Michael Jackson Acquitted on All Counts

A jury acquitted Michael Jackson on Monday of molesting a 13-year-old cancer survivor at his Neverland ranch, vindicating the pop star who insisted he was the victim of mother-and-son con artists and a prosecutor with a vendetta. Jurors also acquitted him of conspiring to imprison his accuser and the boy's family at the storybook estate —a total legal victory but one that may do little to improve his bizarre image. The verdict — reached after about 30 hours of deliberations over seven days — ended a star-studded, four-month trial that offered a global audience a lurid look into the weird world of Michael Jackson and presented jurors with vastly different portraits of him: a creepy pervert who preyed on little boys, or the victim of a frame-up by mother-and-son shakedown artists. [AP Photo/Michael Mariant]