A man who used to work at Michael Jackson's Neverland ranch as a security guard testified on Wednesday that there was a directive in January or February of 2003 that the boy Jackson is accused of molesting should not be permitted to leave the singer's estate.

This testimony reinforces the prosecution's contention that the alleged victim and his family were held hostage by Jackson and his employees until they made a 'rebuttal video' explaining how Jackson had helped them and their son and was a 'father figure' to the boy.

The witness, Brian Barron, also verified a log book from Neverland dated February 19, 2003, which read, 'The kids are not to leave per Joe.' Barron admitted that Joe was the ranch manager the 'the kids' referred to the alleged victim and his brother.


Barron later admitted that it would not be unusual to prevent children from leaving the grounds unsupervised and that he saw no illegal actions taking place during his time at Neverland. In addition to working part-time at Jackson's ranch, Barron was a police officer for the town of Guadalupe.

He later described the alleged victim and his brother as 'destructive' and said they had thrown a lot of eggs at his security chief's car and broken a lot of golf carts.

The prosecution told the court that its case is winding down. They expect to finish their case against Jackson and call their last witness next week.

Jackson is accused of sexually molesting a then 13-year-old boy after serving him alcohol. He and his bodyguards are also accused of holding the boy and his family hostage until they made a new video rebutting damaging allegations against the 'King of Pop' that were contained in a video aired on national television. Jackson has denied all charges.