Neverland Manager Says He Lied to Investigators

By Steve Chawkins

May 11, 2005 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

SANTA MARIA, Calif. — The manager of Michael Jackson’s Neverland ranch on Tuesday admitted lying to investigators in 2003 when he told them he knew nothing about his boss spending nights in his bedroom with young boys.

On the witness stand in Santa Barbara County Superior Court, Joe Marcus acknowledged knowing at the time that the 13-year-old boy accusing Jackson of molestation had spent nights in Jackson’s house.

Asked whether he assumed the boy, and, sometimes his brother, were sleeping in the pop star’s two-story bedroom suite, he said: “I didn’t assume. There is an extra room in the suite, so yes, they could have been.”

A soft-spoken man with a shaved head, Marcus was clearly nervous on the witness stand and came across as a loyal employee who was conscious of Jackson’s presence at the defense table just yards away.

The 46-year-old pop star is charged with molesting the 13-year-old boy, a cancer survivor, in 2003 and conspiring to hold the boy’s family captive until they participated in a video tribute to him. He is also charged with attempted molestation and providing alcohol to a minor.

If convicted on all charges, the singer could face more than 20 years in prison.

In a tough cross-examination, prosecutor Gordon Auchincloss got Marcus to admit that he had lied to investigators who came to the ranch with search warrants on Nov. 18, 2003.

“Weren’t you trying to distance yourself from the facts of this case and to protect your employer?” Auchincloss asked, raising a successful objection from defense attorneys.

Marcus said that during his 90-minute interview in 2003 he was “extremely overwhelmed,” communicating via radio with concerned Neverland employees as he tried to answer investigators’ questions about Jackson.

Under questioning from defense attorney Robert M. Sanger, Marcus suggested that the stress of the moment may have accounted for his misleading police about boys sharing Jackson’s bedroom.

Jackson’s defense took another hit when Marcus initially denied that Jackson owned what prosecutors called “adult materials.”

But he wavered when photos were shown of two bare-breasted female dolls in bondage outfits that were found on Jackson’s cluttered office desk.

“They’re a type of artwork of an adult nature,” he conceded.

An 18-year Neverland employee, Marcus was the latest in a series of current and former Neverland workers who have testified that they never saw Jackson do anything illegal or inappropriate with young boys at the Santa Ynez Valley ranch.

Auchincloss also questioned the ranch manager’s motive in telling security guards to keep Jackson’s accuser and his younger brother on the property one night in February 2003.

In his testimony Monday, Marcus said that the order had been issued because the boys had driven recklessly around Neverland in ranch vehicles.

But on Tuesday, the prosecutor questioned that explanation.

“You were concerned that a 13-year-old boy would drive to the gate and a security guard would just let him through and say, ‘Have a nice day?’ ”

Marcus said that was indeed a concern.

Marcus also said that the boys weren’t supposed to leave the ranch on the day of his order because they were needed for a video that was to be shot either at Neverland or in Los Angeles.

Aimed at countering a damaging British TV documentary, the video was taped that night in the San Fernando Valley home of Jackson’s personal videographer. It featured the boys, their older sister and their mother praising Jackson for his loving and caring qualities. Their interviews ultimately were not aired.

The defense on Tuesday sought to blunt the effect of earlier witnesses who testified about Jackson’s many close friendships with boys in their early teens.

Marcus testified that Jackson also had been close to young girls and women.

Asked by Auchincloss to name close female friends of Jackson’s other than his two ex-wives, Marcus hesitated before naming Elizabeth Taylor and Liza Minnelli.

“So we’re up to two,” Auchincloss said sarcastically. “Any others?”

The question went unanswered after a defense objection.