was very upset.
My inclination was, after finding this
and sitting there thinking about it,
was that Frank is so close to Michael
that he's covering up for him.
That was a defining moment for me.
That was the moment that hit me so hard
where I realized
that there's something going on here.
[unsettling music continues]
In the last few weeks, a large amount
of ugly, malicious information
has been released into the media about me.
I allowed a family to visit
and spend some time at Neverland.
Through the years,
I have helped thousands of children
who are ill or in distress.
Please keep an open mind
and let me have my day in court.
Thank you.
[pensive music playing]
[dramatic music playing]
[music fades]
[tense music playing]
[sheriff 1] Sheriff's Department.
We need to talk to you a minute.
We're basically shutting down the gate.
We're gonna be controlling
who comes and who goes, okay?
- It's out of your control.
- What is the nature of…
That's not your business.
We're serving a search warrant.
[man over comm] 430, can you copy?
[sheriff 2] Now we're through the gate.
The subject, I repeat,
the subject is not on property.
Do you copy?
[sheriff 1] Here's the bridge
we gotta go over.
And the house is right there.
[tense music continues]
[sheriff 1] You guys see a uniform?
- [man 1] Hi.
- [sheriff 1] How are you doing?
Sheriff's Department.
We have a search warrant.
[tense music continues]
[man 2 on TV] This is a Fox News alert.
Police right now
searching Michael Jackson's
Neverland Ranch in California…
[woman 2] We are told this is part
of an ongoing investigation.
[man 3] …alleging criminal misconduct
on the part of Michael Jackson.
Come this way.
[indistinct police radio chatter]
- [sheriff 2] Copy.
- [sheriff 1] Okay.
And this is Mr. Jackson's main area?
Sheriff's Department.
[sheriff 2] Yeah, go ahead.
[sheriff 1] Whose office is this?
[woman 1] This is his office.
[sheriff 1] This is Michael's?
[woman 1] Mr. Jackson's office.
[sheriff 2] Are there any secret rooms?
- [woman 1] Secret rooms?
- [sheriff 2] Yeah.
Behind a wall or something like that?
- [woman 1] Just the bathroom.
- [man 1] Only behind doors.
[sheriff 2] No hidden doors or anything?
[woman 1] No.
[tense, pensive music playing]
[man 4] The phone rings, and he says,
"Brian, the police
are raiding Neverland Ranch."
I go, "What are they doing there,
Mr. Jackson?"
"I don't know. I don't know."
He says, "Get your leads. Find out."
Wow.
Okay.
[sheriff 2] There could
be something in here.
[sheriff 1] Somebody needs
to go through it.
[sheriff 2] Hey, Jeff?
We have an upstairs.
[Brian] The search warrant indicates
that there is an accusation
by a 12-year-old boy
who says that he was molested.
It appears that they think
there's some kind of forensic evidence
which would be available to them,
which would include DNA,
hair samples, blood samples.
We don't know.
We don't know the identity of the child.
We don't know the specifics
of the accusations.
[man 5] When you're investigating
an allegation of child sexual abuse,
you rarely have witnesses to it.
We're looking for anything
that we could find
that tell us that this child
is giving us accurate information.
[crowd clamoring]
[man 6] He's the most famous man
in the world,
who's being accused
of the most heinous crime in the world.
[man 7] An arrest warrant
for Mr. Jackson has been issued
on multiple counts of child molestation.
[woman 3] Finally,
we're going to get some answers.
Is he guilty, or is he not guilty?
[ominous music playing]
Hm. Um…
I met Michael Jackson in, uh, 1970.
He was 12. I was 14.
- And we became friends.
- [pensive music playing]
- I told you that I love Michael.
- Uh-huh.
You love Michael.
[Randy] As a musician, you can see
the genius of Michael Jackson.
[man 1] On stage since the age of five…
[woman] Michael Jackson is a superstar.
[Reagan] …for the outstanding example
you have set for the youth of America…
[man 2] The album is still number one
after 57 weeks.
[Randy] Thriller is still, to this day,
the biggest-selling record of all time.
[man 3] His album Thriller,
the winner of seven Grammy Awards,
was still selling a million copies a year
15 years after its release.
[girls screaming]
[Randy] Without exaggeration,
I think Michael was
the most famous person in the world.
All the amazing talent.
[crowd screaming]
But then, you know,
you began to see the changes in him.
[woman] I mean, let's face it,
he's a little weird.
You know? He's just a little weird.
[unsettling music playing]
[Randy] The media was terrible
to Michael Jackson.
With all the Wacko Jacko stuff,
which was horrible.
"What's with the hyperbaric chamber?"
"What's with the plastic surgery?"
And Michael, he felt like
he was lonely and isolated.
But he was determined
to live his life his way.
Michael became friends
with all these kids.
You know, he didn't think it was strange,
but other people did.
A 13-year-old boy alleges a sexual
relationship with Michael Jackson.
[unsettling music continues]
The idea of Michael Jackson being
a pedophile was, like, mind-blowing.
It was the most far-fetched,
ridiculous thing you could have imagined.
The pop star angrily rejected
accusations he molested a young boy,
and lashed out at police and the media.
There have been many
disgusting statements made recently
concerning allegations
of improper conduct on my part.
These statements about me
are totally false.
[Randy] After all these
terrible allegations about Michael,
he had a hard time not just artistically,
but personally too.
I saw the hell
that it had inflicted on him.
He was so traumatized by that time.
He needed, like, a reset,
where he could actually tackle
some of these issues
and his image in the public eye.
- [music fades]
- [birds singing and chirping]
[pensive music playing]
[man] The first time I met Michael,
in London, June 2002…
his face is very heavily made up.
His hair's kind of messy.
He looks as though
he hadn't slept for very long.
[speaking indistinctly]
And it had been some years
since he was the King of Pop.
And yet, there's nobody comparable
to the size and magnitude
of a Michael Jackson.
And the other thing that obviously caused
an enormous amount of interest
were the scandals that surrounded him
and allegations of child sexual abuse
some years previously.
I said, "I'd love to make a film with you
if you were interested."
He said,
"Okay, come and see me in California."
[Randy] Talking about it with Michael,
I came to understand the reason
Michael was interested in Martin Bashir
was because of his interview
with Princess Diana,
who was somebody
Michael really kind of idolized.
[speaking indistinctly]
[Randy] He wanted to be portrayed
in a more human way
by the guy who did it for Princess Diana.
But Michael didn't do enough research
because if he had, he would have realized
that the Martin Bashir/Princess Diana
interview was kind of a disaster.
[Martin] Do you think
Mrs. Parker Bowles was a factor
in the breakdown of your marriage?
Well, there were three of us
in this marriage,
so it was a bit crowded. [laughs sadly]
That was the interview in which
she talked about three in a marriage,
and it really set her at odds
with the Royal Family,
and it… it…
it was a public relations disaster.
But Michael didn't follow the story
all the way to that.
He just stopped at the point
where he wanted to do it
because Princess Diana did it.
Michael trusted Martin Bashir,
and then Martin Bashir,
he was looking for a great story.
And Michael sort of handed him
this opportunity on a silver platter.
We didn't think that Neverland
was going to be the place
where this whole thing unraveled.
[ominous music playing]
[Martin] When I got onto Neverland,
I couldn't believe what I was seeing.
It was extraordinary.
There was this Ferris wheel,
a massive fairground.
And then I rode towards the zoo,
and I can remember seeing elephants,
giraffes, and a bear.
I made it clear
that I wanted to understand his life.
I thought he had
a strange relationship with children.
There had been allegations before.
There had been settlements.
Do you come out here on your own?
- Yeah.
- How often?
- All the time.
- You just come out on your own?
- Yes.
- What, and go on a ride?
Yup.
Usually the carousel. I'll play music.
I love playing classical music
on the carousel.
And what about the Ferris wheel?
I like the Ferris wheel.
It makes you wish and dream and…
- [Martin] Can we go on it?
- [Michael] Sure.
[Martin] Let's go on it.
When I met him,
he was increasingly isolated as a figure.
[pensive music playing]
There was none of the kind
of lawyers and PR and publicists
that normally surrounds
a major global superstar.
He was in control.
It was his idea
that we film in the dance studio.
I knew I had to ask him certain questions
that were going to be quite difficult.
But it was quite intimidating.
When you're dealing with
someone like Michael Jackson,
you don't tell him
what you're going to film.
But if we behaved appropriately,
and if he liked us,
then things would happen.
Use your heel to slide back.
- That is not easy. That is not easy.
- Really?
- [laughing] That's not easy.
- That's very good, though.
- That's the idea.
- You're a very kind man.
[pensive music continues]
I bought these.
- These. Right?
- [Martin] You got enough space for it all?
- [Michael] Yeah, I do.
- [Martin] You do?
[Michael] Yeah, and these we bought.
Okay, let's have a look at these ones.
They're beautiful.
[Martin] That's only 275,000 each.
I was getting on well with him.
The filming had gone really well.
He seemed to have enjoyed it.
Yet I knew
that for this section of the film,
I actually had to put all of that aside
and behave as if
I was confronting him for the first time.
[music turns ominous]
I had to ask him about the allegations
of child sexual abuse.
I was anxious
about what was going to happen
when I put these
difficult questions to him.
But as we moved towards
the end of the filming,
he said, "I want you to meet somebody."
So I said,
"Right, who do you want me to meet?"
He said, "He's a little boy,
and we've healed him of cancer."
Michael then gets up and goes out
and brings the child in front of us.
[unsettling music playing]
I think what was
going through his mind was,
"Here's an example
of a child that I've helped."
"That's what I want you
to put in your film."
And then Michael volunteers
during the conversation
that they sleep in the bed together.
Why can't you share your bed?
The most loving thing to do
is to share your bed with someone.
- You know?
- [Martin] You think that?
Yeah.
[unsettling music continues]
[scoffs] And we're just utter--
All of us, the production team,
are completely gobsmacked.
I mean, we can't believe
what's going on in front of us.
But haven't you got a spare room
or a spare house here
where he could have stayed?
Yeah, but no-- Yes, we have guest units.
But whenever kids come here,
they always want to stay with me.
He'd actually made a disclosure on camera
about something that had always
been queried around him,
that people had always suspected
there's something wrong
about the way he interacts.
I realized that we had something
that was hugely significant,
but I didn't realize the extent
of the bombshell until the broadcast.
[orchestral music swelling]
Michael Jackson's home, Neverland,
is a 3,000-acre ranch
three hours north of Los Angeles.
He thought about it, and then he said,
"Yes, come to Neverland."
What do you think
people would say if I said,
"Well, I've invited some
of my daughter's friends round,
or my son's friends,
to sleep in the bed with me tonight?"
- [Michael] That's fine!
- [Martin] What would their parents say?
[Michael] If they're wacky,
they would say, "You can't."
But when you say "bed,"
you're thinking sexual.
They make that sexual. It's not sexual.
- [Martin] But…
- We're going to sleep.
I tuck them in,
I put a little, like, music on,
do a little story time, I read a book.
It's very sweet.
Put the fireplace on, give them hot milk.
You know, we have little cookies.
- It's very charming, very sweet.
- Are you sure?
[Randy] I'm watching Michael
on television,
and there's a moment,
and if you knew him like I did,
you can see him suddenly calculating
in his head that this is terrible.
He finally said, "Okay, if you love me,
let's sleep on the bed."
I was like, "Oh man."
[Randy] You can see it.
You can look at that moment
in the Martin Bashir documentary,
and you can actually
pin the end of his life,
you know, to that very moment.
[dramatic music playing]
Did you see that documentary
on Michael Jackson?
He says he was devastated by it.
Well, he talked about his plastic surgery
and how he still invites
little children to sleep in his bed.
Of course, I tuned in.
My husband and I were watching, rapt.
And then I saw that boy
sitting on the sofa next to him
holding Jackson's hand,
putting his head on his shoulder,
looking up at him dreamily.
And I looked at my husband,
and I said, "Uh-oh."
I thought, "Here we go again."
It drew me right back in to a story
that I had done ten years earlier.
[unsettling music playing]
The boy's name was Jordy Chandler.
It never came to trial.
Michael Jackson settled with the family
for about $20 million.
I suppose the problem for many people
is what happened in 1993,
or what didn't happen.
What didn't happen.
"Nothing ever happened." It was a mantra.
"Nothing ever happened."
And I thought to myself…
"Maybe it did."
[Martin on TV] The reason that's been
given for why you didn't go to jail
was because you reached
a financial settlement with the family.
Yeah.
I don't want to do a long,
drawn-out thing on TV like OJ.
I want to go on with my life.
[Diane] Here it was, in my face again,
all those years later,
and I couldn't ignore it.
You can't ignore it.
[unsettling music continues]
[man] I just remember watching
the documentary with the Jackson family.
And they were shocked.
And Michael, he called his mom,
and her whole demeanor changed.
Like, all she could say was,
"They set him up. They set him up."
[man 1 on TV]
Devastated and utterly betrayed.
A gross distortion of the truth
and a tawdry attempt to misrepresent
his life and his abilities as a father.
That's the star's reaction
to Living with Michael Jackson.
[Randy] People thought something's
going on with Michael and this kid
because of what we saw on TV.
But Michael was determined
and ready to fight.
Raymone Bain
is Michael Jackson's spokesperson.
Ms. Bain, good morning to you.
Good morning. How are you?
Well, I've been, uh, very blessed
because I worked with Muhammad Ali,
Boyz II Men, Serena Williams…
And it was through Serena
recommending me to Michael Jackson
that I began working for Michael Jackson.
I thought that the Bashir documentary
was outrageous.
It was a "I got you" kind of thing.
After that, Michael was guilty
until found innocent.
And I asked him point-blank,
looking dead in his face,
"Did you do this?"
And I was convinced when he told me no
because had he told me yes,
or had I thought that he was guilty
of molesting children,
I wouldn't have represented him.
One of the things
that I was concerned about,
it was just uncontrollable.
When you are bigger than life,
which he was,
nothing goes unreported.
And there were some during that time
to make sure everything was reported.
[Diane] I got on the line to all
my best sources within law enforcement
to try to find out who this kid
in the Bashir documentary was.
They said his name is Gavin.
That's all I know.
[pensive music playing]
[man] Everyone is saying,
"Who is the kid?"
It's a bit like there's blood in the water
and the sharks are hungry.
And we were some of those sharks.
We were circling.
We were circling Neverland
to find that kid.
You've got to remember how many people
are employed at Neverland.
You've got people shoveling giraffe shit.
You've got fairground workers.
There's so many sources there.
There's so many employees.
You know, we're… we're paying a few.
[ominous music playing]
It doesn't take long to get the name.
The boy's surname was Arvizo.
Gavin Arvizo.
The difficulty, of course,
is you're dealing with a child,
so we're going after the family.
The dad, David Arvizo, we found him.
The dad was ostracized from the family.
So you've got a financially needy family
whose head could be turned
by a large check.
But in the case of the Arvizos,
they weren't selling their story.
They never went for the money.
There was a story to be had.
We just couldn't get it.
[ominous music continues]
[woman] A few years
prior to the documentary,
I met the Arvizo family
at the Laugh Factory.
And Gavin was a really funny,
bright, sparkly kid.
They were living in what you would call
a bachelor apartment. It was one room.
They had mattresses on the floor.
They had sheets
strung up for some privacy.
Janet was a good mom.
I found her to be childlike
in her enthusiasm for everything.
And then one day, I get a phone call
from Janet, and she's screaming,
"Gavin has cancer."
[poignant music playing]
As soon as I could,
I went down to the hospital.
He was at Kaiser in Hollywood.
They were going to try everything,
but the likelihood was that he would die.
I would visit him frequently
at the hospital.
He lost all his hair.
He… He couldn't eat.
He was just rocking and moaning.
One day, I walked into Gavin's room,
and there was
a specially large gift basket.
It was the size of half the room.
I said, "Hey, Gav,
you know, who sent you that?"
And he just said, "Michael."
And I said, "Michael who?"
"Michael Jackson."
Okay, cool.
I just sort of accepted it
because we've all seen him
visiting all of these sick children
and needy children.
[women yell enthusiastically]
Children will always
hold a special place in my heart.
[children clamoring]
[Louise] You'd just see a row of kids,
and Michael Jackson in the center.
[woman on TV] Michael Jackson
was a modern-day Pied Piper to children.
He did tell me the children
coming to Neverland lifted his spirits.
[Louise] A few months later,
Janet called me
and told me they had been to Neverland.
And she told me how wonderful Michael was.
And I thought that he was dying,
and why shouldn't he go enjoy Neverland?
Well, way later, when I watched
the Martin Bashir documentary,
my heart sank.
I just immediately thought,
"The press is gonna hound these people."
I did not want them in this whirlwind.
I called Janet, I called Janet's mom,
and every number I called
was disconnected.
Their phones being disconnected
I found very alarming.
[music fades]
I didn't know their whereabouts.
I didn't know if they were safe.
[ominous music playing]
[man] I just had graduated college.
I was very excited to work
in the entertainment industry
and for Michael Jackson.
When I arrived in Los Angeles,
I walked into a very busy house,
comparable to, like,
walking into, like, a busy newsroom.
People running around,
phones ringing off the hook.
The media agencies were calling nonstop.
So I walk into this damage control,
and then they said,
"You're gonna take care
of the Arvizo family."
The media wanted answers
after the fallout of the Bashir special.
Michael graciously opened up his arms
and allowed the Arvizos back to the ranch.
So they were
weathering the storm at Neverland.
[music crescendos, fades]
These photos are from the ranch.
I've kept them for the last 20 years.
This is Gavin's mother, Janet Arvizo.
She writes, "Dearest loving Michael,
we appreciate you being our family."
"What God brings together,
no man can undo."
"We love you."
[unsettling music playing]
This is Star Arvizo, Gavin's brother.
"I love you, my daddy Michael.
Your son, Blowhole."
These are the nicknames that Michael
would give these… these young boys.
There was individuals in the media
questioning Michael's relationship
with children.
So the Jackson camp felt a need to hire
a criminal defense attorney, Mark Geragos,
to look over the legal aspects of this.
[man] I had received a call
from a gentleman
who was representing Michael.
And he asked if I would
meet Michael at Neverland.
The DNA of being a criminal defense lawyer
is you're always thinking about
the worst that can happen.
I realized that this is not just
a reputation management issue.
This is potentially criminal exposure.
- And that is a problem.
- [ominous music playing]
I saw that this was red meat
for a prosecutor who was determined
to take down Michael.
The Jackson associates
decided to make a video.
Janet Arvizo and family was to be filmed,
providing truthful statements regarding
Michael Jackson and their relationship,
and more importantly,
Gavin's relationship with Michael Jackson.
Wait, you know how these Bashir…
Hey, you know how Bashir
zoomed in on him holding hands?
- Do that, the same thing.
- 'Cause you know how…
Because that's what a mother
or a father does with a son.
And I feel that Janet, in front of me,
while I was watching,
gave her side of the truth
about her relationship
with Michael Jackson
that was not scripted.
When I would tell him,
"The doctors are saying
there's no chance,"
Michael said, "I will not have that."
"You bring him to me,
and we will coat him with love."
We may be broken. Michael fixed us.
[Vincent] I physically watched
and believed her responses to be true,
and nothing ever occurred
untoward to them by Michael Jackson.
When I first met Michael, all I thought
was he was a loving, kind, humble man.
And… and all he wanted to do was good.
[Mark] This video is an insurance policy
should the Arvizo family
make an allegation against Michael.
If somebody's on the stand
and they say something,
you could have a snippet ready
on video and show a jury.
"Well, you said that then
and this is now."
And then that forces the witness
to have to explain themselves.
I believe Michael
didn't trust this family.
So they had a private detective
watching over the Arvizo family.
I received a phone call from Janet.
She was panicky and whispery,
and she was saying,
"They're listening to everything I say."
"I can't talk very long."
She really wanted to leave Neverland,
but she was being told,
"We're trying to keep you safe.
You need to stay here."
But she just felt like something was off.
Janet called a good friend and said,
"Do you know of any lawyers?"
He recommended a lawyer who watched
the Martin Bashir documentary and said,
"These children
need to speak to a psychologist."
[ominous music playing]
[man] The children,
particularly Gavin and Star,
I think really loved Michael Jackson.
I think that he was very important
at a time when there was chaos
in their life, economic, medical.
And I think both Star and Gavin
looked to him for some stability.
It was very shocking to me
when I learned about his experiences
and his familiarity with Michael Jackson.
I felt like the boys were credible,
and I felt there was enough information
for me to reasonably suspect
Gavin had been the victim
of child sexual abuse.
And in the State of California,
health professionals in general,
if you have a reasonable suspicion,
you must, under penalty of law,
make a report
to the appropriate authorities.
[ominous music continues]
[Ron] At the time, I was prosecuting
predominantly sex crimes.
I was one of the few men
who actually did that,
and did a lot of them.
Rape cases, child molest cases,
crimes against women,
crimes against children.
That became one of my specialties.
And I got a call
from the district attorney,
and I went down to his office,
and he handed me a report.
And it took a moment before I finally
saw the name Michael Jackson.
The most recognizable person in the world.
[music fades]
But to find out, is there
a credible accusation of sexual abuse,
almost always the first thing
detectives do is interview the child.
[officer] Okay, we're rolling.
You need to sit right there, buddy.
[unsettling music playing]
How long is it going to take?
[officer] Well, as far as how fast
you answer our questions
and how you feel and all that stuff.
Rolling.
So he grabbed me.
- [officer] He grabbed you?
- Yeah.
[officer] Where did he grab you at?
Private area.
[officer] He grabbed you
in your private area?
Where were you at when this happened?
On his bed.
[officer] In bed?
Were you lying in bed
or were you sitting on the bed?
I was lying on his bed,
and we were talking.
[officer] And did you
have clothes on or off?
On?
- Yeah. I had his pajamas.
- [officer] Okay.
And what did he end up doing?
He told me…
'cause he said
that if I knew how to do it and he said…
And if I don't, he'll do it for me.
So he started…
[officer] Speak up a little bit.
I can't hear you, buddy.
I know it's hard.
[Ron] You can expect to see a child
who's talking about a subject matter
that's difficult to talk about.
Life is so much easier if you just say,
"Nothing happened."
And the questions stop.
[unsettling music continues]
You watch kids,
they just sit there and implode.
Not explode, implode.
They sort of shrink into themselves.
Their shoulders come in,
their head drops down.
It's as if they're trying
to disappear into the floor.
[officer] And what did he do next?
He started masturbating me.
[officer] Okay.
Then… [sniffles] …after a while,
I told him I didn't want him to do that.
[officer] Did he stop?
I told him no.
He kept on doing it.
I told him… He kept saying that
he wants to teach me, and…
I told him… I told him no.
[Ron] At some point after the release
of the Martin Bashir documentary,
Michael Jackson had sexually abused Gavin.
That's what Gavin told us,
and we believed him.
What I saw, I thought,
was a very typical interview
of a child
who had experienced sexual abuse.
[officer] Was there anything else
where you had seen naked pictures
or naked women before?
Both being with Michael?
Yeah.
[officer] Where was that at?
He had a black suitcase.
He said, there's a black suitcase,
and it's full of, like, naked pictures
and magazines of women.
[officer] Of women?
And girls.
[officer] Did you see them?
He showed it to me.
[officer] I really am
very proud of you, Gavin.
I'm very proud of you.
[Stan] I learned that both Star and Gavin
had been shown pornography.
Star told me that he had
seen Michael put alcohol
into soda cans,
called it Jesus Juice.
Gavin told me
that he had Jesus Juice on planes.
Gavin told me he had Jesus Juice
in Michael Jackson's room.
[Ron] When you're prosecuting a case
involving a crime against a child,
you rarely have witnesses to it.
So we want to see if we can corroborate
what Gavin had told us
about what was going on
in Neverland with Michael Jackson.
And that included executing
a search warrant on his property.
[ominous music playing]
[news theme plays]
This is a Fox News alert.
A search warrant
has been issued and executed
by the Santa Barbara County Police.
[tense music playing]
Dozens of investigators are swarming
Michael Jackson's ranch in California,
looking for evidence in what is being
called an ongoing criminal investigation.
- [sheriff 1] What's all this shit here?
- [sheriff 2] That's a filming crew.
- Yeah, definitely.
- [sheriff 1] Damn it.
They're taking pictures.
[tense music continues]
[indistinct police chatter]
[sheriff 2] Okay, well,
let's do our checks.
You don't have a job
until we secure this house.
[Ron] If we think
that we have a good chance
of being able to get a conviction
on this case, then we should do it.
We shouldn't not do it
because he's a celebrity.
[sheriff 1] Search warrant.
[tense music continues]
[woman on TV] Right now,
Target Neverland is underway.
As many as 60 investigators are inside
at this point, searching the ranch.
To my left, you'll see the mass
of media from all over the world here.
It goes down about a quarter mile…
[Ron] We had a very realistic
understanding of what was going to happen.
The constant presence of the press.
It never crossed our mind
that that would be a reason
that we wouldn't
prosecute Michael Jackson.
We knew what it would mean
nationally and even internationally.
Those investigators
are still on the scene.
Somebody very close to this investigation
says it does involve child molestation.
[tense music continues]
[Vincent] I was at home.
All of a sudden, there's a news flash.
There was a raid at Neverland.
I almost dropped to the floor.
I knew inherently
that this was the Arvizo family.
How could they accuse Michael
of molesting their child?
I wholeheartedly
believed in his innocence.
I felt that it just
didn't make logical sense
that Michael would harm a child
after the deposition
and the family
speaking so positively of him.
[sheriff 2] No surprises?
[man] No surprises.
This goes right in here.
Right now, I put some…
luggage one of the guests…
[sheriff 2] We're going this way?
[Ron] We want to see if we can corroborate
what Gavin had told us.
Where the stairway is…
[sheriff 2] Okay.
- Go ahead, Curtis.
- [sheriff 1] Sheriff's Department.
- [sheriff 2] You have another light?
- [sheriff 1] No.
[Ron] Where the bed is.
[tense music continues]
I knew that in Jackson's interview
in the documentary by Martin Bashir,
he was saying, "These kids,
they want to stay in my bed."
[Michael] When you say bed,
you're thinking sexual.
They make that sexual. It's not sexual.
We're going to sleep. I tuck them in.
I put a little, like, music on,
do a little story time, I read a book.
I give them hot milk.
You know, we have little cookies.
It's very charming.
Very sweet.
We want to see if there was the briefcase
that Gavin said existed in the bedroom
that had all of the pornography in it.
[music intensifies]
Yes, we found the briefcase.
Yes, it was the same color.
Yes, it had pornography in it.
[unsettling music playing]
[sheriff 2] When's Mr. Jackson
gonna be back?
You don't know.
[sheriff 1] Hey,
how come the fireplace is on?
[sheriff 2] Jose turned it on yesterday.
I asked the same.
[Diane] I stood outside Neverland
for hours and hours and hours that day,
watching whether or not they're gonna
bring Michael Jackson out.
He's not there.
The sheriff's office, all they have said
is that this is a property search,
an ongoing investigation,
and tomorrow morning
at about eleven o'clock,
we'll have a news conference
with both the DA and the sheriff.
- [man 1] Okay. We're 30 seconds.
- [reporters murmuring]
[tense, pensive music playing]
The basis for this investigation
regarding Mr. Jackson
involves allegations of child molestation,
288A of the California Penal Code.
Additionally, an arrest warrant
for Mr. Jackson has been issued
on multiple counts of child molestation.
For years, pop star Michael Jackson
has denied having
inappropriate contact with children,
and he has never been charged.
But tonight, Jackson is wanted by police.
[man 2] Jackson could be a flight risk.
Could he be a flight risk?
There's always that potential,
but we are pursuing the arrest warrant.
[man 3] Do you know where he is now?
- No.
- [spokesman] No, we do not.
Ask Diane. She knows everything
about Michael Jackson.
[Diane] I already had this history,
this knowledge, this source base.
And they were calling me, these sources,
as often as I was calling them.
Every hour, I was finding out
more and more things,
and I get some real hard facts.
I came to discover that Michael Jackson
was not at Neverland,
but somewhere in Las Vegas.
[ominous music playing]
[man] The 45-year-old's whereabouts
are a mystery.
Some say he's been at the Four Seasons.
Others say up the Strip at The Mirage,
where he reportedly owns a villa.
And still others say,
"No, he last stayed here at the Bellagio."
Fact is, it seems nobody in this town
knows where Michael Jackson last stayed,
let alone where he is tonight.
[Kevin] We're outside Neverland,
we're in Vegas,
we've got people stationed everywhere.
And it's a bit embarrassing
that we don't know where he is right now.
[ominous music continues]
[Brian] Those of us
who know Michael, we think…
I think the world of him,
and I just cannot fathom
that this would be true.
At the time,
Michael wasn't talking to nobody.
He was hoping
that the furor would go away.
Mrs. Jackson had a theory about life.
If you ducked and covered enough,
the storm would pass you by.
And Michael practiced that very carefully.
[Diane] I find out from a source,
he's holed up in this villa,
and he only opens the door wearing
a colorful dashiki muumuu garment,
only enough to get the food brought in,
and then he slams the door.
And he's having wild parties.
There were cigarette burns
in the leather couches and chairs.
There were food containers everywhere.
There were empty liquor bottles
on every table.
And this is where Michael Jackson
had been for several days,
entertaining young teenage boys
who all spoke German.
And he said, after the raid,
Michael Jackson was informed,
"Oh my God,
the cops are at Neverland again."
And he left just like that.
[ominous music continues]
[Diane] Michael Jackson remains
a wanted man this morning,
and everyone's waiting
to see when he'll turn himself in.
Jackson's spokesman says
the singer will return to Santa Barbara
to confront and prove
that the charges are unfounded.
We have to go.
My producer's telling me we have to go.
The next thing I hear,
Michael Jackson negotiates
with the district attorney's office
as to the "surrender."
[tense music playing]
[man] We were hearing that this aircraft
may be connected
with Michael Jackson's arrival.
He is rolling out right now
on runway seven.
[Diane] He flew in in a private jet,
into a hangar in Santa Barbara,
and my sources were telling me
he voluntarily flew there to surrender.
They put the handcuffs on him
and put him in a car.
That car was also outfitted with audio.
[man 1] Okay.
[Michael] Can we put some air on, please?
[man 1] Okay.
[man 2] That okay for you, Mr. Jackson?
[Michael] It's wonderful. Thank you.
Thank you very much.
[Diane] They did not want
any false reports of police brutality.
- [protesters yelling indistinctly]
- [tense music continues]
[man 1] Coming in the back.
[man 2] The back.
[man 1] He's coming in.
[man 3] It's the car starting to pull
into the sally port area.
[speaking indistinctly]
[Michael] They hurt.
They're tight, aren't they?
[man 2] Just, if you want
to scoot forward a little bit.
There you go.
[man 3] All right,
somebody's coming out of the vehicle now.
[Diane] There he is. It's Michael Jackson.
He's in handcuffs.
- [man 3] I believe he's in handcuffs.
- [Diane] Mike, he's in handcuffs.
[man 3] Yes.
[man 4] So after that 24-hour mystery
about his whereabouts,
Michael Jackson has now surrendered
into police custody behind me.
A crushing humiliation
for one of the world's great entertainers,
right now being read those charges
of child molestation.
Minutes are ticking by.
I'm still live on the air.
I'm thinking, "Is he going to be booked,
fingerprinted, mugshot?"
"What happens next?"
And then it popped up
in my monitor. [gasps]
And I was stunned.
I'm live on the air,
so I have to be careful what I say.
I thought, number one, he looks so pale.
It looked ghoulish.
It looked like a deer in the headlights.
I almost felt sorry for him.
When I saw him with his hands cuffed,
and then that mugshot,
I realized this is not
just at the allegation stage anymore.
Michael Jackson is now
in the American criminal justice system.
He's in the system.
And the system
was not going to let him go,
and my sources were telling me
there was going to be a criminal trial.
[ominous music playing]
[man] Seven counts of lewd
and lascivious acts against a child
with the intent of arousing,
appealing to, and gratifying the lust,
passions, and sexual desires
of Jackson and the child,
and two counts of administering
an intoxicating agent,
reportedly alcohol,
with the intent
of committing child molestation.
[Mark] He's come back specifically
to confront these charges head-on.
He is greatly outraged
by the bringing of these charges.
Uh, he considers this to be a big lie.
He was enormously stressed.
All of a sudden, there is a reality
to what has been theoretical.
[ominous music continues]
I watched him just disintegrate.
Literally disintegrate.
The ingestion of substances
was just astronomical.
There was a time when I actually saw him
in the fetal position on the floor,
and I thought, "What do we do?"
I mean, you don't want his death
to be on your hands
because you took some inaction.
It was a horrific time for him
and for those around him,
and we had genuine concerns as to whether
he could even withstand a trial
physically, mentally.
[ominous music continues]
Michael is hearing all of these heinous
accusations on a day-to-day basis,
and he's wanting people to step up and say
that's not true, and to defend him more.
[Joe] We know our son.
We know that he's not a pedophile
like some of these newscasters are saying.
This is ridiculous.
We have a lot of wicked people out there,
and they know what they're doing.
[Raymone] Michael is saying,
"What is this obsession with me?"
"Why am I a target?"
It seemed to me that there was
a deliberate attempt to try to get him.
It is racism. It is.
Katherine's not going to say it,
but I will say it.
It is racism.
[Stacy] When the charges
were announced against Michael,
of course, the family,
they were heartsick.
But for Michael's siblings, it was never
about guilt or innocence for them.
It was about legacy.
"They can't do this to us.
They want to destroy what we built."
It's what I kept hearing
over and over again.
We are the Jacksons,
as Randy Jackson would say, you know,
"We're royalty. We're the Black Kennedys."
[tense music playing]
My mother, my father,
my sisters, my brothers
are overwhelmed at the outpouring
of the support from the fans,
both here in the United States
and all around the world.
It was all about the brand.
Michael Jackson, the brand.
The Jacksons, the brand.
We've got to protect the brand.
Thank you very much.
That's all I've got to say.
[Stacy] I remember Jermaine calling me up
and says, "Guess what?"
"You know, Michael says, when the trial
is over, we're going to go on tour again."
And I got to realize that
that's what this was really about for--
At least for Jermaine.
We've got to support him
because he's got to come through this,
he's got to beat these charges so they can
make more music and go out on tour.
He's innocent.
And he knows that. We know that.
And the public knows that too.
He's innocent.
Our response is, here we go again.
Michael has 24-hour-a-day
supervision with him
for the specific purpose of protecting him
against these kinds of claims.
Did he want to have children around him?
Yes, he did. No question about it.
But to groom children for molestation?
What, he was the wicked witch
in Hansel and Gretel?
How nonsensical.
Michael Jackson was the biggest superstar
in the history
of the country and the world.
Adults would get into Michael's presence,
and they were all atwitter,
and it was impossible for him to function.
But with children, they didn't care.
He was just one of the guys.
And that's why he liked
being with children.
- [crowd clamoring]
- [unsettling music playing]
I remember on the day of the arraignment,
I'd never seen anything like it.
Michael Jackson presents himself in court,
and the formal charges
are read against him.
I knew we were watching
the potential demise of a superstar.
- [music turns tense]
- [crowd clamoring]
- [woman] Michael.
- [man] Michael.
He knows there are two
parallel battles underway.
There is the legal battle underway
inside that courtroom,
and then there is
the public relations skirmish
that is also underway.
[girls chanting] Michael!
[Stacy] Michael had
an entire army with him.
The huge crowd there.
News stations take this garbage
and then report it as fact?
- You should be ashamed of yourselves!
- [man] Ashamed.
[women whoop]
[girls chanting] Michael!
I believe he's 100% innocent, and I don't
think he would do something like this.
He doesn't have the heart to do it.
We believe in his innocence,
and we're supporting him all the way,
and we're thinking about him,
and we're going to be here for him.
- What do we want?
- [crowd] Justice!
- When do we want it? Now!
- [crowd] Now!
[Stacy] I'll never forget Bob Jones,
Michael's longtime manager,
and I were standing next to Michael.
And Bob had his back to him.
And he says,
"I know he's gonna do something crazy.
I just know he's going to."
[crowd screaming]
[woman] Oh my goodness, look at this.
He's jumping on top of the car.
- [man] Oh yeah, we see him.
- [woman] Truly performing for his fans.
I remember looking up, kind of gobsmacked,
and I thought he was
gonna start moonwalking.
[crowd screaming]
[Mark] I was immensely impressed
with the physicality
of hopping onto the top of an SUV
in the state or condition he was in.
He's one of the greatest performers
of the century.
He can turn it on.
[Brian] He said,
"Brian, how do guilty people leave court?"
I said, "They kind of are embarrassed
and they hide."
He says, "Yeah, they put their jacket
over their head, and they hide."
"How do innocent people
leave the courthouse?"
"They let the whole world see them."
"They stand tall, and they stand proud."
- [ominous music playing]
- [crowd screaming]
In his own inimical way,
Michael Jackson knew
how to tell the world he was innocent.
[unsettling music playing]
[Diane] I would not be surprised
if somewhere down the road,
some of the people
surrounding Michael Jackson
might have at least the threat
of charges against them,
aiding, abetting, allowing children in,
knowing full well
what the heck might happen.
[on recording] Hey, Vincent.
Sergeant Robel again.
I want to hear from you,
whether you want
to speak to me with your attorney.
Giving you the opportunity, bud,
because the ship is sinking pretty fast.
So, please, Vince, give me a buzz.
[Ron] You know, we knew that Vinny was
one of the people who was at Neverland
and had an association with the kids
when they were there.
So we were interested in talking to Vinny
to see if he could help us in any way
in terms of what was going on
with the kids.
I defended him.
And I believed in his innocence.
One of the reasons
was because of my friend Frank.
Michael was like a father to Frank.
Frank was a young child
when he met Michael,
and he grew in the ranks,
and he became his personal assistant.
Basically anything Michael wanted,
he would have to do.
Frank Tyson is thought to be
one of Jackson's closest friends.
They met when Tyson
was just five years old,
and he's admittedly
slept in Jackson's bed.
[Vincent] I said, "Frank,
you're the closest person to Michael."
I said, "Is this true?"
He's never given me an indication
that he is interested in boys
or sexual attraction to boys.
It's the opposite.
[Vincent] He told me, "No,
Michael would never do this with a child."
"I know Michael…
all my life."
"He would never do this."
And I trusted Frank.
But they were raiding other Jackson
associates' houses and properties.
[sirens wailing]
Frank cleaned out his house of anything
that came from the Neverland Ranch.
And he hands me a Nike bag.
I took the bag, and, um, I'm driving home,
and I felt something's
a little suspicious.
And I said, you know,
"Let me take a look in this bag."
I start taking videos to document this.
[unsettling music playing]
I open the bag.
I start looking, and I see a magazine.
Start flipping through it…
and there was a Sharpie…
circles around the video ordering section.
Someone's wanted these videos,
circled the ones they want.
These videos,
which are children that are naked.
Some with family,
some just naked children.
[unsettling music continues]
I… I… I confronted Frank.
I said, you know,
"Frank, what is this magazine?"
I said, "Because, you know,
there's circles around
video with naked children."
He says, "That's just a phase
that Michael and I went through."
"You know, he circled
the videos he wanted, I ordered them,
and it was a phase we went through."
They watched them together.
When I heard that, I was in disbelief.
I was very upset.
My inclination was, after finding this
and sitting there thinking about it,
was that Frank is so close to Michael
that he's covering up for him.
That was a defining moment for me.
That was the moment that hit me so hard
where I realized
that there's something going on here.
[unsettling music continues]
In the last few weeks, a large amount
of ugly, malicious information
has been released into the media about me.
I allowed a family to visit
and spend some time at Neverland.
Through the years,
I have helped thousands of children
who are ill or in distress.
Please keep an open mind
and let me have my day in court.
Thank you.
[pensive music playing]
[dramatic music playing]
[music fades]