In graphic testimony Thursday, a former security guard at Michael Jackson’s Neverland Ranch described watching the pop star kiss, caress and perform a sex act on a nude young boy after the pair had showered together.
Ralph Chacon’s abuse allegation was the most vivid to emerge in the pop star’s child-molestation trial.
Jackson attorney Thomas Mesereau immediately tore into Chacon, pointing out that he and four other former Neverland employees had sold their stories to tabloid newspapers and television shows before filing a wrongful-termination lawsuit against the singer. The litigation ended with a $1.4 million judgment in Jackson’s favor.
“After a six-month trial, this is a good way to get even with him, isn’t it?” Mesereau accused the witness.
Chacon denied being driven by greed or revenge.
The incidents described in court Thursday allegedly occurred more than 10 years ago, but they were used to bolster the current charge that Jackson molested a 13-year-old Los Angeles boy in 2003. In sex-offense trials, California law allows prosecutors to introduce past allegations in an effort to show a pattern of similar conduct.
Jurors were attentive and stony-faced during Thursday’s testimony, taking notes rapidly as Chacon gave his account of the alleged episodes. Jackson’s mother, Katherine, and older brother, Tito, left the courtroom during Chacon’s testimony.
They returned after Chacon was followed to the stand by Adrian McManus, a former Jackson housekeeper who said she saw Jackson kiss and grope three boys during the four years she worked for him. She also testified that she saw Jackson share his bed at different times with at least four boys and that she regularly found underwear belonging to both Jackson and the boys in the singer’s bedroom hot tub.
Mesereau confronted McManus with a 1993 legal deposition in which she said she had never seen Jackson behave inappropriately with boys.
On Thursday she said she had been scared to tell the truth because Jackson had threatened her when she took the job cleaning his bedroom suite. McManus claimed Jackson mentioned four people who would harm her if she ever did or said anything he didn’t like.
“He said, `All I have to do is tell [them] and they would take care of you.'” she said.
Jackson later asked to see a copy of her testimony in the deposition, she said. He was so pleased, she said, that he gave her a card–“Thanks for everything,” it said–and three $100 bills.
Chacon said that one night in late 1992 or early 1993 he saw Jackson and a boy showering in a restroom.
Peeking through a restroom window, he said he saw the two outside the shower, naked. Jackson was fondling the boy all over, finally performing oral sex on him, Chacon testified.
The boy received a multimillion-dollar settlement from Jackson in 1994 after suing over alleged molestation. He is not expected to testify in the current trial.
McManus said she saw Jackson kissing and touching three boys on separate occasions during the time she worked at Neverland.
Mesereau attacked both Chacon and McManus as greedy opportunists who had long been seeking to cash in on the molestation claims against their former boss.
In 1997, the former employees known at the time as the Neverland Five lost their lawsuit against Jackson after a six-month trial in Santa Maria.
A countersuit from the entertainer ended in an order requiring the former employees to pay $1.4 million toward Jackson’s legal fees. In addition, McManus was ordered to pay $35,000 for allegedly stealing a sketch by Jackson of Elvis Presley, and Chacon was ordered to pay $25,000 for taking candy and personal documents from Jackson.
The lawyer pointed to problems that Chacon had paying back rent and making child-support payments. Over the objection of prosecutors, he said: “You tried to extort Mr. Jackson, didn’t you?”
Chacon said he was only speaking the truth.
