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Neverland staff: Accusers weren't Jackson's captives

BY TINA SUSMAN | STAFF CORRESPONDENT

May 17, 2005

SANTA MARIA, Calif. - The credibility of Michael Jackson's key accusers came in for a major drubbing yesterday as a string of defense witnesses contradicted their claims that Jackson thugs shadowed them constantly - even to dental and leg-waxing appointments - and plied a boy with alcohol before molesting him.

Instead, several witnesses said the accusing family - a mother and her three teenage children - appeared to take full advantage of the luxuries at Jackson's Neverland Valley Ranch and that her sons helped themselves to booze when Jackson wasn't around. A former security guard, Shane Merideth, testified that he caught the alleged molestation victim and his brother in Neverland's wine cellar with a half-empty bottle of alcohol sometime in February 2003.

Another former Neverland worker, Angel Vivanco, who was a cook's assistant, said he was once ordered by one of the boys to spike a milkshake with alcohol. "He told me if I didn't do it, he'd tell Michael and I would get fired," Vivanco said, adding that he put alcohol into the milkshake.

In calling such witnesses, the defense is trying to undermine the family's claim that Jackson and several associates conspired to hold them captive at Neverland in February and March 2003 to prevent them from doing or saying anything that might damage the entertainer's reputation. The molestation is alleged to have occurred during that time.

Several witnesses testified that they saw no indication the family was unhappy at Neverland or were prevented from doing as they pleased. If anything, it was quite the opposite, according to their re- collections.

A one-time administrative assistant, Kathryn Bernerd, said she had to drive the mother to a body-waxing appointment Neverland had organized at the woman's request, and that Neverland picked up the $140 bill.

During the drive, Bernerd said the woman raved about Jackson being a "father figure" to her children. She added that she left the woman unattended at the spa for about an hour, then returned to pick her up.

The woman who performed the wax job, along with an orthodontist and her assistant who dealt with the woman and her children, said they saw no sign the family was being followed or filmed, as the prosecution insists.

The waxing and orthodontist appointments have been recurring topics, with the defense citing them as instances when the family could have fled or called for help if they had really been hostages. In her testimony, the mother said she requested the orthodontic visit in hopes it would offer her a chance to escape.

But Dr. Jean Lorraine Seamount said the woman's main concern was getting her two sons' braces removed.

Prosecutors caught a slight break when housekeeper Maria Gomez testified that the mother had once complained about being held against her will. However, Gomez said the woman's gripe was not with Jackson but with three of his associates.