Maid: He showered with a boy
The woman whose son is also an accuser says she decided not to confront Jackson over bathroom scene
BY DIONNE SEARCEY
STAFF CORRESPONDENT
April 6, 2005
SANTA MARIA, Calif. -- Michael Jackson's former maid, who changed his sheets, washed his laundry and even cleaned up after his chimpanzee, testified yesterday that she once saw him showering with a 7-year-old boy.
The woman, whose son told jurors Monday that Jackson fondled him three times when he was young, said she walked into the star's bedroom suite at Neverland one day in 1989 and heard laughter and running water. She said she peeked inside the bathroom and, through a foggy shower door, saw an image of Jackson and what appeared to be a young boy.
On the floor outside the shower door, she said, were Jackson's underwear, white briefs, alongside "little green underwear, neon green, with little characters like Spiderman."
"I was going to talk to them, but then I thought, no, I'd better not, so I left," said the woman, who was Jackson's personal maid from 1986 to 1991.
In this case, prosecutors say Jackson molested a 13-year-old cancer patient; the singer's attorneys say the boy's family sought money from him.
Yesterday, the courtroom entered a time warp as the former maid and her son testified about boys they saw in Jackson's bedroom, their meetings with lawyers and detectives, interviews with tabloid journalists and cash settlements they received from the star - all of which occurred more than a decade ago.
The passage of time tripped up Jackson's attorney, Thomas Mesereau Jr., who had trouble trying to impeach them about depositions given in the early 1990s. Both the woman and her son couldn't recall their words in those interviews.
At one point yesterday, the son, now 24, became exasperated as Mesereau presented him with his old depositions. "Dear Lord," he said. "You can show me the transcript, but I still won't remember what I said."
He later told jurors Jackson stuffed a $100 bill down his shorts after fondling him on two occasions when he was about 7 years old. When his mother took the stand, she said she was startled when her boy showed her the money back then.
"To me, it was a lot of money for a little kid," she said.
The mother said Jackson often had boys sleep in his bedroom at Neverland. She twice saw the boy she said showered with Jackson in his bed. Once, she saw the two in bed, bare from the waist up, under covers from the waist down, she said.
The woman said she has never discussed with her son his allegations that Jackson fondled him. Charges were never brought against the entertainer, who settled with the woman and the boy reportedly for $2 million. But the mother said she was uncomfortable with the attention Jackson gave her son, which included snuggling with him on a sleeping bag and holding the boy on his lap.
Working as Jackson's maid had its perks, the woman testified under cross examination. The star gave her hundreds of dollars, two jackets from his concert tours and a large oak coffee table from his attic. She added, however, that Bubbles the chimpanzee bit her twice.
Sicko