NEED TO KNOW
In June 2026, Netflix released a docuseries on Michael Jackson’s 2005 child molestation trial titled Michael Jackson: The Verdict
The docuseries included interviews from key players present during the trial, including the Jackson family attorney Brian Oxman and prosecutor Ron Zonen
Vincent Amen, a former associate of Jackson’s, claimed in the doc that the singer watched videos of nude children with his personal assistant
Michael Jackson‘s 2005 child molestation trial was one of the most highly publicized legal battles of the 21st century — but decades later, a handful of new details have come to light in Netflix’s latest docuseries on the case.
Released in June 2026, Michael Jackson: The Verdict chronicled accusations that the King of Pop had molested 13-year-old Gavin Arvizo at his Neverland Ranch estate. Cameras were not allowed in the courtroom during the nearly four-month-long criminal trial, which included testimonies from the victim, his family and celebrities Macaulay Culkin and Chris Tucker.
“This was a case about a man who was one of the most recognizable people in the world,” former prosecutor Ron Zonen said in the docuseries. “He was unique in his talent and skill and his accomplishment. And he was unique in his victimization of children.”
Though Jackson maintained his innocence and was ultimately acquitted of all 10 charges brought against him, public opinion remained divided.
Read on for the six biggest bombshells from Michael Jackson: The Verdict.
Jurors were dancing to Jackson’s music during the trial
Michael Jackson performs during halftime in Super Bowl XXVII on January 31, 1993 in Pasadena, California.
Credit: Steve Granitz/WireImage
Before inviting the first witness, British TV journalist Martin Bashir, to the stand, the prosecution played the entirety of his 2003 documentary Living with Michael Jackson. The film included multiple clips of the singer’s most popular songs, which the jury visibly danced to as they watched.
“I looked around, and all the people in the courtroom and the jury, and you know, the judge, and everybody’s just bobbing their heads up and down, ” J. Randy Taraborrelli, Jackson’s biographer, said in The Verdict.
Investigative journalist Diane Dimond, who covered the trial, also said that the jury was “literally swaying in their seats.”
Jackson allegedly asked his attorney to dig up dirt on the Arvizo family
Jackson family attorney Brian Oxman claimed in The Verdict that the “Thriller” singer asked him to “sniff out” anything in the Arvizos’ past. Jackson had befriended the family during Gavin’s journey with cancer.
Oxman explained that’s how he learned about the Arvizos’ lawsuit against JCPenney, in which Gavin was accused of shoplifting by a security guard. His mother, Janet, later filed a suit against the store alleging the guard had assaulted her and her children in the parking lot and accepted a $152,000 settlement.
During the 2005 trial, she admitted to lying under oath in that civil case and invoked the Fifth Amendment to avoid further questioning about the payments, according to The New York Times.
“This is the same MO,” Oxman claimed in the docuseries. “They were scam artists.”
Janet’s welfare fraud allegedly killed the prosecution’s case
Janet Arvizo in ‘Michael Jackson: The Verdict.’
Credit: Netflix
During the trial, the defense accused Gavin’s mom Janet of welfare fraud and claimed that she had received financial assistance from the state without disclosing the settlement from JCPenney. Melissa Herard, one of the jurors interviewed for the 2026 Netflix series, said that the revelation “did bother” her.
“To me, it was just a farce,” she explained in The Verdict, admitting that she had nicknamed the witness “Janet from another planet.” Herard added, “She just was out for money.”
Janet pleaded no contest in November 2006 to one count of welfare fraud and agreed to pay over $8,600 in restitution for failing to disclose that she had been paid 10s of thousands of dollars from a civil lawsuit when applying for welfare.
Her lawyer, Patricia Hattersley, told the Los Angeles Times that Janet didn’t want to put her family through a trial and that she had spent the $32,000 she received from the lawsuit before applying for benefits.
Jackson allegedly gave boys lewd nicknames
Vincent Amen, an associate of Jackson’s who worked for him from 2002 to 2003, told The Verdict filmmakers that he kept Polaroid photos of the Arvizo family taken at Neverland Ranch.
On a photo of Gavin’s brother, Star Arvizo, the boy wrote a note addressed to the King of Pop, in which he referred to himself as “Your son, Blowhole.”
“These are the nicknames that Michael would give these young boys,” Amen claimed in the docuseries.
While on the stand during the 2005 trial, Star said that Jackson would call him “Blowhole,” and that his nicknames for Gavin included “Apple Head” and “Doo-Doo,” The Washington Post reported at the time.
Jackson never publicly commented on whether or not he gave the Arvizo boys these nicknames.
Jackson allegedly watched videos of nude children with his assistant, Frank Tyson
Vincent Amen in ‘Michael Jackson: The Verdict.’
Credit: Netflix
In the docuseries, Amen claimed that Jackson’s close friend and personal assistant Frank Tyson — who was 5 years old when he met the singer — asked him to dispose of a bag that contained child abuse material when the police were raiding Neverland Ranch.
Video footage taken by Amen showed that the alleged bag contained a nudist magazine called Naturally, in which someone had circled videos to order that seemingly featured naked children. When he confronted Tyson about the magazine and circled videos, Tyson allegedly told him it was “just a phase” he and Jackson went through.
Tyson did not respond to filmmakers’ request for comment, and has long denied the child molestation allegations against the singer. In an undated interview included in The Verdict, he claimed that Jackson never gave him “an indication that he’s interested in boys” or had a “sexual attraction to boys.”
Tyson’s family’s lawyer did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
Jackson was never charged in connection with possessing child pornography, and Zonen told PEOPLE in June 2016 that though they found photos of nude children at Neverland Ranch, “they weren’t sexually graphic.”
“They weren’t children engaged in sexual activity and there was no child pornography,” he said at the time. “There were no videos involving children. There were videos that were seized but they were conventional adult sexually graphic material. No children involved.”
Read the original article on People
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