SANTA MARIA, Calif. — The woman in charge of safety at Michael Jackson's Neverland Ranch told jurors Friday that the singer's accuser was a reckless litterbug and his mother's behavior was erratic during the time the family was allegedly being held captive.

"She was either excited or not excited," Violet Silva said of the accuser's mother. "She was either very happy or wasn't speaking."

Silva, the safety coordinator at Jackson's 2,700-acre Santa Ynez Valley property, described the 13-year-old accuser and his brother as "pretty reckless," adding that they crashed go-carts, drove Jackson's car without his permission, and "littered quite a bit."

The accuser's mother, according to the witness, was rarely present, leaving the task of disciplining her boys to her teen daughter and to Neverland security guards, who twice wrote the siblings up for go-cart accidents.

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Jackson's defense team called several current and former Neverland employees to the stand Monday to attack the family's credibility and challenge charges that Jackson and his aides falsely imprisoned the family at Neverland in February and March 2003.

"They were a little destructive at times," ranch manager Joseph Marcus testified about the two boys. "They defaced a few areas on the property, wrote some graffiti, if you will, just not that respectful."

Marcus said that the mother appeared to be enjoying herself and that the family never complained to him about their treatment, nor did they express a desire to escape.

Silva echoed Marcus' remark, adding that the mother was able to call 911 from her guest room at any time if she felt unsafe.

But prosecutors say that the mother was coerced and intimidated into bringing her children to Neverland after a damaging TV documentary depicted the singer in a loving embrace with her son, a cancer survivor.

Once there, she claims, she was manipulated into participating in a scripted rebuttal video, was told that her family would be killed if she did not follow orders, and only got the nerve to escape after Jackson's aides made arrangements to send the family on a one-way trip to Brazil.

The accuser previously testified that, during the family's captivity, Jackson gave him wine almost every night and masturbated him at least twice while the two slept in bed together.

Silva conceded that a written directive was noted in security logs in February 2003 not to let the children leave Neverland.

Prosecutors say that order came down from Jackson himself, pointing to his role in an alleged conspiracy to imprison and isolate the family from the media in order to protect Jackson's career.

Silva testified that it was policy at Neverland not to let children leave when their parents are absent. The accuser's mother was in Los Angeles at the time of the order. Silva also testified that the teens' rambunctious commandeering of ranch vehicles — including an Astrovan and Jackson's personal SUV, a Navigator — led in part to the written directive.

However, she could not recall any other children who were sleepover guests being named in such an order at any time.

Jackson smiled and gave a friendly nod of acknowledgment toward Silva and Marcus when they took the stand. He maintains his innocence of the 10 counts against him, which include conspiracy, molestation, and plying the boy with wine and liquor.

Laundry days

Jackson's behavior with his current accuser mirrors a criminal pattern, prosecutors say, which he exhibited more than a decade ago with a series of young boys he has been accused of molesting.

The defense has spent the first three days of its case attempting to repudiate the testimony of former Neverland maids and security guards, who said they saw Jackson engage in lewd behavior with the young boys he seemed to favor.

Francine Contreras, a former Neverland employee, was called by Michael Jackson's defense to discredit a prosecution witness.

But the testimony, at times, has resulted in more mudslinging than clarity for jurors.

Francine Contreras, a former Jackson maid, testified Monday that her former co-worker and a prosecution witnesses, Adrian McManus, stole from Jackson.

McManus previously testified that Jackson planted kisses on several boys, including child actor Macaulay Culkin.

Contreras testified that McManus hoarded Jackson's personal property, such as hats, pajamas, T-shirts and watches.

"She used to take home Mr. Jackson's clothes," Contreras testified about McManus' habit of toting a laundry basket home after work. "She said she was going to iron them, but there was a hat in there and you can't iron a hat."

On cross-examination, however, Contreras said it was possible that McManus was mending the hat. She also denied the prosecution's claim that she herself was fired from a job at Mervyn's department store and prosecuted for theft.

"No, it was for trespassing," she explained.

Jackson's spokeswoman, Raymone Bain, told reporters after court Monday that she expected the defense case to last 8 to 10 weeks, and that Jackson has not decided whether to testify.

"Michael wants the world to know that he did not molest any children. He would not be opposed to testifying," Bain stated. "At the end of the day, he will listen to what [lead defense attorney] Tom Mesereau suggests. If Tom Mesereau wants him to testify, he will."