One complication in this whole thing is that the two most high profile "victims" of Jackson both have incredibly shady parents.
Evan Chandler, father of 1993 victim Jordan Chandler (the first accuser), had a ton of issues, and even committed suicide in 2009.
The other high-profile victim, Gavin Arvizo, came to light in 2003 after the Martin Bashir documentary about Jackson. It later came out that Arvizo's dad had once instructed him to shoplift from a JC Penney store (and was caught), and Arvizo's mother was basically a career scammer who had engaged in welfare fraud and frivolous lawsuits.
It was easy to see that all of this was a money grab, because it probably was.
Did Jackson also molest these kids? Probably. And the shady parents decided to use it for their own purposes.
But it somewhat helped Jackson get back into the public's good graces after the behavior of the parents left these cases in doubt.