Kelly cases, the more people looked into the Jackson allegations, the more the evidence vindicated him. The allegations surrounding Jackson largely faded over the past decade for a reason: unlike the Bill Cosby or R. This includes hundreds of sick and terminally ill children such as Bela Farkas (for whom Jackson paid for a life-saving liver transplant) and Ryan White (whom Jackson befriended and supported in his final years battling AIDS) it includes lesser-known figures like Brett Barnes and Frank Cascio it includes celebrities like Macaulay Culkin, Sean Lennon, Emmanuel Lewis, Alfonso Ribeiro, and Corey Feldman it includes Jackson’s nieces and nephews and it includes his own three children. Meanwhile, dozens of individuals who spent time with Jackson as kids continue to assert nothing sexual ever happened. Its 300-page file on the pop star, released under the Freedom of Information Act, found no evidence of wrongdoing. The FBI, likewise, conducted a thorough investigation. Jackson was acquitted of all charges in 2005 by a conservative Santa Maria jury. His homes were ransacked in two unannounced raids by law enforcement.
They elicited a two-year feeding frenzy in the mid-90s and then again in the mid-2000s, when Jackson faced an exhaustive criminal trial. The media’s largely uncritical, de-contextualized takes out of Sundance seem to have forgotten: no allegations have been more publicly scrutinized than those against Michael Jackson. It is no coincidence that one of Jackson’s favorite books (and movies) was To Kill a Mockingbird, a story about a black man-Tom Robinson-destroyed by false allegations. Yet that is a dangerous leap-particularly with America's history of unjustly targeting and convicting black men-that fair-minded people would be wise to consider more carefully before condemning the artist. Kelly was rightfully taken down by a documentary, and many other high-profile figures have been exposed in recent years, so surely, the logic goes, Michael Jackson must be guilty as well.
It is tempting for the media to tie Jackson into a larger cultural narrative about sexual misconduct. Both Robson and Safechuck's lawsuits remain under appeal. The film's director, Dan Reed, acknowledged not wanting to interview other key figures because it might complicate or compromise the story he wanted to tell. While the documentary is obviously emotionally disturbing given the content, it presents no new evidence or witnesses. In 2019, the Sundance Film Festival premiered a documentary based entirely on Robson and Safechuck's allegations.Safechuck claimed that he only realized he was abused after seeing Robson on TV. A probate court dismissed his claim in 2017. Soon after, James Safechuck reached out to Robson's attorneys and filed his own lawsuit and creditor's claim. While the exact amount would not have been clear until after a trial, an enormous amount of money was at stake. In 2013, Robson filed a civil lawsuit and creditor’s claim, which some sources claimed could be worth up to $1.6 billion dollars.That same year, with Robson’s career, finances, and marriage in peril, he began shopping a book that claimed he was sexually abused by Michael Jackson.His career, in his own words, began to “crumble.” In 2012, Robson had a nervous breakdown, triggered, he said, by an obsessive quest for success.