Thread by @SurefireMJ

In cross-examination, Mesereau presented Gavin Arvizo with a copy of Barely Legal, asking if this was the specific edition MJ had shown him. Gavin adamantly insisted it was. Mesereau then revealed it was published in Aug 2003, 5 months AFTER the family left Neverland. #Gotcha

But this information went almost entirely unreported, the media focusing on the boy's allegations rather than the cross examination which comprehensively undermined them. Allegations make good soundbites. Complex cross examination does not.

Gavin's Brother "Star," was also cross-examined on this issue:

Gavin claimed they went through almost the full content of MJ's briefcase (“we saw, like, practically everything”) and the whole thing lasted about 30 minutes to one hour. Star claimed they saw only about three or four magazines.

It should be noted that before the Arvizo boys went into Jackson’s room and found his adult magazines Jordan Chandler never claimed that Jackson showed him such material in order to 'groom' him or for any other reason.

When asked on the stand whether they had ever gone to MJ’s bedroom while he was not there, Gavin claimed they never did. His brother contradicted this in his own testimony. Star had vivid memories of both not only going into MJ's room, but even sleeping there while MJ was away.

What about the pornographic magazines? The Arvizo Brothers claimed that Jackson showed them pornographic magazines from a briefcase on two occasions. However, when it came to the details of the story, the brothers contradicted each other on several points again.

A story by music producer Mark Ronson as told in 2008, confirms that Jackson was not at all OK with children looking at adult material, let alone encouraging them to do so.

A Neverland employee Julio Avila testified on May 24, 2005 that he once caught Star walking around with an adult magazine and when he asked him where he got it from he told him he took it from home.

Another Neverland employee Maria Gomez testified on May 16, 2005 that she saw adult magazines in Star Arvizo’s backpack while she was once cleaning the guest unit where they were staying.

MJ attorney Tom Mesereau said: Mr. Jackson will freely admit he reads girlie magazines from time to time. He sends someone to the local market, and they pick up Playboy and they pick up Hustler, and he reads them from time to time. He absolutely denies showing them to children.

On some of the magazines the boys’ fingerprints were found, and the prosecution used that fact to argue that it proves their claim that Jackson showed them those magazines.

It does not prove that, of course, especially when you know that the Arvizo kids went into Jackson’s room while Jackson was not home and they were perfectly able to rummage through his stuff, as they testified themselves.

Prosecutor Sneddon attempted to plant fingerprint evidence against Jackson by having accuser Gavin Arvizo handle adult magazines during grand jury hearings. However, those magazines were later dismissed.

During cross, Prosecutor Sneddon showed Chris Tucker a photograph of Chris with the accuser and his family at a wedding. Chris said, humorously, ‘I’d like to have that photograph!’. The D.A. Tom Sneddon’s response was, ‘𝗠𝗮𝘆𝗯𝗲 𝗶𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂’𝗿𝗲 𝗮 𝗴𝗼𝗼𝗱 𝗯𝗼𝘆.’

Amidst the tabloids' rampant speculation regarding the alleged discovery of naked photographs of boys at Neverland, Tom Mesereau obtained special permission from Judge Melville to issue the following statement:

With no concrete evidence at hand, the case essentially revolved around the credibility clash between accuser Gavin Arvizo and Jackson. From that juncture, district attorneys Tom Sneddon & Ron Zonen relied solely on character assassination tactics to construct their prosecution.

After the jury acquitted Jackson on all charges in June 2005, jury foreman, Paul Rodriguez, told CNN, "Those are adult magazines. Anybody can own them. It doesn't prove the charge."

A search of over sixteen computer hard drives seized in the 2003 raid revealed nothing except that he occasionally visited a few adult legal porn sites where he liked to log in as “Dr. Black” and “Marcel Jackson.” Juicy gossip fodder, yes. Illegal; no.

Essentially, this left the prosecution in the rather embarrassing position of trying to build a case of child molestation against a man for whom the only “evidence” they had was issues of Hustler, Playboy, Penthouse, and the like ― along with, well, a lot of art books.

The full list of Jackson’s adult porn that was confiscated in the Neverland raid has been widely available for many years, and consisted of over 1800 images of nude adult women.

Adult heterosexual pornography was found during the raid on Neverland. However, owning such material is not illegal for an adult. The prosecution tried to implicate legal art books from Jackson's extensive library as part of a "grooming" process, but failed to prove it in court.

Jackson was acquitted on ALL counts on June 13, 2005, jurors cited lack of evidence.

The same Jurors then appeared on "The Jury Speaks" in 2017 and said they still would vote to acquit.

I was present in the court public gallery, so I witnessed the majority of the trial proceedings, including the closing statements and verdict first hand. I also had the opportunity to spend time with Michael Jackson at the Neverland Ranch in 2003 and 2005.