What specific charges did Michael Jackson face in the 2005 trial?

1. The formal indictment: what Jackson was accused of

The grand jury returned an indictment that combined sexual‑abuse counts with conspiracy and related offenses: specifically, prosecutors charged Jackson with four counts of molesting a minor, four counts of intoxicating a minor with alcohol to facilitate molestation, one count of attempted child molestation, one count of conspiring to hold the Arvizo family captive, and additional conspiracy counts tied to extortion and child abduction — a total of 14 offenses as reported in multiple summaries of the trial ^{[1] [5] [6]}.

2. The alleged victim and context behind the charges

The charges arose from allegations by Gavin Arvizo, then a teenager who had been filmed with Jackson in the 2003 documentary Living With Michael Jackson; prosecutors said the abuse occurred at Neverland Ranch while Gavin was 13 and recovering from cancer, and that Jackson gave Gavin alcohol and then molested him ^{[3] [2]}. News coverage and NPR summaries emphasize that the documentary and subsequent media attention precipitated the police investigation and arrest ^{[7] [8]}.

3. How prosecutors framed the case in court

Prosecutors pursued both the sexual‑abuse counts (molestation and attempted molestation) and a package of conspiracy and coercion charges, arguing that Jackson and others tried to intimidate or subdue the family and to use payments or threats to suppress damaging testimony — hence the extortion and false‑imprisonment/conspiracy allegations included in the indictment ^{[1] [2]}.

4. Defense strategy and key witnesses

Jackson’s defense denied the allegations and called numerous witnesses — including celebrity figures like Macaulay Culkin and Wade Robson at the time — to challenge the credibility of the Arvizo family and to present Jackson as non‑predatory; later retrospectives note some witnesses in 2019 documentaries reversed earlier statements, but contemporaneous trial reporting documents the defenses mounted in 2005 ^{[1] [9] [4]}.

5. Verdict and legal outcome

After roughly 14 weeks of testimony and about 30–32 hours of jury deliberation, the jury returned a not‑guilty verdict on all counts on June 13, 2005; major outlets reported Jackson was acquitted of the four molestation counts, the attempted molestation count, the conspiracy charge, and the counts alleging he provided alcohol to a minor ^{[2] [3] [8]}.

6. Discrepancies in reporting and how counts are summarized

Sources sometimes summarize the indictment differently — for example, some accounts state “eight possible counts of providing alcohol to minors” or group conspiracy counts together — but the consistent core across detailed contemporaneous and archival summaries is the 14‑count indictment composed of four molestation counts, four intoxication counts, one attempted molestation count, and multiple conspiracy charges including false imprisonment/extortion/abduction ^{[2] [6] [5]}.

7. Broader record and archival confirmation

The FBI’s public vault notes that Jackson was investigated in 2004–2005 for possible child molestation and that he was acquitted of the charges, aligning with press accounts of the indictment and verdict ^[10]. Contemporary news outlets such as The New York Times, The Washington Post and ABC provided detailed trial coverage and verbatim summaries of the charged counts and the acquittal ^{[3] [11] [7]}.

Limitations and remaining questions

Available sources here do not provide the full text of the charging document or minute‑by‑minute courtroom transcripts; they are consistent on the principal counts and the not‑guilty verdict but differ slightly in phrasing and in how ancillary counts (e.g., the number of alleged alcohol counts) are tallied in summaries ^{[1] [2] [6]}. For the precise statutory language and count numbering, the actual indictment or Santa Barbara Superior Court case file would be the authoritative source — not included in the present set of results (not found in current reporting).