SANTA MARIA, California - Jurors at Michael Jackson`s trial have heard of some real monkey business in the superstar`s bedroom, where pet chimps would run amok, leaving maids to clean up after them.
"There was a little monkey, a chimp, an ape, a primate," Prosecutor Ronald Zonen said Thursday, apparently not too sure how exactly to describe the pet named "Max."
Adrian McManus, a former Jackson maid admitted she often had to clean up after the chimpanzee who liked to play in the pop star`s bedroom at Neverland Ranch, where she worked between 1990 and 1994.
Judge Rodney Melville halted the line of questioning, leaving court-watchers baffled as to why the prosecution wanted jurors at Jackson`s child sex trial to hear about the pet`s behavior.
From testimony this week it would appear that "Max" replaced Jackson`s once famous chimp companion "Bubbles", who eventually got so wild he had to be taken to "some kind of farm."
Another ex-housekeeper said on Tuesday the faded King of Pop would allow Bubbles to "sleep in his room" with a diaper.
The redfaced witness also agreed when Jackson`s lead lawyer Thomas Mesereau asked her if it was indeed correct that the pet "didn`t like his diaper and you often had to clean after Bubbles?"
She said Bubbles bit her twice, but did not say whether the chimp was disciplined in any way for its misbehavior.
04/08/2005 01:51 GMT