Same rabbit hole. I came to the same conclusion. All the charges that were filed by parents were dropped. The police were frustrated. Several cops said they knew the families were being paid off. At the time the press spun it as, "Jackson paid them off" but time was the key to this one. Culkin always maintained Jackson's innocence and lost his career because of it. The thing about researching this that always stood out, beyond the more obvious points, was that Jackson showed up in court in pajama bottoms and always looked so confused as to why he was there. Why? Wouldn't he have known what he did? Surely he would convey an aura of confident innocence, not stumbling blind in pajama pants. My final take: Jackson was innocent and set up. He literally did not know what was going on, literally had not met those kids. It wasn't an act. When they couldn't get a conviction and instead of killing his career he ends up with a sold out world tour, a doctor mysteriously shows up and kills him. Perspective. It's everything.