SANTA BARBARA, CA—Noting that the timing of the allegations appeared to be “a little too perfect,” a lawyer representing Michael Jackson’s estate questioned Wednesday why those accusing the late pop icon of child sexual abuse had only come forward steadily since the early 1990s. “It seems awfully convenient that all these people suddenly decided to come out of the woodwork on a regular basis over the course of a quarter century,” said Jonathan Steinsapir, explaining that he also found it quite suspicious that some had chosen to make their accusations as grown men instead of doing so back in the ’90s like so many other children did. “This all seems like quite the coincidence to me. Are we to believe that one man with access to a private Peter Pan–themed ranch, a multimillion-dollar legal team, and a rabid fanbase willing to ignore his considerable eccentricities could just molest a bunch of kids without us finding out about more than a handful of them per year since 1992? That’s a bit far-fetched.” Steinsapir added that suspecting a grown man of sexual misconduct simply because he made a habit of inviting underage fans to sleepovers in which they shared his bed was unfair and “frankly just cynical.”

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