From courtroom drama to media spectacles, these notorious cases captured the world's attention and changed public perception forever. Join us as we examine the most infamous legal battles involving Hollywood stars, musicians, and cultural icons that shocked society and left lasting impacts on entertainment history.
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00:00Verdict is in, in the racketeering and sex trafficking trial of singer R. Kelly.
00:05Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down the most famous and sordid criminal trials involving celebrities.
00:11It's quite a scene out here already. You have media from around the world, throngs of onlookers.
00:18Number 10, Oscar Wilde.
00:19Did you know Mr. Taylor kept ladies' dresses in his rooms?
00:25No.
00:25We're going a bit back for this one.
00:27Oscar Wilde is one of the most famous Victorian writers, but his career hit a significant wall in 1895.
00:33In February of that year, Wilde sued the Marquess of Queensberry for libel, after Queensberry accused him of homosexual conduct.
00:40It is in this century misunderstood.
00:44So much misunderstood that it may be described as the love that dare not speak its name.
00:51And on account of it, I am placed where I am now.
00:53Wilde eventually dropped the suit, but was arrested on charges of gross indecency, a vague crime which allowed authorities to prosecute acts of physical intimacy between men.
01:03Wilde underwent two sensational trials, the first of which ended in a hung jury.
01:07The second resulted in a conviction, thanks in large part to witness testimony and the loose definition of the law.
01:13He was ultimately sentenced to two years of hard labor, and died soon after his release.
01:17The sentence of the court is that you'll be imprisoned and held to hard labor for two years.
01:27Number 9.
01:28Depp vs. Hurd.
01:30And on my side of the bed, um, was human fecal matter.
01:40Behold, the social media trial of our age.
01:43Held throughout the spring of 2022, the trial saw Johnny Depp suing his ex-wife, Amber Hurd, for defamation after she published an op-ed claiming to be a victim of domestic abuse.
01:53Hurd was counter-suing Depp for similar reasons.
01:56The trial was widely followed and enormously mocked, thanks to a number of meme-worthy moments.
02:00You poured yourself a, um, a mega-pint of red wine, correct?
02:06A mega-pint?
02:08Yeah.
02:09These include the famous poop-in-the-bed incident, my dog stepped on a bee, Depp's deadpan humor on the stand, and best of all, the fabled mega-pint.
02:18Seriously, this thing deserves its own movie, and in the end, Hurd faced significant scrutiny, being regarded as the figurative and literal loser of the trial.
02:26Everyone's just having a good time, you know, like normal stuff.
02:29Number 8, Alec Baldwin.
02:32Alec Baldwin now faces involuntary manslaughter and a firearm enhancement charge for his role in the death of cinematographer Helena Hutchins.
02:41The world was left utterly shocked on October 21st, 2021, when we heard that Alec Baldwin had accidentally shot and killed someone on the set of a movie.
02:49That movie was a western called Rust, and the victim was its cinematographer, Helena Hutchins.
02:54Baldwin was charged with involuntary manslaughter, and the trial commenced in Santa Fe in July 2024.
03:00Jury selection begins tomorrow in Alec Baldwin's trial for the deadly shooting on the set of his movie Rust.
03:06The trial was enormously popular thanks to Baldwin's fame, the dramatic story at its core, and the controversy of even charging Baldwin in the first place, with most thinking he was not to blame.
03:15But just three days into the proceedings, Judge Mary Sommer dismissed the case after the prosecution failed to disclose critical evidence to the defense.
03:23Dismissal with prejudice is warranted to ensure the integrity of the judicial system and the efficient administration of justice.
03:30Your motion to dismiss with prejudice is granted.
03:35Number 7. Martha Stewart
03:37The sign of the local diner says it all.
03:39Welcome, Martha. Welcome to Alderson.
03:42Alderson, West Virginia, the prison town that will be Martha Stewart's home for the next five months.
03:47Insider trading isn't as juicy as some of the other crimes on this list, but it still resulted in one of the biggest celebrity trials of the 21st century.
03:54In June of 2003, Stewart and her broker, Peter Boganovich, were indicted on charges related to insider trading.
04:01The trial began in January 2004 and lasted five weeks, becoming a media spectacle owing to Stewart's celebrity status and the public's fascination with white-collar crime in the early 2000s.
04:11So the media waited with great anticipation, but Martha Stewart decided to spend her last night of freedom away from the glare of the spotlight.
04:20Tomorrow, she trades that glare for surveillance of a different kind.
04:23Remember, Enron and WorldCom occurred just a few years prior, and the controversy was still fresh.
04:28Stewart was ultimately found guilty on four counts and sentenced to five months in prison, five months of home confinement, and two years of probation.
04:36I mean, you really have been in the fire. You've been tested.
04:40Yeah.
04:40And I think everybody wants to know, gosh, how would I hold up under those things?
04:44Am I more attractive?
04:45Yes, you are. Believe me.
04:46Number 6. Harvey Weinstein
04:48Today, that highly anticipated trial against the former Hollywood heavyweight begins.
04:54While not exactly a household name at the time, Harvey Weinstein was a prominent film producer with major clout in Hollywood, having co-founded Miramax and produced landmark films like Pulp Fiction and Scream.
05:05Of course, he was also the central figure in a watershed criminal case that helped ignite the global hashtag MeToo movement.
05:12The entire trial is expected to take longer than two months.
05:15Weinstein went on two trials for sexual assault, one in New York and one in L.A., and was found guilty in both, resulting in a combined 39 years in prison.
05:24However, an appeals court overturned the New York conviction in 2024, ruling that the judge improperly allowed testimony from women whose allegations were not part of the charges.
05:33Regardless, his trial ignited one of the biggest cultural movements of the century.
05:37This, of course, is on the higher end of the sentence we were expecting.
05:41He was facing 5 to 29 years in prison, so those 23 years on the higher end of that sentence, clearly the judge here felt that that was warranted.
05:51Number 5. Phil Spector
05:52Spector escaped conviction in his first trial with a hung jury.
05:56This time, jurors came to a verdict, but it was tough.
06:00Like Harvey Weinstein, Phil Spector also worked behind the scenes, serving as one of the music industry's most influential producers.
06:06He was everywhere in the 60s and 70s, but by the 80s, he had fallen into seclusion and was suffering from mental illness.
06:13And then, on February 3rd, 2003, actress Lana Clarkson was found dead from a gunshot wound at Spector's mansion in Alhambra, California.
06:21Spector showed no emotion as he was found guilty of second-degree murder in the death of Lana Clarkson, a sometime actress and restaurant hostess whom Spector had just met on the night of February 3rd, 2003.
06:34Spector was brought on trial for her murder.
06:37The first ended in a mistrial following a deadlocked jury, but the second ended in a conviction after the prosecution placed a stronger emphasis on Spector's abusive behavior.
06:46He was found guilty of second-degree murder and sentenced to 19 years to life in prison.
06:50He died there in January 2021.
06:53Phil Spector, the convicted killer and eccentric music producer, has passed away.
06:57Number 4. R. Kelly
06:58Jurors also saw a videotape performance of R. Kelly performing, I Believe I Can Fly, at a Grammy Awards show, a reminder of him at the height of his career.
07:09Of course, he is a very different place right now.
07:12It was sort of an open secret that R. Kelly was a creed, with accusations of sexual misconduct dating back to the 1990s.
07:19And they have resulted in numerous, very public criminal trials.
07:23The first was extremely scandalous, given the nature of the heinous crime.
07:26It also became highly notorious in 2008, when Kelly was acquitted of all charges and allowed to walk free.
07:32And then, Surviving R. Kelly came out in 2019 and changed everything.
07:36I want my story to be heard so people could take this situation seriously.
07:41But when I found out it wasn't just me, I just don't want it to get any worse.
07:45This documentary reignited discussions around Kelly's abuse, and he was subjected to two further trials in New York and Chicago.
07:52He was found guilty in both, receiving a combined 31 years in prison.
07:56He's currently incarcerated in North Carolina's FCC Butner.
08:00After weeks of emotional and disturbing testimony, the jury found the superstar singer guilty on all nine counts.
08:07Number 3. Roscoe Arbuckle
08:09This famous silent film actor was better known as Fatty Arbuckle.
08:13Nicknames can be crude.
08:14Arbuckle was one of the highest paid actors of his day, but his career virtually ended in September 1921.
08:20That's when a young actress named Virginia Rapp died at a San Francisco party that was also attended by Arbuckle.
08:26The actor was accused of sexually assaulting Rapp and causing significant internal injuries that led to her death.
08:31The sensational nature of the allegations caused the press to explode, and Arbuckle went through three highly sensationalized trials.
08:38The first two ended in mistrials, and Arbuckle was acquitted in the third, complete with a written apology by the jury, claiming that a great injustice has been done.
08:46Despite this, Arbuckle's career never recovered.
08:48Number 2. Michael Jackson
08:51Tonight, is that a pajama party?
08:54No way, it's Michael Jackson and his entourage showing up over an hour late to court.
08:59It's a pajama party, everybody!
09:02This is perhaps the most divisive celebrity trial in history, either a gross miscarriage of justice or a wrongful accusation.
09:09Occurring in 2005, the trial saw Jackson facing charges related to various sexual offenses.
09:14While Jackson himself did not testify, the trial was a media circus, and lasted for five months.
09:19But of course, who's dominating the subject today of this trial?
09:23Michael Jackson himself, with what he pulled this morning.
09:27It was all anyone could talk about, with many discussing the merits of the accusations, the strength of the prosecution, and how the trial would impact Jackson's legacy.
09:35He was ultimately acquitted of all charges, but he left the trial both emotionally and physically drained, and was never the same.
09:41He largely withdrew from the public eye before dying four years later, from a drug overdose inflicted by his personal physician.
09:47We the jury in the above-entitled case find the defendant not guilty of conspiracy as charged in count one of the indictment.
09:55Data June 13, 2005, court person number 80.
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10:14Number one, O.J. Simpson.
10:18All right, he appears to have pulled the gloves on, counsel.
10:24All right, would you show that to the jury, Mr. Simpson, in that manner?
10:28Other hand, please.
10:32He is doing both.
10:36The most scandalous celebrity trial is that of O.J. Simpson, and frankly, it's not even close.
10:41This trial has long overshadowed Simpson's football career, and that was legendary.
10:47This was the media circus to end all media circuses, a cultural event that enraptured the entire country for nearly nine months throughout 1995.
10:55All right, Mr. Simpson, would you please stand and face the jury?
10:58It's hard to explain just how big this trial was to people who weren't there, but many of its moments have become famous, like the ridiculous glove incident and Mark Furman's cross-examination, during which he was caught lying about using racial slurs.
11:10And, of course, it concluded in the most dramatic manner possible, with one of the most infamous acquittals in criminal history.
11:17You can't write this stuff.
11:19We, the jury, in the above entitled action, find the defendant, Orenthal James Simpson, not guilty of the crime of murder, in violation of penal code section 187a, a felony upon Nicole Brown Simpson, a human being, as charged in count one of the information.
11:35Do you think these trials should get their own movies?
11:37Let us know in the comments below.
11:38It is the worst case I have ever tried.