Created: Saturday, 21 May 2005
Monday, May 9, 2005 Day 48 brought a parade of the Michael Jackson’s former employees to the witness stand Monday to counter testimony from prosecution witnesses who said they saw Mr. Jackson molesting children at his Neverland ranch and then in turn pursued money for their stories from tabloid publications.
Defense attorneys, beginning the first full week of their case, sought to use the witnesses to portray Mr. Jackson’s young accuser and his brother as destructive and to characterize Mr. Jackson as a gracious host to his guests.
Michael Jackson employees, past and present, told jurors at his trial Monday they had never seen him behave inappropriately with young boys at his Neverland Ranch.
Contradicting prosecution witnesses who testified to Mr. Jackson’s repeated molestation of young visitors to his fantasy-themed estate, the staffers also chipped away at the charge that Mr. Jackson held the family of his accuser captive at the ranch.
“The emphasis at Neverland was on hospitality. That was our primary duty, to make them feel welcome,” said Violet Silva, who has worked there since 1991 and been security chief since 1997.
Former ranch employee Francine Contreras testified that while working with former maid Adrian McManus she never heard the woman say anything bad about Mr. Jackson.
McManus was a prosecution witness who claimed she saw Mr. Jackson inappropriately touch child actor Macaulay Culkin and other boys.
Contreras did not address that testimony but cast doubt on McManus’ character, portraying her as a liar and a thief. She said that the maid had a display in her home of items pilfered from Neverland. She also said McManus took some toys that were supposed to be gifts for needy children. Contreras said she had cut their friendship when she realized McManus was stealing on the job.
“She had hats that belonged to Mr. Jackson … pyjamas, watches, T-shirts … items that belonged to the ranch,” Contreras said, adding that McManus would smuggle Mr. Jackson’s clothes out in a laundry basket under the pretext of taking them home to iron.
“There was a hat. You can’t iron a hat,” she said.
After the prosecution rested last week, the defense presented two young men, Wade Robson and Brett Barnes, who as children slept in the same room as Mr. Jackson but insisted emphatically that they were not molested.
Ms. Silva said she had only minimal contact with the mother of Mr. Jackson’s current accuser but described her behavior as somewhat unusual.
She said the accuser and his brother were usually cared for by their sister, not the mother, and only the sister would remind them to take showers and to be neat.
Ms. Silva said she did not know of any children drinking alcohol or appearing intoxicated at the ranch. She said liquor was kept in the ranch wine cellar, which was locked.
The accuser and his siblings have claimed they were served wine in the cellar.
The Neverland security chief described the accuser and his brother as “rambunctious.”
“They were pretty reckless,” she said. “They’d get in a ranch vehicle and we had stop them. They were young. They couldn’t drive…. They were pretty destructive.”
Ms. Silva also testified about a Feb. 19, 2003, directive on a log at the Neverland guard gate that said the accuser and his brother were not allowed to leave. She said it meant they could not leave without adult supervision, not that they were to be held against their will. It was placed there for their own safety, in effect, to prevent them from driving one of the ranch vehicles, which they frequently drove without permission, off of the property.
Ms. Silva said that the boys, who were 13 and 12 at the time — drove Mr. Jackson’s Lincoln Navigator across the grounds and had to be chased by members of the security staff.
She said the boys also littered, crashed golf carts and wore the same clothes for several days.
Ranch manager Joe Marcus, who has worked for Mr. Jackson for 18 years, echoed that testimony.
“They didn’t respect property, if you will,” he said. “I know they defaced a few areas on the property. Wrote graffiti, if you will.”
Both witnesses also said that, contrary to testimony by the boys’ mother, they were never held against their will at Neverland and never complained of wanting to leave.
Neverland Ranch manager Joseph Mr. Marcus also undermined the kidnap conspiracy charge, saying he had never been given the impression that the accuser’s family were being held against their will.
Mr. Marcus recalled two times when he drove the family off the ranch, once on a shopping trip and once for a visit to an orthodontist.
On neither occasion, Mr. Marcus said, did any of them seek to run away or even raise any alarm, despite the fact that he had remained in the car for an hour while were shopping.
He also testified that whenever he saw the mother, “she seemed to be enjoying herself,” contradicting her allegation that she was being held captive.
“Did (she) appear to ever try to leave the ranch and not be allowed to do so?” Mr. Sanger asked. “No,” Mr. Marcus responded.
“Did (she) ever complain about anything?” Mr. Sanger continued. “Never,” Mr. Marcus answered.
Another Defense witness, Gayle Goforth, a former head housekeeper, testified that during one of the family’s first visits to the ranch in August 2002, the mother asked her for a job. At that time, her son, the accuser, was undergoing chemotherapy treatments for cancer in Los Angeles.
“Shortly after their arrival, she started talking to me about being concerned about her son’s health and that they were having money problems and if I would give her a job at the ranch,” Ms. Goforth said.
When Ms. Goforth responded that it would be too far to drive and she should just take care of her son, “She told me she’d move to the valley to be closer to the ranch,” Ms. Goforth said.
Her testimony lent weight to the defense assertion that the mother wanted to live at the ranch where the wealthy entertainer could take care of her and her family.
“Michael wants the world to know that he did not molest any children,” spokeswoman Raymone Bain said. “He would not be opposed to testifying if the defense attorneys wanted him to and he would not testify if they didn’t want him to.”
Earlier, Bain said: “At the end of the day he will listen to what (lead defense attorney) Tom Mesereau suggests. If Tom Mesereau asks him to testify, he will.”
Asked if Mr. Jackson would continue to share his bed with children, Bain referred to an earlier statement by Mr. Jackson in which “he indicated that he had learned a lot (from the case). He said he’s never going to put himself in this position again.”
Further pressed on why Mr. Jackson considered it appropriate to spend the night in a bed with young boys, Bain said: “He doesn’t look at things as most people do. At the end of the day he looks at the world with rose-colored glasses.”
The remarks sounded a theme of defense lawyers, who have suggested throughout the trial that Mr. Jackson’s motives are pure and that his sleeping arrangements with boys were an extension of his innocent love for the children of the world.
Mr. Jackson, she said, is anxious to get back to his former life of “making people happy and sharing his music” and said that the defense case would answer many lingering questions before wrapping up in 8 to 10 weeks.
Mr. Jackson’s lawyers insist all the molestation claims are fabrications by greedy parents or former Mr. Jackson employees seeking to get rich from civil suits, books or newspaper stories.
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