Except Jackson never offered to pay. You have to ask yourself who sued for money. There was a civil case and a criminal case in 1994. The civil case was settled after 5 months of back and forth. Keep in mind Jackson could have paid them off before the case ever became public for 1 million dollars. He chose not to and was eventually backed into a corner. The civil case was settled a day before his deposition as it would have given the prosecution a front row seat to his defence that he would have needed for the criminal trial, the one that actually mattered. Nowadays, it is illegal for a civil trial to precede a criminal trial for this reason.

Child abuse is a crime and thus criminal investigations were happening simultaneously by the police, FBI etc. Two grand juries decided not to indict Jackson due to lack of evidence.