Jackson not guilty on all counts

Lurid testimony
At times, testimony in the Santa Maria courtroom was lurid and unsettling. Investigators described finding smut in Jackson's bedroom, magazines like Hustler Barely Legal, with both the singer's and accuser's fingerprints.

The accuser's brother described sexually charged Web-browsing sessions during which Jackson allegedly showed the boys images of nude women while cracking jokes. In one jaw-dropping moment, the boy recalled Jackson pointing to an image of a woman’s breasts and quipping, “Got milk?”

A former Jackson security guard claimed he had seen the singer fondle and perform oral sex on another boy who later received a multimillion-dollar settlement from Jackson. Another former employee claimed he saw Jackson put his hands down Culkin's pants.

Some of the most gripping testimony came from the accuser himself, who described how a man he once considered his “best friend ever” allegedly molested him twice.

Yet Mesereau and his team carefully poked holes in the credibility of the accuser and many other witnesses — noting, for example, that several former employees who testified lost a lawsuit against Jackson and were ordered to pay the singer $1.4 million.

Holes in the case
The veteran defense lawyer even got the accuser to contradict himself in front of jurors, and caught the accuser's brother in a lie involving an adult magazine that he claimed the singer showed him. Time and again, the defense team found effective weak spots in Sneddon's witnesses and presented their own witnesses to cast doubt on key details.

Prosecutors were also stung when one of their most high-profile witnesses, Jackson's ex-wife Debbie Rowe, described the singer as a "great father" and attacked his aides. Called by prosecutors to describe a taped interview about Jackson as "scripted," she shocked the courtroom by saying just the opposite. 

Her testimony backed up frequent suspicions that Jackson's interest in her was hardly romantic — “We never shared a home," she said — but did nothing to help the prosecution and left many with the impression that Sneddon's case had serious flaws.

Santa Barbara County authorities first raided Neverland in November 2003. Jackson was booked two days later, and indicted in April 2004.

But Sneddon first tried to prosecute Jackson 10 years earlier over the 1993 allegations. The accuser in that case backed out and charges were never filed, but the singer's associates claimed the district attorney had a vendetta against Jackson.

In a 1995 song, "D.S.," the pop legend even presumptively referenced Sneddon, calling him a "cold man."

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