Neverland Employees Defend Jackson

Lawyers for Michael Jackson on Monday presented a string of current and former Neverland ranch employees who said they never saw the pop star do anything illegal or inappropriate with young boys.

But on cross-examination, prosecutors pointed out that none of the employees could have known what went on behind the doors of Jackson’s two-story bedroom suite.

They also questioned the witnesses’ credibility, getting one former maid to acknowledge that she had been fired from a department store that had pressed criminal charges against her.

Jackson, 46, is charged with molesting a 13-year-old cancer survivor at his Santa Ynez Valley ranch in 2003. The pop star has also been charged with attempted molestation, furnishing alcohol to a minor and conspiracy. He could face more than 20 years in prison if convicted on all counts.

The day’s testimony was meant to balance the accounts of former Neverland employees who said they had witnessed Jackson molesting boys at the ranch.

Violet Silva, a former security chief at the ranch, said that Jackson’s current accuser and his younger brother were “pretty destructive” during their extended stay at the ranch in 2003.

The accuser and his 12-year-old brother would hop into unlocked ranch vehicles, grab the keys and drive recklessly down ranch roads, she said.

The joy rides were the reason a note was made in a security office log reminding Neverland guards not to let the boys off the property, Silva added.

Prosecutors have pointed to the note, dated Feb. 19, 2003, as evidence that Jackson conspired with his aides to keep the accuser and his family at the ranch against their will, allegedly to secure their cooperation in a video tribute to the singer.

Silva, a ranch employee since 1991, was clearly hesitant when pressed by Santa Barbara County Dist. Atty. Tom Sneddon on whether she remembered the boys drinking with Jackson.

Initially, she said she had no “personal knowledge,” but under cross-examination, she acknowledged reviewing her subordinates’ reports of boys at Neverland being drunk.

Jurors also heard from ranch manager Joe Marcus, who recalled driving the accuser’s family to nearby Solvang to shop, and, on another occasion, to a Solvang orthodontist’s office.

Marcus said family members had never complained to him or anyone else that they were being held hostage, as the accuser’s mother testified, and that they had never tried to flee.

In her testimony last month, the mother said she had concocted a story about her sons needing their braces removed in order to leave the ranch.

But she said she lost her nerve for escaping because her family was being watched by “that scary guy Joe,” referring to Marcus.