A California prosecutor, who tried Michael Jackson for molesting a child cancer survivor, remains adamant the King Of Pop was a pedophile.
The former senior deputy district attorney for Santa Barbara appears on camera in a new TV show explaining why he felt Jackson should have served twenty years for abusing ex child bed companion Gavin Arvizo in the 2005 trial.
Adamant Ron Zonen, one of the lead prosecutors for Santa Barbara County, is convinced MJ was a molester and that Arvizo had told the truth.
Zonen doubled down to Channel 4’s upcoming show The Trial on his assertion that the Thriller star “was a pedophile who could abuse children almost with impunity.”
In court Jackson was cleared of 14 charges connected to abuse of Arvizo, but Zonen revealed his belief that the musician had abused before 2003 which was not included in their charge list.
The bombshell TV interview also teases that had the singers former child pals Wade Robson and James Safechuck spoken up of claims they were abused, rather than wait until 2019, Jackson’s fate may have been different.
The veteran lawyer claimed beloved global entertainer and philanthropist Jackson’s appeal and star quality allowed him to pull the wool over the jury’s eyes.
Channel 4 fans will get to see these incredibly powerful comments this Wednesday and Thursday (Feb 11 and 12) in hour long episodes of The Trial.
Zonen feels that the father of three, who died in 2009, had the power to manipulate the jury and even his fans into believing he was innocent of crimes.
Steadfast Zonen is still shocked that MJ avoided any punishment after he openly boasted to sleeping with children on camera to many media outlets including the ITV doc Living With Michael Jackson.
The Trial already made huge waves because it featured unheard tapes of Jackson discussing his fanatical love for children.
Zonen admitted: “From the prosecution standpoint, we knew we were dealing with a pedophile and he was a pedophile who could abuse children almost with impunity.”
One of the jurors in the trial, appearing on camera, Raymond Hultman backed Zonen: “I truly felt that Michael Jackson was a child molester. I felt that then, and I haven’t changed my mind now. I still feel that way, but I had to give Michael Jackson the benefit of the doubt.
Safehuck and Robson made global headlines when they spelled out long term sex abuse by MJ in the Leaving Neverland docu-series.
Had they spoken up in the Santa Maria courthouse case, the outcome would have likely changed.
Instead both denied abuse in Arvizo’s trial. Zonen has no ill feeling towards Robson and Safechuck.
“I understand. I handled the number of child molestation cases over the years. It’s a tough thing for kids to come forward and publicly talk about having been victim of sex crime. And they disclose when they disclose, and there’s nothing we can do to speed up that process by himself.”
Jackson boasted of sharing beds with kids to Bashir on camera. Zonen saw that admission as key proof of wrongdoing.
“That was good compelling evidence for us is the admission that he sleeps with kids,
“Bashir’s reaction to it, I thought was the reaction a reasonable person would have. How do you justify having children in your bed? What other adult man do you know anywhere in the world who does that other than a pedophile? Who would you be willing to let your children sleep with in terms of an adult man? And the answer is nobody.
“Jackson’s public persona was the person who just loved children, and what he was trying to convince people of was that he really was the modern day Peter Pan. But there is no such thing as Peter Pan.
“What he was always doing was looking for a child that he could eventually get into his bed. “And of course, it was Gavin who was the target of his attentions.”
In the show Jackson family lawyer Brian Oxman denied Zonen’s accusations and insisted that their paperwork proved the superstar was innocent and part of a “shake down.”
The TV series featured unheard tapes of Jackson expressing his love and care for Arvizo.
Jackson was cleared on all 14 charges, including four counts of molesting a child, four counts of getting a child drunk so that he could molest him, one count of trying to molest a child, and one count of secretly planning (conspiring) to hold the boy and his family captive at his Neverland Ranch. He was also charged with supplying alcohol to the boy, now 15, and conspiring to kidnap him and his family.”
The Trial’s next episode airs on the UK’s Channel 4 Wednesday February 11 at 9pm.