Former Neverland Chef Testifies at Michael Jackson Trial

Saturday, April 09, 2005

A former chef of Neverland Valley ranch testified yesterday that he witnessed Michael Jackson inappropriately touch Macauley Culkin in the arcade room. Before he took the stand, former Neverland maid Adrian McManus finished her testimony. Lead Defence attorney Thomas Mesereau continued his cross-examination, and the witness admitted that she and others sought out a media broker to sell their stories to tabloids.

One story she sold was inside information into Michael's sexual relationship with his ex-wife Lisa-Marie Presley. "You were quoted in a Star story with the headline, 'Kinky secrets of Michael and Lisa Marie's bedroom,'" Mesereau said. "I didn't say that," McManus said, "A lot of times with those tabloids they say other stuff." The witness claimed she knew nothing of the relationship between the couple according to the Associated Press.

Once McManus finished her testimony, the Prosecution called Phillip LeMarque to the stand. LeMarque and his wife were both chefs at Neverland in 1991. The witness claims he saw Michael holding Macauley Culkin up to an arcade game with one hand on his waist and the other in Culkin's shorts. LeMarque stated he saw this while delivering french fries and quietly left the room before re-entering announcing himself in the process, "I was shocked. Culkin has always denied anything inappropriate happened between he and Michael.

I almost dropped the french fries". Although the alleged incident happened in 1991, LeMarque never told anyone until investigators questioned him in 1993 about the Jordan Chandler case. His reason for not telling anyone beforehand was he thought, "nobody would have ever believed this." When cross-examined by Mesereau, LeMarque acknowledged that he and his wife considered selling their stories to the tabloids, and even demanded $500,000 but claimed they backed out because "it was against (their) principles." He and his wife also sued Michael for unpaid overtime after they quit and the case was settled.

Mesereau had wanted to bring up the fact that LeMarque operated an explicit adult website, however Judge Melville denied the request stating that the information could be used to impeach the witness and the website was made years after LeMarque had worked at Neverland according to the Santa Maria Times.

Source - MJNI.COM