Neverland housekeeper: Kids drank, slept with Jackson
Woman called atmosphere 'Pinocchio's Pleasure Island'
SANTA MARIA, California (CNN) -- Michael Jackson's former housekeeper described Neverland Ranch on Thursday as a place where children "became wild" during long stays without their parents, drank alcohol in Jackson's presence and often slept with the pop star, instead of in their assigned guest rooms.
But under cross-examination, the woman testified that she never saw Jackson serve alcohol to minors. Additionally, she said she believed the accuser and his brother were staying in guest rooms -- not Jackson's room -- during the time the boy says he was molested.
Testifying in Jackson's child molestation trial, Kiki Fournier said Jackson would focus his attention on particular children -- all of whom were boys between 10 and 15.
She said the string of boys included movie star Macaulay Culkin; the accuser in the current case and his younger brother; a boy whose family reached a multimillion-dollar settlement with Jackson in 1993 after alleging molestation; and Frank Tyson, a Jackson associate now in his early 20s, who has been named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the current case.
The indictment against Jackson alleges that he paid Tyson $1 million on March 31, 2003 -- about two weeks after the accuser and his family left Neverland for the final time.
Fournier worked at the Jackson home for about 12 years before leaving in September 2003.
Also Thursday, one of the investigators who searched Neverland, Sgt. Konn Able of the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Department, testified that he found books with nude and semi-nude photos of adolescents in the restroom of Jackson's office, and the office also contained surveillance equipment that could be used to monitor phone calls.
However, under defense cross-examination, he said he could not say for sure whether it had ever been used and did not know if the equipment could be bought legally. He also conceded it could have been used as part of the security system at the ranch.
The prosecution alleged in its indictment of Jackson that the singer monitored the phone calls of his accuser's mother as part of a conspiracy to intimidate and control the family.
Court recessed Thursday afternoon, with testimony to resume Monday.
However, prosecutors and defense lawyers will be in court Friday arguing over several motions, including an effort by prosecutors to subpoena Jackson's financial records.
Kids 'became wild'
Fournier said she coined the phrase "Pinocchio's Pleasure Island" to refer to the atmosphere at Neverland, where she said children stayed for weeks at a time without their parents and were given "free rein."
"With the absence of authority figures, these children became wild," Fournier said. Jackson's child guests were allowed to watch movies, eat as much candy as they liked and stay up as late as they wanted.
However, Fournier said she did sometimes see Jackson discipline the children when they got "too rowdy."
Fournier also said that on three or four occasions, she saw children she believed were intoxicated in Jackson's presence.
She described one of those incidents, shortly before she left the ranch in September 2003, in which Jackson and four or five kids were at the dinner table. At least three of the kids appeared to be intoxicated, she said.
However, she said she never saw Jackson give alcohol to a minor. She also said she doesn't remember seeing Jackson's teenage accuser or his siblings intoxicated at the ranch.
Fournier also said that overnight guests at Neverland were given assigned guest rooms, but "a lot of the time, they'd stay with Mr. Jackson."
Defense raises possible contradiction
However, during cross-examination by defense attorney Thomas Mesereau Jr., Fournier appeared to contradict testimony by Jackson's accuser that he slept with Jackson in his bedroom every night the pop star was at Neverland in February and March 2003, when he says the molestation occurred.
Fournier said that during that period, the guest room that the accuser and his younger brother were sharing was "just torn apart," with garbage and food strewn about, drinks spilled and glasses broken.
She also said that the accuser's younger brother -- who testified earlier in the trial that he witnessed Jackson molesting his brother -- became "ornery" and demanding while staying at the ranch. She said he once pulled a knife on her when they were both in the kitchen and the boy was trying to cook.
Mesereau also asked Fournier whether, given that Neverland was designed to be a fantasy land for children, it would be surprising that "they would go a little wild."
"No, that would not be unusual," she said.
Jackson 'detail-oriented,' maid testifies
Fournier indicated that she was a very reluctant witness against her former employer.
"I don't want to have anything to do with this," Fournier said.
Fournier also described Jackson as a "very detail-oriented" person who usually communicated with her through the ranch's manager.
She said Tyson was Jackson's employee and the two of them were also "close friends." She said Tyson would sometimes stay at the ranch for a month at a time, though there would also be absences of six months between stays.
Under cross-examination by Mesereau, Fournier admitted that what she knew about Tyson's business relationship with Jackson came from Tyson. When Mesereau suggested that Tyson might have been exaggerating the extent of his relationship with Jackson to promote himself, she agreed he was egotistical.
In their indictment against Tyson, prosecutors allege he was part of a conspiracy by Jackson to intimidate the accuser's family into silence. In trial testimony, the accuser and his brother said Tyson showed them sexually explicit images over the Internet, at Jackson's suggestion.
Weatherman's testimony
Also taking the stand Thursday was Fritz Coleman, a weatherman at KNBC-TV in Los Angeles who moonlights as a comedian.
He testified that he met the accuser and his family when the boy, his brother and his sister came to a comedy camp for disadvantaged children in 1999 at the Laugh Factory, a Los Angeles comedy club.
That Christmas, he said, he and another comedian, Louise Palanker, delivered presents to the family at their "very small" apartment in a low-income area of eastern Los Angeles.
In 2000, after Jackson's accuser became ill with cancer, Coleman said, he visited him in the hospital. On the last visit, the boy was "beaming" because he had gotten a "huge box" of gifts from Jackson, Coleman said.
Coleman said he had met the boy's mother only three times, and she never tried to solicit money from him. He said there had been conversations around the Laugh Factory about the boy's father soliciting money from celebrities, but the father had never asked him directly for money.
Source:
CNN.com
Jay Leno will testify soon about how the family, specificaly, the mother, was out for money. And he ended the relationship.
Jim Carrey was also part of the *****-*****-machine (the accusers mother), but also broke all connection to her. Although he won't be called to testify.
By the way, about MJ being "detail oriented"... has anyone heard about MJ practicing every single move with his backup dancers 100+ times?
blah... anyways... I hope he is found "not gulilty". 