Jackson witness: Saw no improprieties
Former security chief says boy's family came and went at will
SANTA MARIA, California (CNN) -- A former security supervisor at Michael Jackson's Neverland Ranch testified Monday she never saw the pop star exhibit any illegal or improper behavior toward young boys.
The supervisor, Violet Silva, also admitted she could not get into Jackson's bedroom suite unless it had been unlocked from the inside.
Under cross-examination by the prosecution in Jackson's trial on child molestation charges, Silva conceded there were "some occasions" when boys stayed alone with the entertainer in the main residence.
She said security staff generally went into the house only when summoned.
Silva said that based on her experiences at Neverland, she "would not" have allowed her own children to spend time there on a regular basis, although they did attend special events for employees held at the ranch.
"Some of the activity was beyond my comfort level," she said.
Silva still works at Neverland as a safety coordinator but no longer oversees security, a position she held in February and March 2003.
That is the period when the boy who is the accuser in the case, then 13, says Jackson molested him during overnight stays in the singer's bedroom suite.
Monday marked the beginning of the first full week of the defense case in which Jackson's attorneys will seek to undercut the testimony of prosecution witnesses such as the accuser's mother and Adrian McManus, a former maid who said she saw the singer fondling several boys, including movie star Macaulay Culkin.
Jackson's lawyers plan to call Culkin to the stand Wednesday, sources told CNN.
Culkin, now 24, was a frequent guest at Neverland in the early 1990s. He has denied anything untoward happened between him and Jackson and agreed to testify for the defense.
In her testimony Monday, Silva said no one in the accuser's family, including his mother, complained to security officers about wanting to leave the ranch during that time.
The period also is when the prosecution alleges Jackson and his associates conspired to hold family members against their will.
Silva said family members could have gotten an outside telephone line in any of the guest cottages to dial 911 for help.
She said family members left the ranch several times during that period and when they wanted to go, guards would "just open the gate and let them leave."
Silva testified that during the weeks when the molestation allegedly occurred, the accuser and his younger brother were "pretty destructive" and recklessly drove golf carts and ranch vehicles.
She said she rarely saw the boys' mother -- and that it was their sister who took care of them and tried to correct them when they misbehaved.
Housekeeper's testimony
Earlier in the day, a former housekeeping supervisor at Neverland testified the accuser's mother asked for a job during her family's first visit there.
The mother even offered to sleep in her car to be available for work because the family was "having money problems," Gayle Goforth said.
Goforth told jurors the mother made the request during the family's first visit in 2000, as the boy was battling cancer.
Goforth said she tried to dissuade the mother by pointing out the more than 100-mile drive to the ranch from her home in Los Angeles.
She said the mother offered to move to the Santa Ynez Valley, where Neverland is situated.
Told that rents in the valley were high, the accuser's mother said she was "prepared to sleep in her car" to take the job at Neverland, Goforth said.
During cross-examination, prosecutor Ron Zonen tried to undercut Goforth's account by pointing out to jurors that the mother at that time had a job and did not have a car.
In other testimony, a former maid who worked with McManus testified that during a visit to McManus' home, she saw items on display that had been taken from Neverland, including hats, pajamas, watches and T-shirts.
Francine Contreras said she saw McManus also take items from the ranch in a laundry basket, hidden under clothes McManus was taking home to iron as part of her duties.
Contreras said McManus "always talked good" about Jackson.
Zonen tried to turn the tables on Contreras' theft allegations against McManus, asking if she had been fired from her job at a department store for stealing.
"No, sir. Trespassing," Contreras said.
A grand jury indicted the 46-year-old pop star last year on charges of molesting the boy giving him alcohol and conspiring to hold him and his family captive in 2003. Jackson pleaded not guilty to the charges.
CNN's Dree De Clamecy contributed to this report.
