In 2003, Sony put out a compilation of Jackson’s number-one hits on CD and DVD, titled Number Ones, which sold over six million copies worldwide. In the US it peaked at number 13 and was certified platinum by the RIAA. At the same time, Jackson was charged with seven counts of child molestation and two counts of administering an intoxicating agent in order to commit that felony; all charges regarded the same boy, Gavin Arvizo, who was under 14 at the time of the alleged crime. Earlier that year, a Granada Television documentary called “Living with Michael Jackson” featuring the singer, showed him holding hands and discussing sleeping arrangements with Arvizo, who would later accuse him of child sexual abuse. In the same documentary Jackson was observed spending large amounts of money in an apparently frivolous manner, when he spent $6 million in a single store.
Fans show their support for Jackson after the entertainer is accused of child molestation in 2003.
Jackson denied the sexual abuse allegations, saying that the sleepovers were in no way sexual in nature. Jackson’s friend Elizabeth Taylor defended him on Larry King Live, saying that she had been there when they “were in the bed, watching television. There was nothing abnormal about it. There was no touchy-feely going on. We laughed like children and we watched a lot of Walt Disney. There was nothing odd about it.” During the investigation, Jackson’s profile were examined by a mental health professional called Dr. Stan Katz; the doctor spent several hours with the accuser too. The assessment made by Katz, was that Jackson had become a regressed 10-year-old and did not fit the profile of a pedophile.
Following his upcoming trial, Jackson became dependent on morphine and Demerol, which he subsequently overcame. The People v. Jackson trial began in Santa Maria, California, two years after Jackson was originally charged. The trial lasted five months, until the end of May 2005. During the trial, the singer again suffered from stress-related illnesses and severe weight loss, that would alter his appearance. In June, Jackson was acquitted on all counts. Following the trial, Jackson relocated to the Persian Gulf island of Bahrain as a guest of Sheikh Abdullah.
Sony BMG released Visionary: The Video Singles to the European market: a series of 20 of his biggest hit singles of the 1980s and 1990s. Each single was issued weekly over a five-month period in Dual Disc format (DVD video on one side, CD audio on the other), and the whole group of discs was made available as a boxed set afterwards. The box set was released in the US on November 14, 2006.
Reports of financial problems for Jackson became frequent in 2006 after the closure of the main house on the Neverland Ranch as a cost-cutting measure. One prominent financial issue for him concerned a $270 million loan secured against his music publishing holdings. After delayed repayments on the loan, a refinancing package shifted the loans from Bank of America to debt specialists Fortress Investments. A new package proposed by Sony would have had Jackson borrow an additional $300 million and reduce the interest rate payable on the loan, while giving Sony the future option to buy half of Jackson’s stake in their jointly owned publishing company (leaving Jackson with a 25% stake). Jackson agreed to a Sony-backed refinancing deal, although details were not made public. Despite these loans, according to Forbes, Jackson was still making as much as $75 million a year from his publishing partnership with Sony alone.
One of Jackson’s first documented public appearances since his trial was in November 2006, when he visited the London office of the Guinness World Records. He received eight records, among them “First Entertainer to Earn More Than 100 Million Dollars in a Year” and “Most Successful Entertainer of All Time”. Jackson was awarded the Diamond Award on November 15, 2006, for selling over 100 million albums, at the World Music Awards. Following the death of James Brown, Jackson returned to the US to pay his respects. He, along with more than 8,000 people, paid tribute during Brown’s public funeral on December 30, 2006. In late 2006, Jackson agreed to share joint custody of his first two children with ex-wife Debbie Rowe. Jackson and Sony bought Famous Music LLC from Viacom in 2007. This deal gave him the rights to songs by Eminem, Shakira and Beck, among others.
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