Created: Thursday, 21 April 2005
Wednesday, April 20, 2005
Day 36 a former Neverland Ranch security officer told Michael Jackson’s trial it was Neverland policy not to allow children to leave the rural property nestled among the hills of central California unsupervised. While Barron’s initial testimony looked good for the prosecution-and bad for the defense-Mr. Sanger turned things around. With Mr. Sanger leading the way, the ex-guard agreed that it was ranch policy to restrict the comings and goings of all unsupervised children.
“If children are staying at the ranch and there is not a parent present, would it be the policy of the ranch to not let the children off the property?” asked defense attorney Robert Mr. Sanger.
“Yes,” Barron replied. “That was the ranch policy.”
Barron said he saw the words “(The boy) is not allowed off property” written on a white-board in a guard house.
The instruction remained on the board for about a week in January or February 2003, according to the witness, who said he worked on and off at Neverland for five years starting in 1997. In cross-examination, the defense portrayed the notice as part of the ranch’s policy to protect young children when parents were not available.
Defense Attorney Robert Mr. Sanger asked Barron if he was aware that no other Neverland security guard recalled having seen the instruction, but the witness insisted that other guards had seen it.
The defense also showed jurors a February 19, 2003, entry in Neverland’s gate log that read: “The kids are not to leave per Joe,” an apparent reference to a former ranch manager. “The kids meaning (the boy and his brother), etc.”
The witness conceded that.
In a lengthy review of the Neverland guest logs with Barron, Mr. Jackson’s defense pointed out that the family’s claimed “escapes” from their alleged captivity at Neverland were duly recorded by security guards.
“There was no secret spiriting away. This was checking people out at the gate,” Mr. Sanger said. “This was done according to procedure, right?” he asked Barron.
An accident log showed the boy, now 15, once crashed “the Batman cart” into “the theater fountain” at Neverland, in a minor boost to the defense’s depiction of the alleged victim as a disruptive brat.
Later, Mr. Sanger walked Barron through visitor logs, including the one for Feb. 13, 2003-the night the mother said ranch hand Jesus Salas helped her and her children escape from the Santa Barbara County, California, estate.
The getaway was duly and dryly noted in the log as the mother and children leaving with Salas in the resident Rolls-Royce.
“There was no secret spiriting of people away. This was checking right out at the gate?” Mr. Sanger asked.
Mr. Sanger used the gate log to show that the accuser’s family was able to move in and out of Neverland during the period that the prosecution maintains the family was prohibited from leaving.
Barron helped out on the employer-profile front. He said workers became “tense” when “perfectionist” Mr. Jackson was around.
“Everybody just seemed to be walking on pins and needles a little bit more just to make sure things were right,” Barron said. The ex-guard later said he did mean that Mr. Jackson was an ogre.
Barron was only partially helpful to the prosecution in establishing how much contact Mr. Jackson had with his alleged coconspirators. He said he frequently saw the pop star with Frank Tyson but only infrequently with the others, including the two men referred to by the accuser’s mother as “the Germans.”
A longtime police officer for Guadalupe, California, a town about 35 miles northwest of Neverland, Barron moonlighted off-and-on as a ranch security guard from 1997-2004. He left the Mr. Jackson job shortly after the molestation probe broke in November 2003. He said he didn’t feel right being a sworn officer at what had become a crime scene.
Barron testified that the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department tried to persuade him to return to Neverland and act as an informant. He refused.
The ex-guard said he never saw any criminal activity at Neverland. About the only dirt Barron had to dish was on the accuser. He said the boy once crashed a golf cart due to reckless driving.
Jurors heard only a half day of testimony today as court ended at 11:30. The rest of the day was used to hear motions. One motion is a prosecution request to have testimony from an expert on battered women, possibly to explain the apparent lack of action by the accuser’s mother during her family’s alleged false imprisonment.
Another prosecution motion objects to the defense plan to have two-dozen Mr. Jackson employees say he always behaved properly with children.
The trial will resume for a full day tomorrow, Thursday, which will also be the last day of testimony for the week.
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