ALL CNN TRIAL REPORTER ALAN DUKE'S NEWS ARTICLES - UPDATED DAILY

by **Admin** Mon Apr 29, 2013 3:23 pm

First topic message reminder :

Alan Duke is the CNN reporter that will be at Jackson v AEG trial everyday. Please post ALL of CNN's stories here in this thread. There are so many pages of the news and articles on this trial forum-so this will keep better tabs and order of just the CNN stories.

Here is the latest from Alan Duke:

Michael Jackson wrongful death trial to open
By Alan Duke, CNN

4/29/13

Los Angeles (CNN) -- The Michael Jackson wrongful death trial, which promises dramatic revelations and legal fireworks, begins in a small Los Angeles courtroom with opening statements Monday.

Jurors earning $15 a day will listen to several months of testimony before deciding whether one of the world's largest entertainment companies should pay Jackson's mother and three children billions of dollars for its liability in the pop icon's death.

Famous Jackson family members, including Janet, will sit just a few feet from the jury as Michael's oldest son and daughter describe their father's last days. But they will also endure weeks of tedious testimony from medical and financial experts offering opinions about the singer's health, addiction and career.

Only a handful of journalists and a few members of the public will be allowed inside the courtroom because many of its 45 seats are reserved for parties involved in the trial, including the Jackson family. Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Yvette Palazuelos denied CNN's request to televise the trial.

Pretrial hearings have featured angry and personal exchanges between lawyers for the two sides, made more intense by the intimacy of the tiny courtroom.

The central issue

The central issue is simple: Did AEG Live, the company promoting Jackson's comeback concerts in 2009, hire or supervise Dr. Conrad Murray, the physician convicted of involuntary manslaughter in Jackson's June 25, 2009, death?

Jackson died two weeks before his "This Is It" comeback concerts, organized by AEG Live, were to have debuted in London. The coroner ruled Jackson died from a fatal combination of sedatives and propofol, a surgical anesthetic that Murray told investigators he used to put Jackson to sleep almost every night in the month before his death.

The Jacksons will argue that AEG executives knew about the star's weakened health and his past use of dangerous drugs while on tour. They're liable in his death because they pressured Jackson and the doctor to meet their ambitious schedule to prepare for the London shows despite that knowledge, their lawyers contend.

A cornerstone of their case is an e-mail AEG Live Co-CEO Paul Gongaware wrote 11 days before Jackson's death. The e-mail to show director Kenny Ortega addressed concerns that Murray had kept Jackson from a rehearsal the day before: "We want to remind (Murray) that it is AEG, not MJ, who is paying his salary. We want to remind him what is expected of him."

Jackson lawyers argue the e-mail is evidence that AEG Live used Murray's fear of losing his lucrative job as Jackson's personal physician to pressure him to have Jackson ready for rehearsals despite his fragile health.

AEG will defend itself by arguing that Jackson was responsible for his own demise, that he chose Murray to be his full-time doctor and that his drug addiction led him to a series of fatal choices. Murray was never an AEG employee but rather was chosen and paid by Jackson for nearly four years until Jackson died, AEG lawyers contend.

"I don't know how you can't look to Mr. Jackson's responsibility there," AEG lawyer Marvin Putnam told CNN. "He was a grown man."

Child molestation accusations against Jackson, for which he was acquitted after a trial, are relevant because they "resulted in an incredible increase in his drug intake," Putnam said.

"Mr. Jackson is a person who was known to doctor shop," Putnam said. "He was known to be someone who would tell one doctor one thing and another doctor something else."

When Palazuelos ruled in February that case warranted a jury trial, she found there was evidence to support the Jacksons' claim that AEG Live executives could have foreseen that Murray would use dangerous drugs in treating the singer.

Elvis' ghost haunts Michael Jackson death trial

Jackson's family seeks billions

The lawsuit seeks a judgment against AEG Live equal to the money Jackson would have earned over the course of his remaining lifetime if he had not died in 2009. Jackson lawyers denied media reports that they were seeking $40 billion in damages if AEG Live is found liable, but it could cost the company several billion dollars, according to estimates of Jackson's income potential.

AEG Live is a subsidiary of AEG, a global entertainment company that was up for sale recently with an $8 billion asking price.

One of the Jacksons' experts, certified pubic accountant Arthur Erk, estimated that Michael Jackson could have earned $1.4 billion by taking his "This Is It" tour around the world for 260 shows. AEG executives discussed extending the tour beyond the 50 shows scheduled for London, Jackson lawyers said.

Jackson lawyer Perry Sanders, in arguing for the judge to allow Erk's testimony, said when "This Is It" tickets went on sale in March 2009, there was the "highest demand to see anyone in the history of the world. No one has ever come close."

"There was so much demand, they filled 2 million seats in hours," Sanders said, quoting an e-mail from AEG Live CEO Randy Phillips sent to AEG's owner.

"We would have had to do 100-plus shows to fill the demand" in London, he said Phillips wrote. Jackson could have packed the Tokyo Dome several times in a world tour, he said.

But AEG lawyer Sabrina Strong called it "very speculative" that Jackson would have even finished the 50 London shows before dying.

AEG lawyers argued that Jackson didn't perform 260 shows and make that much money even in his prime. "He never came anywhere close to that," Strong said. "No one other than Cher has ever done that."

Erk also calculated Jackson would have followed with four more world tours before he turned 65.

Palazuelos weighed in during a hearing on Thursday, noting that the Rolling Stones are still touring into their 70s.

The Jacksons will also try to convince jurors that he would have made a fortune off of a long series of Las Vegas shows, endorsements, a clothing line and movies.

Strong argued that Jackson had a history of failed projects and missed opportunities, calling Erk's projections "a hope, a dream, and not a basis for damages."

If AEG is found liable, the company's lawyers want the judge to tell the jury to reduce any damages by the amount Jackson's estate earned from the documentary made from video the company shot of his rehearsals. "If there is a benefit in it, then that is deducted from a loss," Strong said.

Jackson lawyer Brian Panish compared giving AEG credit for the "This Is It" profits to being "like you murdered someone, wrote a book about them and gave them the money."

Panish, who will deliver the Jacksons' opening statement Monday morning, said he was not sure who his first witness will be Tuesday morning. He did tell the court he will show several videos of the depositions given by AEG's top executives in the first week.

Panish and AEG's Putnam will each have two and a half hours to describe their cases to the jury in opening statements starting at 10 a.m. Monday.

The witness lists include many members of the Jackson family, including matriarch Katherine Jackson. Other celebrity witnesses on the list are Sharon Osbourne, Quincy Jones, Spike Lee, Ray Parker Jr., Lisa Marie Presley, Diana Ross and Lou Ferrigno.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

by WeAreTheWorld. Thu May 23, 2013 3:34 pm

AEG exec called Michael Jackson 'freak' before signing

By Alan Duke
May 23, 2013

Los Angeles (CNN) -- A top AEG executive referred to Michael Jackson as "a freak" and another called him "creepy" just hours before their company signed the pop icon to a huge concert deal.

The revelation brought an audible gasp in the Los Angeles courtroom at the wrongful death trial Wednesday and left fans crying.

Jackson's mother and children are suing AEG Live for the negligent hiring, retention or supervision of Dr. Conrad Murray, the physician convicted of involuntary manslaughter in the singer's death.

Katherine Jackson watched from the front row as her lawyer questioned AEG Live Senior Vice President and General Counsel Shawn Trell about an e-mail exchange with his boss at parent company AEG.

"Is it the policy of AEG to talk in derogatory terms about the artist you're going to do business with?" Jackson lawyer Brian Panish asked.

"No," Trell answered.

Panish then showed jurors an e-mail Trell sent on January 28, 2009, to Ted Fikre, AEG's chief legal officer, letting him know he was about to go to Jackson's home for the signing of the contract for his "This Is It" concert tour.

"Does that mean you get to meet the freak?" Fikre replied.

Trell responded: "Apparently. Not sure how I feel about that. Interesting for sure, but kind of creepy."

The e-mail exchange happened less than four hours before Trell and other AEG excutives visited Jackson's Los Angeles home.

"This is a man you hoped to make millions and millions of dollars from?" Panish asked Trell. "Didn't your mom ever say if you don't have anything good to to say about someone don't say anything?"

Trell earlier testified that he was excited to meet Jackson for the first time and was impressed with his "good, firm handshake."

"I may not have necessarily agreed with some of the life choice Michael Jackson made but I certainly had enormous respect for him as an entertainer."

A dry review

Most of Wednesday's session was a dry review of Jackson and Dr. Murray's contracts as AEG Live's defense team worked to convince jurors that Murray was not hired by the concert promoter. Jackson chose, hired and supervised the doctor, they contend.

Murray signed his contract the day before Jackson's June 25, 2009, death, but AEG executives and Jackson never put their signatures on it. Jackson lawyers, however, argue he was already working for two months based on an oral contract.

The Jackson lawsuit contends that AEG Live executives ignored red flags that should have warned them Jackson was in danger from Murray's treatment.

The coroner ruled that Jackson died from an overdose of the surgical anesthetic propofol, which Murray told police he was using to treat the singer's insomnia.

Source: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

by **MJ Mod** Tue May 28, 2013 2:27 pm

Elvis' connection to Michael Jackson's death enters trial

By: Alan Duke
5/28/2013

Los Angeles (CNN) -- AEG Live co-CEO Paul Gongaware, whose career as a concert promoter started with Elvis Presley's last tours, testifies Tuesday about Michael Jackson's final days.

Gongaware, who was one of the top producers of Jackson's comeback concerts, takes the stand as the Michael Jackson wrongful death trial enters its fifth week in a Los Angeles courtroom.

Jackson's mother and children are suing AEG Live for liability in the pop icon's death, accusing the concert promoter of negligently hiring, retaining or supervising Dr. Conrad Murray, the physician convicted of involuntary manslaughter.

AEG lawyers contend that Michael Jackson chose, hired and supervised Murray and that his bad decisions were fueled by a drug addiction their executives had no way of knowing about.

The Elvis connection

Elvis' name is expected to come up as Jackson's lawyers question Gongaware about his knowledge of drug use during concert tours. He should have been able to recognize red flags warning about Jackson's drug use because of his experience with Presley and his time as Jackson's tour manager in the 1990s, they contend.

When Gongaware was managing Jackson's 1993 tour he warned the tour doctor "Don't be a Dr. Nick" -- a reference to Elvis Presley's last physician -- the doctor testified in a deposition.

"Dr. Nick was the doctor whose overprescription of drugs to Elvis had led to Elvis' death," according to a court filing by lawyers for the Jackson family.

Presley collapsed in the bathroom of his Memphis, Tennessee, mansion -- Graceland -- on August 16, 1977, at the age of 42. While his death was ruled the result of an irregular heartbeat, the autopsy report was sealed amid accusations that abuse of prescription drugs caused the problem.

"Dr. Nick" -- Dr. George Nichopoulos -- said later he was treating Presley for insomnia. He was charged with over-prescribing drugs to Presley, but he was acquitted. He later lost his medical license in another case.

Jackson died on June 25, 2009, at the age of 50. The coroner ruled his death was caused by a fatal combination of sedatives and the surgical anesthetic propofol. Murray told investigators he gave Jackson nightly infusions of propofol to treat his insomnia. He was convicted of involuntary manslaughter, sentenced to four years in prison and stripped of his medical license.

The Jackson lawyers are using Gongaware's Elvis and "Dr. Nick" reference to argue that "AEG knew Jackson had suffered chronic substance abuse and drug dependency problems for many years."

"Shortly after he joined the 'Dangerous' tour in 1993, Dr. Finkelstein was asked to treat Jackson for pain," the Jackson filing said, referring to Dr. Stuart Finkelstein, a doctor on the 1993 tour.

"Having observed signs of opiate addiction in Jackson, Dr. Finkelstein nonetheless administered Demerol by injection, and administered morphine intravenously in Jackson's Bangkok hotel room for 24 hours."

After that, Finkelstein told Gongaware "he thought Jackson had an opiate dependency problem," the filing said.

"For three and a half months, the 'Dangerous' tour continued," it said. "Another doctor attended Jackson regularly, on one occasion breaking into Dr. Finkelstein's bag to get opiates to administer to Jackson. Gongaware was there the whole time, in charge of tour logistics, aware of the various physicians present, and he discussed with Dr. Finkelstein Jackson's opiate problem."

When Gongaware warned Dr. Finkelstein, who the brief described as his "close friend," not to become Jackson's "Dr. Nick," he was "warning me, you know, don't get all infatuated where you start administering meds to a rock star and have the rock star overdose and die on you," Dr. Finkelstein testified.

The 'smoking gun'

Gongaware is also a key witness because he wrote what Jackson's lawyers call the "smoking gun" e-mail which they argue shows AEG Live executives used Murray's fear of losing his lucrative job as Jackson's personal physician to pressure him to have Jackson ready for rehearsals despite his fragile health.

Gongaware's e-mail to show director Kenny Ortega, sent 11 days before Jackson's death, addressed concerns that Murray had kept Jackson from a rehearsal the day before: "We want to remind (Murray) that it is AEG, not MJ, who is paying his salary. We want to remind him what is expected of him." Gongaware, in a video deposition played in court on the first day of the trial, said he could not remember writing the e-mail.

"They put Dr. Murray in a position where if he said Michael can't go or can't play, if he said I can't give you those drugs, then he doesn't get paid," Jackson lawyer Brian Panish told jurors in his opening statements.

AEG lawyer Marvin Putnam said in his opening statement that Gongaware and other AEG executives had no way of knowing about Jackson's use of propofol to sleep.

"AEG knew nothing about this decade-long propofol use," Putnam said. "They were a concert promoter. How could they know?"

Gongaware will also face questions about an e-mail in which he seemed to question Jackson's commitment to his "This Is It" tour.

"We cannot be forced into stopping this, which MJ will try to do because he is lazy and constantly changes his mind to fit his immediate wants," he wrote to his boss, AEG Live President Randy Phillips.

Jackson make up artist Karen Faye testified earlier abut an incident in which Gongaware became frustrated because Jackson locked himself in a bathroom at his home, refusing to leave for rehearsals at the Forum. Gongaware was "angry and kind of desperate to get Michael to the Forum," Faye said.

She overheard Gongaware screaming on the phone at Jackson's security guard, telling him "to get him out of the bathroom. Do you have a key? Do whatever it takes."

'Trouble at the Front'

Jackson lawyers are also expected to ask Gongaware about e-mails he received that raised questions about Jackson's health in the last weeks of his life.

"This Is It" production director John "Bugzee" Houghdahl wrote to him on June 19, 2009 -- six days before Jackson died -- "I have watched him deteriorate in front of my eyes over the last 8 weeks. He was able to do multiple 360 spins back in April. He'd fall on his *** if he tried now."

Houghdahl's e-mail, titled "trouble at the Front" was written after Ortega sent Jackson home from a rehearsal because of his strange behavior.

"He was a basket case and Kenny was concerned he would embarrass himself on stage, or worse yet -- get hurt," Houghdahl wrote. "The company is rehearsing right now, but the DOUBT is pervasive."

Source: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

by WeAreTheWorld. Tue May 28, 2013 8:42 pm

Promoter: 'I kind of knew what was going to happen' to Michael Jackson

By: Alan Duke
5/28/2013

Los Angeles (CNN) -- AEG Live co-CEO Paul Gongaware, whose career as a concert promoter started with Elvis Presley's last tour, testified Tuesday about Michael Jackson's final days.

"I was working on the Elvis tour when he died so I kind of knew what to expect," Gongaware wrote in an e-mail to a friend two weeks after Jackson died. "Still quite a shock."

Gongaware, who was one of the top producers of Jackson's comeback concerts, is expected to be on the witness stand for several days in the fifth week of the Michael Jackson wrongful death trial.

Janet Jackson, the late singer's youngest sister, made her first appearance in the Los Angeles courtroom, sitting next to her mother, Katherine Jackson. Sister Rebbie and brother Randy Jackson are in the courthouse but are not allowed to view the testimony because the judge has limited the family to one sibling at a time in court.

Jackson's mother and children are suing AEG Live for liability in the pop icon's death, accusing the concert promoter of negligently hiring, retaining or supervising Dr. Conrad Murray, the physician convicted of involuntary manslaughter.

AEG lawyers contend that Michael Jackson chose, hired and supervised Murray and that his bad decisions were fueled by a drug addiction their executives had no way of knowing about.

The Elvis connection

Elvis' name came up as Jackson lawyer Brian Panish questioned Gongaware about his knowledge of drug use during concert tours. He should have been able to recognize red flags signaling Jackson's drug use because of his experience with Presley and his time as Jackson's tour manager in the 1990s, the Jacksons contend.

"I kind of knew what was going to happen, yes," Gongaware testified. Panish then showed jurors the e-mail in which he made a similar statement.

When Gongaware was managing Jackson's 1993 tour, he warned the tour doctor "Don't be a Dr. Nick" -- a reference to Presley's last physician -- the doctor testified in a deposition.

"Dr. Nick was the doctor whose overprescription of drugs to Elvis had led to Elvis' death," according to a court filing by lawyers for the Jackson family.

Presley collapsed in the bathroom of his Memphis, Tennessee, mansion -- Graceland -- on August 16, 1977, at age 42. While his death was ruled the result of an irregular heartbeat, the autopsy report was sealed amid accusations that the abuse of prescription drugs caused the problem.

"Dr. Nick" -- Dr. George Nichopoulos -- said later he was treating Presley for insomnia. He was charged with overprescribing drugs to Presley, but he was acquitted. He later lost his medical license in another case.

Jackson died on June 25, 2009, at age 50. The coroner ruled his death was caused by a fatal combination of sedatives and the surgical anesthetic propofol. Murray told investigators he gave Jackson nightly infusions of propofol to treat his insomnia. He was convicted of involuntary manslaughter, sentenced to four years in prison and stripped of his medical license.

Gongaware was with Presley manager Col. Tom Parker when he first met Jackson in Las Vegas, he testified.

The Jackson lawyers are using Gongaware's Elvis and "Dr. Nick" reference to argue that "AEG knew Jackson had suffered chronic substance abuse and drug dependency problems for many years."

"Shortly after he joined the 'Dangerous' tour in 1993, Dr. Finkelstein was asked to treat Jackson for pain," the Jackson filing said, referring to Dr. Stuart Finkelstein, a doctor on the 1993 tour.

"Having observed signs of opiate addiction in Jackson, Dr. Finkelstein nonetheless administered Demerol by injection, and administered morphine intravenously in Jackson's Bangkok hotel room for 24 hours."

After that, Finkelstein told Gongaware "he thought Jackson had an opiate dependency problem," the filing said.

"For three and a half months, the 'Dangerous' tour continued," it said. "Another doctor attended Jackson regularly, on one occasion breaking into Dr. Finkelstein's bag to get opiates to administer to Jackson. Gongaware was there the whole time, in charge of tour logistics, aware of the various physicians present, and he discussed with Dr. Finkelstein Jackson's opiate problem."

When Gongaware warned Dr. Finkelstein, whom the brief described as his "close friend," not to become Jackson's "Dr. Nick," he was "warning me, you know, don't get all infatuated where you start administering meds to a rock star and have the rock star overdose and die on you," Dr. Finkelstein testified.

Despite working as a tour promoter for 37 years -- including for Led Zeppelin, the Grateful Dead and many others -- Gongaware testified that the only artist he ever knew that was using drug on tour was Rick James.

Gongaware is currently the tour manager for the Rolling Stones North American tour.

Fooling Mikey?

Jurors were shown several e-mails from Gongaware that Jackson lawyers suggested were evidence that AEG Live deliberately misled Jackson about how much money he would make from his comeback concerts and how many days he would have to rest between shows.

Gongaware wrote to his boss, AEG Live President Randy Phillips, that they should present gross ticket sales numbers to Jackson, not the percentage of the net profits, during contract talks. "Maybe gross is a better number to throw around if we use numbers with Mikey listening," his e-mail said.

He sent an e-mail to his assistant in March 2009 suggesting that she design a concert calendar for Jackson using light tan colors for show dates, while drawing attention to his rest days.

"I don't want the shows to stand out so much when MJ looks at it. Less contrast between work and off. Maybe off days in a contrasting soft color. Put 'OFF' in each off day after July 8, as well. Figure it out so it looks like he's not working so much."

Under questioning Tuesday, Gongaware said he "wasn't trying to fool him. I wanted to present it in the best possible light."

The 'smoking gun'

Gongaware is also a key witness because he wrote what Jackson's lawyers call the "smoking gun" e-mail which they argue shows AEG Live executives used Murray's fear of losing his lucrative job as Jackson's personal physician to pressure him to have Jackson ready for rehearsals despite his fragile health.

Gongaware's e-mail to show director Kenny Ortega, sent 11 days before Jackson's death, addressed concerns that Murray had kept Jackson from a rehearsal the day before: "We want to remind (Murray) that it is AEG, not MJ, who is paying his salary. We want to remind him what is expected of him." Gongaware, in a video deposition played in court on the first day of the trial, said he could not remember writing the e-mail.

"They put Dr. Murray in a position where if he said Michael can't go or can't play, if he said I can't give you those drugs, then he doesn't get paid," Jackson lawyer Brian Panish told jurors in his opening statements.

AEG lawyer Marvin Putnam said in his opening statement that Gongaware and other AEG executives had no way of knowing about Jackson's use of propofol to sleep.

"AEG knew nothing about this decade-long propofol use," Putnam said. "They were a concert promoter. How could they know?"

Gongaware will also face questions about an e-mail in which he seemed to question Jackson's commitment to his "This Is It" tour.

"We cannot be forced into stopping this, which MJ will try to do because he is lazy and constantly changes his mind to fit his immediate wants," he wrote to AEG's Phillips.

Jackson makeup artist Karen Faye testified earlier abut an incident in which Gongaware became frustrated because Jackson locked himself in a bathroom at his home, refusing to leave for rehearsals at the Forum. Gongaware was "angry and kind of desperate to get Michael to the Forum," Faye said.

She overheard Gongaware screaming on the phone at Jackson's security guard, telling him "to get him out of the bathroom. Do you have a key? Do whatever it takes."

'Trouble at the Front'

Jackson lawyers are also expected to ask Gongaware about e-mails he received that raised questions about Jackson's health in the last weeks of his life.

"This Is It" production director John "Bugzee" Houghdahl wrote to him on June 19, 2009 -- six days before Jackson died -- "I have watched him deteriorate in front of my eyes over the last 8 weeks. He was able to do multiple 360 spins back in April. He'd fall on his *** if he tried now."

Houghdahl's e-mail, titled "trouble at the Front" was written after Ortega sent Jackson home from a rehearsal because of his strange behavior.

"He was a basket case and Kenny was concerned he would embarrass himself on stage, or worse yet -- get hurt," Houghdahl wrote. "The company is rehearsing right now, but the DOUBT is pervasive."

Source: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

by midangerous Wed May 29, 2013 7:09 pm

AEG exec's memory strained about Michael Jackson's last days
by Alan Duke

5/29/13

Los Angeles (CNN) -- The phrase most spoken by AEG Live's co-CEO during his testimony in the Michael Jackson wrongful death trial was: "I don't recall."

Paul Gongaware, who was in charge of producing and promoting Jackson's ill-fated comeback concerts, testified this week that he couldn't remember sending key e-mails or approving budgets that included $150,000 a month for Dr. Conrad Murray.

Gongaware also denied thinking that Jackson's health was frail in the last days of his life, despite e-mails from others in the production suggesting the singer needed help.

Jackson's mother and three children are suing AEG Live, contending the concert promoter is liable in the pop icon's death because it negligently hired, retained or supervised Murray.

AEG's lawyers argue it was Jackson who chose, hired and supervised Murray -- and their company only dealt with Murray because Jackson demanded they pay for him to be his "This Is It" tour doctor.

Murray was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in Jackson's drug overdose death and he is serving a prison sentence.

Gongaware seemed to dance around some questions like Jackson doing a "Moonwalk," including when he explained an e-mail to his boss' assistant in which he said he was having nightmares and cold sweats about the concerts.

It was not an admission that he was concerned about Jackson's ability to do the show, he said. "It was just playing around, joking," with AEG President Tim Leiweke's assistant, Carla Garcia, he testified.

"Carla is an absolute babe and I was just chatting her up," he said.

While that testimony drew laughter in the court, it was unclear how jurors and the female judge viewed it, because Gongaware also acknowledged his girlfriend worked at AEG.

Gongaware's repetition of "I don't recall" several dozen times under questioning by Jackson lawyer Brian Panish eventually drew laughs from jurors, including when Panish began answering for him with that phrase.

AEG exec called Jackson "freak" before signing concert contract

The 'smoking gun'

Panish questioned Gongaware about an e-mail Jackson's lawyers call the "smoking gun," which they argue shows AEG Live executives used Murray's fear of losing his lucrative job as Jackson's personal physician to pressure him to have Jackson ready for rehearsals despite his fragile health.

Show director Kenny Ortega e-mailed Gongaware 11 days before Jackson's death expressing concerns that Murray had kept Jackson from a rehearsal the day before. Ortega also raised his own concerns about Jackson's health. Gongaware testified on Wednesday that he thought Ortega was "over-reacting."

His e-mail reply to Ortega read: "We want to remind (Murray) that it is AEG, not MJ, who is paying his salary. We want to remind him what is expected of him." Gongaware, in a video deposition played in court on the first day of the trial, said he could not remember writing the e-mail.

Panish on Wednesday played for jurors a section of Gongaware's deposition, recorded in December, in which Jackson lawyer Kevin Boyle questioned him about what he meant when he wrote to Ortega, "We want to remind him that it is AEG, not MJ, who is paying his salary."

Boyle: "Based on the assumptions that AEG is your company and MJ is Michael Jackson, do you have an understanding of what that means?"

Gongaware: "No, I don't understand it, because we weren't paying his salary."

Boyle: "So why would you write that?"

Gongaware: "I have no idea."

Boyle: "Now, let's go on to the next sentence. When you say 'his salary,' who are you talking about?"

Gongaware: "I don't know."

Boyle: "Oh, but how do you know you weren't paying his salary if you don't know who we're talking about?"

Gongaware: "I don't remember this e-mail."

Boyle: "Didn't you just testify that 'we weren't paying his salary'?"

Gongaware: "AEG?"

Boyle: "Yes. No. You just testified 'we weren't paying his salary.' You just testified to that a few seconds ago, right?"

Gongaware: "I guess."

Boyle: "Well, whose salary were you referring to? Dr. Murray?"

Gongaware: "Yes."

After Gongaware began recalling in court Wednesday what he meant in the e-mail, Panish suggested it may be a case of "repressed memories" where "someone doesn't remember something for three or four years."

"You didn't have any psychotherapy to remember what you wrote here?" Panish asked. "You didn't like get put to sleep? (Judge Yvette Palazuelos injected: "Hypnotized?") to see if you remembered this?

"No," Gongaware answered.

Sweet controversy at Jackson death trial

The Elvis connection

Gongaware's career as a concert promoter started with Elvis Presley's last tour. He testified that he met Jackson when he was with Presley manager Col. Tom Parker in Las Vegas.

Elvis' name came up in the trial on Tuesday as Panish questioned Gongaware about his knowledge of drug use during concert tours. He should have been able to recognize red flags signaling Jackson's drug use because of his experience with Presley and his time as Jackson's tour manager in the 1990s, the Jacksons contend.

An e-mail to a friend two weeks after Jackson's death supports their argument, the Jackson lawyers contend.

"I was working on the Elvis tour when he died so I kind of knew what to expect," Gongaware wrote. "Still quite a shock."

AEG lawyer Marvin Putnam later told reporters that Gongaware was referring to the public reaction to Jackson's death, not saying he expected Jackson would meet the same fate as Presley.

Presley collapsed in the bathroom of his Memphis, Tennessee, mansion -- Graceland -- on August 16, 1977, at age 42. While his death was ruled the result of an irregular heartbeat, the autopsy report was sealed amid accusations that the abuse of prescription drugs caused the problem.

Jackson died on June 25, 2009, at age 50. The coroner ruled his death was caused by a fatal combination of sedatives and the surgical anesthetic propofol. Murray told investigators he gave Jackson nightly infusions of propofol to treat his insomnia. He was convicted of involuntary manslaughter, sentenced to four years in prison and stripped of his medical license.

Gongaware -- who has worked as a tour promoter for 37 years for bands including Led Zeppelin, the Grateful Dead and many others -- testified that the only artist he ever knew who was using drugs on tour was Rick James.

Gongaware is currently the tour manager for the Rolling Stones North American tour.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

by WeAreTheWorld. Wed May 29, 2013 9:59 pm

Promoter grilled about 'smoking gun' e-mail in Michael Jackson death trial

By: Alan Duke
May 29, 2013

Los Angeles (CNN) -- The phrase most spoken by AEG Live's co-CEO during his testimony in the Michael Jackson wrongful death trial was: "I don't recall."

Paul Gongaware, who was in charge of producing and promoting Jackson's ill-fated comeback concerts, testified this week that he couldn't remember sending key e-mails or approving budgets that included $150,000 a month for Dr. Conrad Murray.

Gongaware also denied thinking that Jackson's health was frail in the last days of his life, despite e-mails from others in the production suggesting the singer needed help.

Jackson's mother and three children are suing AEG Live, contending the concert promoter is liable in the pop icon's death because it negligently hired, retained or supervised Murray.

AEG's lawyers argue it was Jackson who chose, hired and supervised Murray -- and their company only dealt with Murray because Jackson demanded they pay for him to be his "This Is It" tour doctor.

Murray was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in Jackson's drug overdose death and he is serving a prison sentence.

Gongaware seemed to dance around some questions like Jackson doing a "Moonwalk," including when he explained an e-mail to his boss' assistant in which he said he was having nightmares and cold sweats about the concerts.

It was not an admission that he was concerned about Jackson's ability to do the show, he said. "It was just playing around, joking," with AEG President Tim Leiweke's assistant, Carla Garcia, he testified.

"Carla is an absolute babe and I was just chatting her up," he said.

While that testimony drew laughter in the court, it was unclear how jurors and the female judge viewed it, because Gongaware also acknowledged his girlfriend worked at AEG.

Gongaware's repetition of "I don't recall" several dozen times under questioning by Jackson lawyer Brian Panish eventually drew laughs from jurors, including when Panish began answering for him with that phrase.

The 'smoking gun'

Panish questioned Gongaware about an e-mail Jackson's lawyers call the "smoking gun," which they argue shows AEG Live executives used Murray's fear of losing his lucrative job as Jackson's personal physician to pressure him to have Jackson ready for rehearsals despite his fragile health.

Show director Kenny Ortega e-mailed Gongaware 11 days before Jackson's death expressing concerns that Murray had kept Jackson from a rehearsal the day before. Ortega also raised his own concerns about Jackson's health. Gongaware testified on Wednesday that he thought Ortega was "over-reacting."

His e-mail reply to Ortega read: "We want to remind (Murray) that it is AEG, not MJ, who is paying his salary. We want to remind him what is expected of him." Gongaware, in a video deposition played in court on the first day of the trial, said he could not remember writing the e-mail.

Panish on Wednesday played for jurors a section of Gongaware's deposition, recorded in December, in which Jackson lawyer Kevin Boyle questioned him about what he meant when he wrote to Ortega, "We want to remind him that it is AEG, not MJ, who is paying his salary."

Boyle: "Based on the assumptions that AEG is your company and MJ is Michael Jackson, do you have an understanding of what that means?"

Gongaware: "No, I don't understand it, because we weren't paying his salary."

Boyle: "So why would you write that?"

Gongaware: "I have no idea."

Boyle: "Now, let's go on to the next sentence. When you say 'his salary,' who are you talking about?"

Gongaware: "I don't know."

Boyle: "Oh, but how do you know you weren't paying his salary if you don't know who we're talking about?"

Gongaware: "I don't remember this e-mail."

Boyle: "Didn't you just testify that 'we weren't paying his salary'?"

Gongaware: "AEG?"

Boyle: "Yes. No. You just testified 'we weren't paying his salary.' You just testified to that a few seconds ago, right?"

Gongaware: "I guess."

Boyle: "Well, whose salary were you referring to? Dr. Murray?"

Gongaware: "Yes."

After Gongaware began recalling in court Wednesday what he meant in the e-mail, Panish suggested it may be a case of "repressed memories" where "someone doesn't remember something for three or four years."

"You didn't have any psychotherapy to remember what you wrote here?" Panish asked. "You didn't like get put to sleep? (Judge Yvette Palazuelos injected: "Hypnotized?") to see if you remembered this?

"No," Gongaware answered.

The Elvis connection

Gongaware's career as a concert promoter started with Elvis Presley's last tour. He testified that he met Jackson when he was with Presley manager Col. Tom Parker in Las Vegas.

Elvis' name came up in the trial on Tuesday as Panish questioned Gongaware about his knowledge of drug use during concert tours. He should have been able to recognize red flags signaling Jackson's drug use because of his experience with Presley and his time as Jackson's tour manager in the 1990s, the Jacksons contend.

An e-mail to a friend two weeks after Jackson's death supports their argument, the Jackson lawyers contend.

"I was working on the Elvis tour when he died so I kind of knew what to expect," Gongaware wrote. "Still quite a shock."

AEG lawyer Marvin Putnam later told reporters that Gongaware was referring to the public reaction to Jackson's death, not saying he expected Jackson would meet the same fate as Presley.

Presley collapsed in the bathroom of his Memphis, Tennessee, mansion -- Graceland -- on August 16, 1977, at age 42. While his death was ruled the result of an irregular heartbeat, the autopsy report was sealed amid accusations that the abuse of prescription drugs caused the problem.

Jackson died on June 25, 2009, at age 50. The coroner ruled his death was caused by a fatal combination of sedatives and the surgical anesthetic propofol. Murray told investigators he gave Jackson nightly infusions of propofol to treat his insomnia. He was convicted of involuntary manslaughter, sentenced to four years in prison and stripped of his medical license.

Gongaware -- who has worked as a tour promoter for 37 years for bands including Led Zeppelin, the Grateful Dead and many others -- testified that the only artist he ever knew who was using drugs on tour was Rick James.

Gongaware is currently the tour manager for the Rolling Stones North American tour.

Source: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Video of P Gong's deposition: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

by midangerous Thu May 30, 2013 4:17 pm

I found a couple CNN videos here:

AEG exec's memory strained about Michael Jackson's last days: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Michael Jackson Bombshell:

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

by **Admin** Thu May 30, 2013 5:28 pm

Thanks midangerous-great vids!

by ijustcan'tstoplovinguMJ Thu May 30, 2013 6:01 pm

thanks for all the trial updates MJLIM staff! we appreciate it verry much!

by **MJ Mod** Thu May 30, 2013 10:33 pm

Great job midangerous- thanks!

@IJCSLUMJ: thank you! We appreciate the support!

by **MJ Mod** Fri May 31, 2013 12:58 am

What killed Elvis? It's a question at Michael Jackson's death trial

By: Alan Duke
May 30, 2013

Los Angeles (CNN) -- Elvis Presley's death became a controversy at the Michael Jackson wrongful death trial as a man who promoted both artists' last tours testified.

AEG Live Co-CEO Paul Gongaware testified Wednesday that Presley died of a drug overdose, but when his own lawyer questioned him Thursday he changed his testimony to say Elvis died of a heart ailment.

Presley collapsed in the bathroom of his Memphis, Tennessee, mansion -- Graceland -- on August 16, 1977, at the age of 42. While his death was ruled the result of an irregular heartbeat, the autopsy report was sealed amid accusations that abuse of prescription drugs caused the problem.

How Presley died is relevant because Jackson lawyers argue Gongaware's experience as Elvis's promoter should have made him more aware of drug abuse by artists, including Michael Jackson.

He was in charge of producing Jackson's "This Is It" concert when Jackson died on June 25, 2009, at the age of 50. The coroner ruled his death was caused by a fatal combination of sedatives and the surgical anesthetic propofol.

Dr. Conrad Murray told investigators he gave Jackson nightly infusions of propofol to treat his insomnia. He was convicted of involuntary manslaughter, sentenced to four years in prison.

Jackson's mother and children are suing AEG Live, contending the concert promoter is liable in his death because it negligently hired, retained or supervised Dr. Murray.

AEG Live lawyers argue their executives had no way of knowing -- or reason to suspect -- that Jackson was abusing drugs as he prepared for the "This Is It" concerts they were promoting and producing.

"I had no idea" Jackson was using propofol in the weeks before his death, Gongaware testified.

Although he worked advance promotion on Elvis Presley's last tours -- under the direction of Presley manager Colonel Tom Parker -- Gongaware testified he never met Presley.

"Did you understand he had a problem with drugs?" AEG lawyer Marvin Putnam asked.

"I understood that later," Gongaware said. "There was a period of time when we didn't work. I didn't understand at the time, but I learned that it was a drug problem and the Colonel said he couldn't work."

Jackson lawyer Brian Panish confronted Gongaware with two e-mails he sent two weeks after Jackson's death in response to condolence messages from friends. They both read: "I was working on the Elvis tour when he died so I kind of knew what to expect. Still quite a shock."

But under questioning from Putnam, Gongaware said he didn't mean that he expected Jackson to die like Elvis. He was referring to the trauma of people losing their jobs because a tour is canceled, he said.

'I don't recall'

AEG's lawyer tried to rehabilitate Gongaware's credibility with jurors, who sometimes laughed at his repetition of "I don't recall" several dozen times under questioning by Panish.

After the jury left the courtroom Wednesday, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Yvette Palazuelas commented on the number of "I don't recall" responses. "We've had a lot of that," she said. "How much more of that?"

"Why could you not recall e-mails?" Putnam asked him Thursday.

"I had not reviewed them and had not seen them in years," Gongaware answered.

Some of the e-mails were new to him because he was so busy putting Jackson's tour together that he never read them, he said. "Mostly, it was just a time factor if it was something that didn't have to do with me."

Outside of court, Panish suggested it was Putnam's job as Gongaware's lawyer to prepare him by having him review e-mails before questioning.

CNN exclusively obtained video of Gongaware's deposition recorded in December and played this week for jurors.

Gongaware struggled in the deposition when Panish asked him about the e-mail Jackson lawyers call their "smoking gun" -- because it contradicts AEG's argument that they never hired or supervised Dr. Murray.

They say Gongaware's e-mail, sent 11 days before Jackson's death, shows AEG Live executives used Murray's fear of losing his lucrative job as Jackson's personal physician to pressure him to have Jackson ready for rehearsals despite his fragile health.

It was Gongaware's reply to an e-mail from show director Kenny Ortega expressing concerns that Murray had kept Jackson from a rehearsal the day before. Ortega also raised his own concerns about Jackson's health.

"We want to remind (Murray) that it is AEG, not MJ, who is paying his salary. We want to remind him what is expected of him," Gongaware wrote. But in his video deposition he said he could not remember writing it.

After conceding that he wrote it, Gongaware then seemed unable to explain what he meant by the e-mail.

"He needs cheeseburgers"

AEG Live's production manager for Jackson's tour e-mailed Gongaware 10 days before Jackson's death that perhaps what the singer needed to turn around his deteriorating health was to be feed some junk food: "He needs some cheeseburgers with a bunch of Wisconsin cheesehead bowlers... and a couple of brats and beers. Jeez."

John "Bugzee" Houghdahl wrote a more serious assessment of Jackson's condition four days later: "I have watched him deteriorate in front of my eyes over the last 8 weeks. He was able to do multiple 360 spins back in April. He'd fall on his *** if he tried now."

Gongaware testified that he disagreed with Houghdahl's opinion, saying he had no "particular concern" about Jackson's health and ability to perform.

MJ looked 'Skeletal'

AEG Live President Randy Phillips sent Gongaware an e-mail after Jackson's death to make sure he did not use certain rehearsal video in the "This Is It" documentary because it made Jackson look too thin:

"Make sure we take out the shots of MJ in that red leather jacket at the soundstage where the mini-movies were being filmed. He looked way too thin and skeletal."

Gongaware testified that he did not know why Phillips would ask that. "We didn't keep anything out based on what Randy wanted."

Another e-mail suggested Gongaware was concerned that musicians, dancers and singers who worked on the show might tell interviewers after Jackson's death that he was unhealthy at rehearsals.

"The only thing we ask is that they keep it positive and stress that MJ was active, engaged, and not the emaciated person some want to paint him as being," he wrote in an e-mail approving their interviews.

Gongaware is expected to remain on the witness stand through Monday.

Source: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

by WeAreTheWorld. Fri May 31, 2013 1:06 am

I read this in the tweets today and found it quite interesting. Gongaware I believe said he was in his 20s and worked with Elvis at the time of his death. I don't know it might just be me but it seems that maybe this sleazy company and it's owners, executives, etc., have done this before, not just with MJ, and have finally been caught. What I mean is the whole hiring doctors to control the artist at a point where money is owed to AEG. I really do hope if this has happened before with other artists that it will ALL be exposed and AEG will go down in history as one of the most despicable companies that ever existed and all involved in this will NEVER have a chance at a job anywhere at least here in the US ever again. Gongaware and the rest of these scumbags have lost every last sliver of credibility and believably with me and I'm sure millions of others not only in the Michael Jackson community, but around the world.

by **MJ Mod** Mon Jun 03, 2013 1:27 pm

AEG exec: I didn't know Michael Jackson abused drugs

By: Alan Duke
June 3, 2013

Los Angeles (CNN) -- Michael Jackson traveled with what amounted to a mini-clinic and an anesthesiologist who used a surgical anesthetic to put the singer to sleep after shows during his "HIStory" tour, sources close to Jackson told CNN just days after his death.

But Paul Gongaware testified Friday that he never saw indications Jackson used drugs or traveled with a doctor when he managed that tour in 1996 and 1997.

What Gongaware knew -- or didn't know -- about Jackson's drug use is a key issue as the Jackson wrongful death trial enters its sixth week Monday in Los Angeles.

The co-CEO of AEG Live -- the concert promotion company being sued by Jackson's mother and children -- returns for a fifth day of testimony Monday.

The Jackson family contends AEG Live is liable in Jackson's 2009 death because it negligently hired, retained or supervised Dr. Conrad Murray, who was convicted of involuntary manslaughter.

Gongaware was the top producer of Jackson's comeback concerts when the singer died of an overdose of the surgical anesthetic propofol. It was Gongaware who negotiated the deal to pay Dr. Murray $150,000 a month to be Jackson's physician for the "This Is It" tour.

Jackson lawyers argue that Gongaware should have known the hazards of hiring the doctor because of his personal experience with Jackson -- and his work with other artists, including on Elvis Presley's last tour.

AEG Live lawyers contend their executives had no way of knowing that Murray was using propofol to treat Jackson's insomnia because the singer was very good at keeping his "deepest, darkest secret."

"AEG knew nothing about this decade-long propofol use," AEG Live lawyer Marvin Putnam said in his opening statements. "They were a concert promoter. How could they know?"

Gongaware, under questioning by his own lawyer Friday, testified that he only became aware that Jackson was addicted to painkillers when the singer made a public announcement after his "Dangerous" tour abruptly ended so he could enter rehab in 1993.

He was a manager for the "Dangerous" tour, but only handled logistics and didn't travel with Jackson then, he said.

His job on the second half of the "HIStory" tour, however, carried more responsibilities and he worked closely with Jackson, he said.

Gongaware testified that he saw "no indication at all" that Jackson was using drugs during that tour. "I would be certain to notice it if that was the case."

Did Jackson have a doctor treating him during the "HIStory" tour, his lawyer asked.

"Not that I know of," he answered.

In fact, Jackson was "sensational" on stage, performing 10 to 12 shows a month, he said. Unlike in the "Dangerous" tour, he never canceled a show because of his health.

"He only missed one," he said. "That was when Princess Diana died. He heard about the accident, went to bed, woke up, found she passed away and it affected him deeply."

But an interview that Jackson gave to Barbara Walters weeks after Diana's death could help Jackson lawyers refute Gongaware's claim that no doctor traveled with the singer during the tour.

Walters asked Jackson about how he learned the news that his friend, the princess, had died.

"I woke up and my doctor gave me the news, and I fell back down in grief and I started to cry," Jackson said. "That's why the inner pain, the pain in my stomach and in my chest, so I said 'I cannot handle this. It's too much.'"

Jackson's statement that a doctor was at his bedside when he woke up the day of a scheduled "HIStory" show in Belgium is not the only evidence he did have a physician on the tour.

Dr. Neil Ratner, an anesthesiologist from New York, has acknowledged that he traveled with Jackson during part of the tour. He was at Munich, Germany, in July 1997 when a stage collapsed and Jackson suffered a back injury. It was two months before Diana's death.

Dr. Ratner declined to talk about his treatment of Jackson when CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta confronted him outside his Woodstock, New York, home in July 2009, although he did confirm that Jackson had trouble sleeping.

"It's really something I don't want to talk about right now," he told Dr. Gupta.

A source who was close to Michael Jackson told Gupta in 2009 that when Jackson had trouble sleeping that Dr. Ratner helped "take him down" and "bring him back up."

Ratner, who was convicted of insurance fraud and stripped of his license to practice medicine for three years in 2002, is on the witness list for the trial and has been questioned in a deposition by each side.

Debbie Rowe -- Jackson's former wife and the mother of his two oldest children -- will testify that she assisted in administering propofol to Jackson in the 1990s when she was a nurse, AEG Live's Putnam said on the opening day of the trial.

"She saw several doctors put Mr. Jackson to sleep in hotel rooms while on tour," Putnam said, including in Munich, London, Paris.

But Gongaware and others did not know, he said.

"The truth is Mr. Jackson fooled everyone," Putnam said about Jackson's propofol use. "He kept those who might have helped him at a distance and no one knew his deepest, darkest secret."

Jackson's ability to keep his private side private meant AEG executives could not see any red flags warning of Jackson's destruction, Putnam said.

"They didn't see this coming," he said. "They had no idea."

Putnam said Jackson family members -- including Janet and her famous siblings -- will testify about their failed attempts at intervention and their lack of knowledge about what was happening.

"If they didn't know what was going on, how could someone else think there was even a problem," he said.

But Jackson lawyers will argue that Gongaware, who closely watched expenses on the "HIStory" tour because it was losing money at one point, would have noticed spending on hotel rooms and fees for a doctor traveling with the tour.

Source: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

by midangerous Mon Jun 10, 2013 3:42 pm

Promoter: I slapped 'despondent' Michael Jackson

Los Angeles (CNN) -- AEG Live's CEO said he "slapped" and "screamed" at Michael Jackson because the promoter was "nerve-racked" before the public announcement of Jackson's comeback concerts.

Randy Phillips, testifying in the Jackson wrongful death trial, recounted that it was "a miracle" that a "drunk and despondent" Jackson finally appeared at the London event.

Phillips, who began his testimony on Tuesday, faces more questioning Monday as the trial enters its seventh week.

Michael Jackson's mother and children accuse concert promoter AEG Live of liability in Jackson's drug overdose death, claiming the agency negligently hired, retained or supervised Dr. Conrad Murray, the physician who was convicted of involuntary manslaughter.

Phillips and other AEG Live executives ignored "red flags" that should have alerted them that Jackson's health was at risk as they pressured him and his doctor to stop missing rehearsals as the "This Is It" tour premiere approached in the summer of 2009, Jackson lawyers argue.
AEG exec confronted at Jackson trial

Phillips feared MJ would sabotage his comeback tour

Jackson, not AEG Live, chose and controlled Murray, company lawyers argue. Although they negotiated a contract to pay Murray $150,000 a month to attend to Jackson, it was never fully executed since Jackson died before they signed, they contend.

AEG executives -- including Co-CEO Paul Gongaware, who managed Jackson's last two tours -- had no way of knowing that Jackson was abusing drugs, especially the surgical anesthetic propofol that the coroner ruled played the largest role in his death, AEG Live lawyers argue.

Promoter: Learned MJ went to rehab "just now"

Jackson made a highly publicized announcement in 1993 that he was ending his "Dangerous" tour early to enter a substance abuse rehab program because of an addiction to painkillers.

"I don't remember hearing it," Phillips testified.

"When's the first time you heard?" Jackson lawyer Brian Panish asked.

"Just now," Phillips responded.

Phillips said he didn't learned about it from a December 2008 news story focusing on Jackson's drug abuse and rehab, even though he sent it in an e-mail to Jackson's manager saying: "Have you read these stories? This reporter did a lot of research."

"I don't remember reading it," Phillips testified.

"Slapped him and screamed at him"

Phillips began worrying about Jackson backing out of the concert tour just a month after he signed the contract with AEG Live to promote and produce it and more than a week before the announcement.

"I was worried that we would have a mess, his career would be over," Phillips testified. "There were a lot of things I was worried about."

But instead of pulling the plug then, before millions of dollars were spent, AEG LIve chose to force Jackson ahead.

"Once we go on sale, which we have the right to do, he is locked," Gongaware wrote to Phillips.

Jackson, his children and manager Tohme Tohme boarded a private jet for the London announcement, but he was not ready when Phillips went to his hotel suite to escort him to the O2 Arena.

"MJ is locked in his room drunk and despondent. Tohme and I are trying to sober him up and get him to the press conference with his hair/makeup artist," Phillips told parent-company AEG CEO Tim Leiweke in an e-mail.

Phillips testified it was "a very tense situation" and "frankly, I created the tension in that room. Because I was so nerve-racked, OK, the time slipping away, and his career slipping away."

AEG was hosting thousands of Jackson fans and hundreds of journalists for the anticipated announcement, which would be seen live around the world.

"I screamed at him so loud the walls were shaking," Phillips wrote to Leiweke. "Tohme and I have dressed him, and they are finishing his hair, and then we are rushing to the O2. This is the scariest thing I have ever seen. He's an emotionally paralyzed mess, filled with self-loathing and doubt now that it is show time. He is scared to death. Right now I just want to get through this press conference."

Phillips e-mailed a man who was waited outside the hotel with a convoy of vehicles that he put Jackson in a cold shower and "just slapped him and screamed at him."

In court, Phillips downplayed his words as "an exaggeration."

"I slapped him on the butt," he testified, comparing it to what a football coach would do to a player.

Jackson arrived at the 02 more than two hours late to announce: "This is it. This is really it. This is the final curtain call. OK, I'll see you in July."

"An intervention"

"Now I have to get him on the stage. Scary!" Phillips wrote in an e-mail to another promoter.

Jackson lawyers contend this fear led AEG Live executives to take control of Jackson's life as he prepared in Los Angeles to premiere the tour in London in July of 2009.

Show producers sent warnings in mid-June that Jackson's health appeared to be failing.

Associate producer Alif Sankey testified earlier in the trial that she "had a very strong feeling that Michael was dying" because of his frail health.

She called show director Kenny Ortega after one rehearsal. "I kept saying that 'Michael is dying, he's dying, he's leaving us, he needs to be put in a hospital,'" Sankey said. "'Please do something. Please, please.' I kept saying that. I asked him why no one had seen what I had seen. He said he didn't know."

After Jackson failed to show up at several rehearsals in June -- or was unable to perform sometimes when he did appear -- Gongaware sent an e-mail to Phillips that Jackson lawyers call their "smoking gun."

They argue the message shows the executives used Murray's fear of losing his lucrative job as Jackson's personal physician to pressure him to have Jackson ready for rehearsals despite his fragile health. "We want to remind (Murray) that it is AEG, not MJ, who is paying his salary. We want to remind him what is expected of him," Gongaware wrote.

Gongaware testified earlier that he did not remember writing the e-mail and Phillips testified last week that he didn't remember reading it.

However, Phillips convened what he called "an intervention" at Jackson's home with Murray, Jackson and Ortega present.

A Los Angeles police detective summarized what Phillips told investigators about that meeting: "Randy (Phillips) stated that Kenny (Ortega) got in Michael's face, at which time Dr. Murray admonished Randy, stating, 'You're not a doctor. Butt out."

Asked about it in court, Phillips said the detective's summary is wrong. "That's not what I said," Phillips testified. "I told them something completely different than this. They just conflated the people and the things."

What actually happened was Murray "got into and admonished Kenny Ortega not to be an amateur physician and analyze Michael," Phillips said.

Phillips sent an e-mail after the meeting saying he had confidence in Murray, "who I am gaining immense respect for as I get to deal with him more."

"This doctor is extremely successful (we check everyone out) and does not need this gig, so he (is) totally unbiased and ethical," Phillips' e-mail said.

He conceded in court that no background check of Murray was conducted by AEG Live. Jackson lawyers argue that had it been done, they would have discovered Murray was in deep debt and dependent on the lucrative job.

Murray said he was infusing propofol into Jackson every night to treat his insomnia so Jackson would be rested for rehearsals.

Phillips contradicted Gongaware's earlier testimony that Jackson was under no contractual obligation to attend rehearsals. Phillips refused to advance money to help Jackson pay his staff days before his death because he believed the singer was "in an anticipatory breach" of his contract because he had missed rehearsals, he testified.

Key witnesses meet during trial

Phillips acknowledged that he and his lawyer met with Jackson's former manager Tohme Tohme -- another key witness in the trial -- last month. The meeting happened in the Polo Lounge at the Beverly Hills Hotel on May 4, at the end of the first week of testimony.

"I don't remember if it was the testimony in this case or what the lunch was about, but Marvin Putnam (AEG's lead lawyer in the trial) was at the lunch with me," Phillips said when asked about it by Panish.

He couldn't remember "100%" but they may have discussed Tohme's legal battle to get paid by Jackson's estate, he said.

"I don't remember what I ate that day," Phillips said.

"I didn't ask you what you ate," Panish replied. "I asked you what you talked about."

Judge: Beware being evasive

Panish's feisty exchanges with Phillips -- a successful music industry executive who dropped out of law school -- has forced Los Angeles County Judge Yvette Palazuelos to intervene.

"I can't jail somebody for not answering a question," Palazuelos said when Panish complained Phillips was being evasive. "There's only so much I can do."

She warned Phillips that jurors would see it for themselves.

"You give an answer, and you're not answering the question, the jury is going to get the impression that you're being evasive."

"I realize that," Phillips said.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Personal note: I don't believe a word of this! It makes me sick!

by corlista Mon Jun 10, 2013 6:51 pm

RT is a lying through his teeth. Same as Gongaware. They're guilty as sin and they know it. All the CYAing and "I don't remember"(s) in the world can't hide what they did. They really thought they could get away with this.

by ijustcan'tstoplovinguMJ Mon Jun 10, 2013 7:00 pm

they are lying "turds" (sorry trying to be nice) and they need to crawl back into the hole they came out of!

by WeAreTheWorld. Tue Jun 11, 2013 7:45 pm

Promoter's e-mail: Michael Jackson's dermatologist 'scares us to death'

By: Alan Duke
June 11, 2013

Los Angeles (CNN) -- AEG Live's CEO wrote two days before Michael Jackson died that a doctor Jackson was seeing "scares us to death because he is shooting him up with something," court testimony shows.

Randy Phillips' e-mail could contradict his earlier testimony that he had no idea Jackson was getting prescription drugs while he was preparing for his comeback concerts.

Phillips is on the witness stand for a fifth day Tuesday in the Jackson wrongful death trial, which is in its seventh week.

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Yvette Palazuelos sent jurors out of the courtroom at one point Monday afternoon so she could lecture Phillips about arguing with Jackson lawyer Brian Panish and appearing to evade his questions.

"Arguing with the lawyers is not going to help," Palazuelos told Phillips. "It's not going to help your case. It's not going to help anybody. It's lengthening your testimony. "

Jackson's mother and three children are suing AEG Live, saying the concert promoter is liable in Jackson's death because it hired, retained or supervised Dr. Conrad Murray, who was convicted of involuntary manslaughter.

Phillips and other AEG Live executives ignored "red flags" that should have alerted them that Jackson's health was at risk as they pressured him and his doctor to stop missing rehearsals as the "This Is It" tour premiere approached in the summer of 2009, Jackson lawyers argue.

Jackson, not AEG Live, chose and controlled Murray, company lawyers argue. Although they negotiated a contract to pay Murray $150,000 a month to attend to Jackson, it was never fully executed because Jackson died before they signed, they say.

AEG executives -- including Co-CEO Paul Gongaware, who had managed Jackson's last two tours -- had no way of knowing that Jackson was abusing drugs, especially the surgical anesthetic propofol, which the coroner ruled played the largest role in his death, AEG Live lawyers argue.

Murray told investigators he was infusing propofol into Jackson nearly every night to treat his insomnia so Jackson would be rested for rehearsals.

On Monday, Panish confronted Phillips about an e-mail exchange that he had two days before Jackson's death in which Phillips was asked if Dr. Arnold Klein was "on the list of doctors that will help get us from today to the opening night."

"He scares us to death because he is shooting him up with something," Phillips replied.

Michael Kane, who was Jackson's business manager, shared with Phillips that Klein's office sent him a $48,000 bill for Jackson's frequent visits to his Beverly Hills dermatology clinic in the months before his death.

Klein's invoice said Jackson had been treated with Restalyne, Botox and unidentified drug injections, Kane wrote to Phillips.

"There were a lot of bills for injections, I didn't know what it was," Phillips said in his deposition before the trial.

Klein or his staff injected Jackson with 6,500 milligrams of Demerol during the last three months of his life, according to documents and testimony at Murray's criminal trial.

"Since we owe him $48K and he wants payment, maybe I should stop paying him so he would stop shooting him up," Kane told Phillips. "I have the details of what he is doing."

It was unclear why Kane would share Jackson's medical records with an AEG Live executive since the company's lawyers insist they were not involved with and did not pry into Jackson's health care.

Phillips' testimony differs from CNN interview

Phillips met with Jackson, Dr. Murray and show director Kenny Ortega on June 20, 2009, after production manager John "Bugzee" Houghdahl sent an e-mail to producers titled "trouble at the Front."

"I have watched him deteriorate in front of my eyes over the last 8 weeks. He was able to do multiple 360 spins back in April. He'd fall on his *** if he tried now," Houghdahl wrote about Jackson.

Ortega sent Jackson home from a rehearsal the night before because of his strange behavior.

"He was a basket case and Kenny was concerned he would embarrass himself on stage, or worse yet -- get hurt," Houghdahl wrote. "The company is rehearsing right now, but the DOUBT is pervasive."

Phillips' testimony about the meeting this week contradicts what he told CNN's Don Lemon in 2010, just before the first anniversary of Jackson's death.

He testified Monday that it was a "highly charged situation" because of producers' concerns about Jackson's readiness for the show just three weeks away, although he downplayed the drama in the CNN interview.

Contrary to the production manager's e-mail, Phillips told CNN there was no concern about Jackson's dancing. "You know, there was very little to worry about him performing."

"Kenny felt that Michael was taking this show a little too nonchalantly," Phillips told CNN.

Phillips testified Monday that the meeting with Dr. Murray and Jackson -- which he called "an intervention" in an e-mail -- was called to find out what was wrong with Jackson.

But in the CNN interview, Phillips denied it was AEG Live who wanted Murray to be there. "Michael brought him," he said. "That was Michael's choice. He brought Dr. Murray into the meeting."

"I didn't invite Dr. Murray into the meeting," Phillips said in response to a follow up question by Lemon. "Michael brought Dr. Murray into the meeting."

"Why would Jackson feel he needed his doctor to meet with the concert promoters?" Lemon asked.

"Because he was using Dr. Murray like he would a manager or a representative," Phillips said. "He wanted him to speak for him."

"Did that seem odd to you?" Lemon asked.

"No, nothing seems odd in Michael world," he said.

Source: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

by WeAreTheWorld. Wed Jun 12, 2013 9:46 pm

'Miracle' of Michael Jackson's concert announcement described

By: Alan Duke
June 12, 2013

Los Angeles (CNN) -- A drunk, despondent and "emotionally paralyzed" Michael Jackson evolved into the confident superstar Michael Jackson as he stepped on stage to announce his comeback concerts, a promoter testified Wednesday.

AEG Live CEO Randy Phillips, testifying for a sixth day in the Michael Jackson wrongful death trial, explained why he sent e-mails to colleagues saying what he went through to pull off the London event in 2009 was "the scariest thing I have ever seen."

Phillips now calls it "The Miracle of March 5th."

It was a day when Phillips slapped Jackson and screamed at him so loud the walls of his hotel room shook, he testified.

Jackson's mother and three children are suing AEG Live, contending the concert promoter is liable for his death because it negligently hired, retained or supervised Dr. Conrad Murray.

AEG Live lawyers contend Jackson, not the company, chose, hired and supervised Murray. They argue AEG Live executives had no way of knowing Murray was using a surgical anesthetic in Jackson's home.

Murray, who told police he used the surgical anesthetic propofol nightly to treat Jackson's insomnia, was convicted of involuntary manslaughter for Jackson's death, which the coroner ruled was caused by a propofol overdose.

"We have a little issue"

Phillips had doubts Jackson would show up for the London announcement because he couldn't reach him a week before the scheduled date. The singer was not returning his manager's calls because he was upset that Tohme Tohme had planned to auction off some of his belongings. Phillips couldn't call Jackson directly -- only through Tohme, he said.

"I was flying blind," Phillips testified. "I didn't know what was happening in Michael's camp."

Phillips was starting to worry about Jackson breaking his contract with AEG Live for his "This Is It" concerts. "If there ever was a time to stop the process," it was then in late February, he testified. "That's when we had the least amount of risk and the greatest amount of collateral."

But Phillips decided to press ahead, even if Jackson failed to get on the private jet for London.

Jackson arrived with his children, Tohme, a bodyguard, and a nanny who also did his hair and makeup on March 4, 2009. Phillips, who had to stop in Miami for the launch of Britney Spear's "Circus" tour, landed in London on March 5, just hours before the press event was set to begin.

Phillips went to the Lanesborough Hotel, where Jackson and Tohme had adjacent suites on the first floor. He sat on Tohme's couch watching CNN while the manager checked on Jackson, he testified.

"I was starting to freak out," after a while, he said. Getting from the hotel to the O2 Arena on the east end of London could take 90 minutes since "traffic is mind-boggling," he said.

After more waiting, "I am completely freaking out," Phillips said. "I was in the hallway pacing back and forth."

"We have a little issue," Tohme eventually told him, he testified. "Michael got drunk."

Tohme returned to Jackson's suite, leaving an anxious Phillips in the hotel hallway, he said.

"I had an earpiece in my ear, Blackberry in my hand, and I was typing e-mails at the same time I was talking and receiving e-mails from a lot of very concerned people at the O2," Phillips testified.

One of those e-mails was to his boss -- parent company AEG CEO Tim Leiweke:

"MJ is locked in his room drunk and despondent. Tohme and I are trying to sober him up and get him to the press conference with his hairdresser/makeup artist."

Leiweke responded: "Are you kidding me?"

"Sweating bullets"

There were 3,000 fans and 350 news organizations waiting at the O2 for Jackson. "Time was ticking away," he testified. "I was sweating bullets."

Phillips eventually talked his way past bodyguard Alberto Alvarez and into Jackson's room, where he saw an empty liquor bottle on the floor by his couch.

Jackson, wearing a robe and pants, "looked hung over," Phillips testified.

"I said 'Michael, are you OK?'" he said. "He said to me that he was really concerned that there wouldn't be anyone there and maybe this would be a bust."

"Trust me, Michael," Phillips said he told him. "You're quite wrong. You have over 3,000 adoring fans, many who have camped out over night."

Phillips helped Jackson pick out the black shirt he wore to the event. But he reached his breaking point when Jackson could not get his armband fastened to his sleeve. After 10 minutes, the hotel engineer was called to help, he said.

"It was more than I could take," Phillips testified.

Phillip's next e-mail to his boss suggested his tone with Jackson was anything but soothing:

"I screamed at him so loud the walls are shaking," Phillips said in another e-mail to Leiweke. "Tohme and I have dressed him and they are finishing his hair. Then we are rushing to the O2. This is the scariest thing I have ever seen. He's an emotionally paralyzed mess, filled with self-loathing and doubt now that it is show time. He is scared to death. Right now I just want to get through this press conference."

Phillips vented his frustration with more than words.

"I just slapped him and screamed at him louder that I did with Arthur Cassell," he wrote to the person waiting outside the hotel with a Ford Expedition SUV and bus to take Jackson's entourage to the O2.

Cassell is someone he once screamed at over a booking issue with Lionel Richie, he said in court.

"I slapped him on the butt," like a football coach would with a player, he testified.

"A drama queen"

Phillips now takes the blame for letting the situation with Jackson get out of control.

"I admit to being a bit of a drama queen," Phillips testified. "I was so nervous, I created so much tension in the room, you could cut the tension with a knife."

When they finally began the ride to the O2, Phillips "went into jester mode to try to lighten up the whole thing," he testified. It became "a very funny ride" with Jackson joking. "He was actually quite funny in the van."

"He kept saying to me 'You look great, you've lost a lot of weight,'" although he was "his heaviest ever," Phillips said, "After the 10th time, I said 'Michael, you would have lost weight if you were pacing in the hotel waiting for you to leave.'"

The thousands of fans at the O2 and millions more around the world watched live video from helicopters following Jackson's convoy making its way to the O2.

"That was a godsend," because it created drama that added to the interest in the announcement, Phillips testified. "In an odd way, it created more anticipation and made it a bigger event as people doubted whether or not it was going to happen."

Once at the O2, Phillips realized Jackson had not written a script. What Jackson read off the teleprompter was written by Phillips as he followed Jackson to the podium.

"This is it. This is really it. This is the final curtain call. OK, I'll see you in July."

"There was Michael Jackson"

As Jackson walked up the steps to the stage, embraced by the shouts of love from thousands of fans, his evolution was complete. Phillips likened the change to the "chart of homo sapiens."

"He start a little hunched over and when he went through that curtain, there was Michael Jackson," Phillips said.

Jackson "was elated" with the reception and immediately flew back to the United States to begin preparations for his comeback concerts set to start four months later, he said.

A week before the singer was scheduled to return to London, he was dead.

Source: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

by WeAreTheWorld. Thu Jun 13, 2013 3:39 pm

Days before death, executive asked: Does Michael Jackson need a straitjacket?

By: Alan Duke
June 13, 2013

Los Angeles (CNN) -- A top executive at AEG Live's parent company asked days before Michael Jackson's death if the singer was having big problems -- enough to warrant a straitjacket, according to testimony from Jackson's wrongful death trial.

CNN obtained the video testimony played for jurors this week at the trial, which is in its seventh week in Los Angeles.

"Trouble with MJ. Big trouble," AEG CEO Tim Leiweke wrote to AEG Chief Financial Officer Dan Beckerman on the night of June 20, 2009. "He is having a mental breakdown."

Beckerman, who became AEG's CEO after Leiweke left this year, replied: "I figured something might be wrong given how jittery Randy has been this week. Is it 'pre-show nerves' bad or 'get a straight jacket/call our insurance carrier' bad?"

The reply was referring to AEG Live CEO Randy Phillips.

On June 25, Jackson died from what a coroner ruled was an overdose of the surgical anesthetic propofol administered by Dr. Conrad Murray. Two weeks after that, Jackson's "This Is It" comeback tour, produced and promoted by AEG Live, had been set to launch in London.

Jackson's mother and three children are suing AEG Live, the concert promotion branch of AEG, arguing the company is liable for his death because it negligently hired, retained or supervised Murray. They say executives pressured Jackson to attend rehearsals despite his deteriorating health and ignored red flags that should have warned them about the dangers posed by Murray.

AEG Live lawyers say that it was Jackson who chose and controlled Murray and that company executives had no way of knowing he was giving Jackson nightly infusions of propofol to treat his insomnia.

The Leiweke-Beckerman e-mail exchange followed an "intervention" that Phillips held at Jackson's home to find out what was wrong with the singer, according to testimony.

Leiweke forwarded to Beckerman an e-mail chain between Phillips, show director Kenny Ortega and others involved in the production.

Production manager John "Bugzee" Houghdahl started the exchange about Jackson, which he titled "trouble at the Front."

"I have watched him deteriorate in front of my eyes over the last 8 weeks. He was able to do multiple 360 spins back in April. He'd fall on his *** if he tried now," Houghdahl wrote about Jackson.

AEG's lawyer showed jurors a clip Thursday of Jackson performing several 360-degree spins while rehearsing his song "Billie Jean." It was not clear what day it was recorded.

Ortega had sent Jackson home from a rehearsal the night of June 19, 2009 because of his strange behavior.

"He was a basket case and Kenny was concerned he would embarrass himself on stage, or worse yet -- get hurt," Houghdahl wrote. "The company is rehearsing right now, but the DOUBT is pervasive."

Jackson lawyer Kevin Boyle asked Leiweke during his deposition why he wrote to Beckerman that there was "big trouble" with Michael Jackson.

"We were aware that he had missed several rehearsals," Leiweke said.

He said he couldn't remember if he was referring to Jackson or Phillips when he wrote to Beckerman that "He is having a mental breakdown."

In a video of his deposition played for jurors, Beckerman said: "I was just trying to understand: Is it stage fright and the show will go on, or is it, 'I can't go through this; I'm not going to step on stage'?"

Jackson stepped on stage just two more times in his life after that day. His rehearsals at the Staples Center on June 23 and 24 were filmed and became the basis for the "This Is It" documentary of his last months.

Source: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

by midangerous Mon Jun 17, 2013 9:24 pm

Expert: Promoter deal with Michael Jackson's doctor 'highly inappropriate' expert says

Los Angeles (CNN) -- AEG Live's negotiations with a doctor to treat Michael Jackson were "highly inappropriate," a music industry veteran testified Monday.

The concert promoter's agreement to pay Dr. Conrad Murray $150,000 a month during Jackson's comeback tour set up an "egregious" conflict of interest in which the physician was beholden to the company and himself before Jackson's interests, he testified.
David Berman, who once headed Capitol Records and worked for decades as an entertainment lawyer, was brought into court as an expert witness by Jackson's mother and children in their wrongful death lawsuit against AEG Live.

The tiny Los Angeles courtroom became less crowded Monday after the city fire marshal, acting on a complaint from an unidentified party, ordered that fewer people be allowed inside, according to a court spokesman.

Just one seat is allotted to the public and the number of journalists allowed inside was reduced to just eight at a time under the new limits. The 30 seats set aside for lawyers were not reduced.
The judge rejected CNN's request to televise the trial in March, but she has allowed a small camera and microphone to be focused on the witness so that people in another courtroom can watch the trial.
Michael Jackson's longtime personal chef Kai Chase, who was in his home when he died, is set to testify Tuesday.
Also coming up, the Jackson lawyers will show jurors the "This Is It" documentary produced using rehearsal video.
The wrongful death trial, which is in its eighth week, is expected to last until August, according to lawyers. Jackson lawyer Brian Panish estimated Monday that he would call his last witness around July 8.
One of the four alternative jurors asked the judge to dismiss him from the case Monday because he has sold his Los Angeles home and must move to Atlanta. "If we are only a third of the way through there's no way I can make it," he said.

Judge Yvette Palazuelos said it is"highly likely I'm going to excuse you," but she will confer with lawyers from both sides before deciding.

The Jackson lawsuit accuses AEG Live of liability in Michael Jackson's death because it negligently hired, retained or supervised Dr. Murray, who was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in Jackson's death.

Murray told police he used the surgical anesthetic propofol to treat Jackson's insomnia so he could rest for rehearsals for his "This Is It" concerts. The coroner ruled Jackson's death was from an overdose of the drug.

AEG Live lawyers argue it was Jackson who chose and supervised Murray. They contend AEG executives had no way of knowing the doctor was using propofol on Jackson.
Berman, who is paid $500 an hour by the Jacksons as an expert witness, said he reviewed "an enormous amount" of material, including an "extraordinary number of e-mails," to reach his conclusions that Murray's hiring was "highly inappropriate and "highly unusual."
"I have never heard of it being done, and indeed, it is my understanding up until these case, AEG had never done it," Berman testified, referring to a concert promoter hiring a doctor for an artist.

"It creates an inherent conflict of interest on the part of the physician," Berman said. "The physician has dual obligations to the patient and the entity that is engaging them and who is paying his compensation. That, in of itself, is a conflict. It's a more egregious conflict in the circumstances in this case."

Berman was critical of AEG Live CEO Randy Phillips' response to an e-mail from show director Kenny Ortega warning five days before Jackson's death about the singer's "continued physical weakening ad deepening emotional state."

"Kenny, it is critical that neither you, me, or anyone around this show become amateur psychologists or physicians," Phillips wrote "I had a lengthy conversation with Dr. Murray, who I am gaining immense respect for as I get to deal with him more. He said that Michael is not only physically equipped to perform and that discouraging him to, will hasten his decline instead of stopping it. Dr. Murray also reiterated that he is mentally able to and was speaking to me from the house where he had spent the morning with MJ. This doctor is extremely successful (we check everyone out) and does not need this gig so he totally unbiased and ethical."

Phillips' response is "very telling on a number of levels," Berman said. "He is somewhat dismissive of Mr. Ortega's concerns."

"There are serious problems with that statement because he recognizes the potential of the doctor not being ethical and unbiased if he does need the gig and has financial problems," he said.

It shows AEG Live was aware of the potential for a conflict, Berman testified. "When, in fact, Dr. Murray was in dire financial straits at the time and did need the gig."
A Los Angeles Police detective testified earlier in the trial that Murray was more than $1 million in debt and that his Las Vegas medical clinic faced eviction in the months before he was hired to treat Jackson.

The contractual relationship between AEG Live and Dr. Murray was "not unlike the team doctor for a football team, where the quarterback is injured and the doctor comes to the medical conclusion that the quarterback should be taken out of the game for a period of weeks, but the team doesn't want him out," Berman said. "There is an inherent conflict."
Berman also noted that the contract said AEG Live could terminate Murray if concerts were postponed or canceled.

"The fact that if the tour is even just postponed that AEG Live has the ability to cease any further compensation for Dr. Murray, giving Dr. Murray even greater conflict of interest since he was in financial dire straits, he did need this gig and if it was postponed, which could hypothetically be in the best interest of Michael Jackson, he ran the risk of losing any further compensation," he testified.

Berman was asked about the so-called "smoking gun" e-mail sent by AEG Live Co-CEO Paul Gongaware ahead of a planned meeting with Dr. Murray: "We want to remind him that it is AEG, not MJ, who is paying his salary. We want him to understand what is expected of him."

The e-mail indicates AEG Live executives wanted "to control, to some extent, Dr. Murray" by reminding him they are paying his salary, Berman said.
Is that reasonable, he was asked. "Certainly not," Berman said. "It is indicative of the fact that they want to control the services of Dr. Murray, as opposed to the artist."
Berman testified that AEG Live executives should have recognized there could be a problem with Dr. Murray when he initially asked for $5 million for one year as Jackson's doctor. "That is a pretty bizarre amount," he said.

The eventual agreement to pay the doctor $150,000 a month was still "an exorbitant amount, more than any other person on the tour was paid," he said. "Even more of a red flag since AEG was aware of another doctor who was willing to take the job for $40,000 a month."

"It's indicative of something out of whack," Berman testified.
Berman also said it was "inappropriate" for AEG Live to not loop in any Jackson lawyer or manager into the negotiations with Murray. "I find that extremely unusual," he testified.
Murray signed the contract and faxed it back to AEG Live on June 24, 2009 -- a day before Jackson's death. But AEG Live's executives never signed and the signature space for Jackson's signature was also left blank.

"That is not inconsistent with this being a valid oral agreement," Berman said.
Berman testified the e-mails confirmed an oral agreement was in place. It is a common practice in the music industry for oral agreements to be put in writing long after the services are commenced, he said.

He pointed to the certification of sponsorship AEG submitted to the British government for Murray to practice in England as evidence they considered him hired.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

by WeAreTheWorld. Fri Jun 21, 2013 3:21 pm

Expert: Michael Jackson went 60 days without real sleep
By: Alan Duke
June 21, 2013

Los Angeles (CNN) -- Michael Jackson died while preparing to set a world record for the most successful concert run, but he unknowingly set another record that led to his death.

Jackson may be the only human ever to go two months without REM -- rapid eye movement -- sleep, which is vital to keep the brain and body alive. The 60 nights of propofol infusions Dr. Conrad Murray said he gave Jackson to treat his insomnia is something a sleep expert says no one had ever undergone.

"The symptoms that Mr. Jackson was exhibiting were consistent with what someone might expect to see of someone suffering from total sleep deprivation over a chronic period," Dr. Charles Czeisler, a Harvard Medical School sleep expert, testified Friday at the wrongful-death trial of concert promoter AEG LIve.

The symptoms documented by e-mails among show producers and testimony from his chef, hairstylist and choreographers included his inability to do standard dances or remember words to songs he sang for decades, paranoia, talking to himself and hearing voices, and severe weight loss, Czeisler said.

"I believe that that constellation of symptoms was more probably than not induced by total sleep deprivation over a chronic period," he testified.

Propofol disrupts the normal sleep cycle and offers no REM sleep, yet it leaves a patient feeling refreshed as if they had experienced genuine sleep, according to Czeisler.

If the singer had not died on June 25, 2009, of an overdose of the surgical anesthetic, the lack of REM sleep may have taken his life within days anyway, according Czeisler's testimony Friday.

Lab rats die after five weeks of getting no REM sleep, he said. It was never tried on a human until Murray gave Jackson nightly propofol infusions for two months.

Translating that to a human, Czeisler estimated, Jackson would have died before his 80th day of propofol infusions. Murray told police he had given it to him for 60 nights before trying to wean him off it on June 22, 2009 -- three days before his death.

Czeisler -- who serves as a sleep consultant to NASA, the CIA and the Rolling Stones -- testified Thursday that the "drug-induced coma" induced by propofol leaves a patient with the same refreshed feeling of a good sleep but without the benefits that genuine sleep delivers in repairing brain cells and the body.

"It would be like eating some sort of cellulose pellets instead of dinner," he said. "Your stomach would be full, and you would not be hungry, but it would be zero calories and not fulfill any of your nutrition needs."

Depriving someone of REM sleep for a long period of time makes them paranoid, anxiety-filled, depressed, unable to learn, distracted and sloppy, Czeisler testified. They lose their balance and appetite while their physical reflexes get 10 times slower and their emotional responses 10 times stronger, he said.

Those symptoms are strikingly similar to descriptions of Jackson in his last weeks, as described in e-mails from show producers and testimony by witnesses in the trial.

Jackson's mother and children are suing AEG Live, contending that the company is liable in his death because it hired, retained or supervised Murray, who was convicted of involuntary manslaughter. They argue that the promoter pressured Murray to get Jackson to rehearsals while failing to get Jackson help despite numerous red flags warning that he was in trouble.

AEG Live lawyers contend that it was Jackson who chose, hired and supervised Murray, and their executives had no way of knowing about the dangerous propofol treatments administered in the privacy of Jackson's rented mansion.

A very long question

Czeisler was back on the witness stand Friday to answer a question that was asked just as court ended Thursday. Jackson lawyer Michael Koskoff asked his expert what may also be a record-breaker in a trial: a 15-minute-long hypothetical question.

He was asked to render an opinion based on a long list of circumstances presented so far in the trial about Jackson's condition and behavior, including:

• That Murray administered propofol to Jackson 60 consecutive nights before June 22, 2009.

• That Murray began to wean Jackson from propofol on June 22, 2009, and gave him none of the drug on June 23.

• That a paramedic who tried to revive him the day he died initially assumed he was a hospice patient.

• That show producers reported Jackson became progressively thinner and paranoid and was talking to himself in his final weeks.

• That the production manager warned that Jackson had deteriorated over eight weeks, was "a basket case" who he feared might hurt himself on stage and could not do the multiple 360-degree spins that he was known for.

• That show director Kenny Ortega wrote that Jackson was having trouble "grasping the work" at rehearsals and needed psychiatric help.

• That Jackson needed a teleprompter to remember the words to songs he had sung many times before over several decades.

• That show workers reported the singer was talking to himself and repeatedly saying that "God is talking to me."

• That Jackson was suffering severe chills on a summer day in Los Angeles and his skin was cold as ice to the touch.

Jackson lawyers revised the question Friday morning after AEG Live lawyers objected to the information about Murray's nightly propofol treatments, since it was derived only from the doctor's statement to police after Jackson's death. The judge previously ruled that statement inadmissible.

Instead, they brought up evidence that Murray ordered more than four gallons of propofol between April and June, which Czeisler said equaled 155,000 milliliters of the drug. An anesthesiologist uses between 20 and 30 milliliters to induce a coma for surgery, he said.

The expert testified that his review of Jackson's medical records convinced him that the singer suffered a chronic sleep disorder that "was greatly exaggerated" while he was on tour or preparing for a tour.

Jackson died just two weeks before he would have traveled to London for the premiere of his "This Is It" comeback concerts, produced and promoted by AEG Live.

A lecture on sleep

Jurors appeared quite interested as Czeisler lectured them Thursday on his sleep research, including an explanation of circadian rhythm: the internal clock in the brain that controls the timing of when we sleep and wake and the timing of the release of hormones

"That's why we sleep at night and are awake in the day," he said.

Your brain needs sleep to repair and maintain its neurons every night, he said.

Blood cells cycle out every few weeks, but brain cells are for a lifetime, he said.

"Like a computer, the brain has to go offline to maintain cells that we keep for life, since we don't make more," he said. "Sleep is the repair and maintenance of the brain cells."

An adult should get seven to eight hours of sleep each night to allow for enough sleep cycles, he said.

You "prune out" unimportant neuron connections and consolidate important ones during your "slow-eyed sleep" each night, he said. Those connections -- which is the information you have acquired during the day -- are consolidated by the REM sleep cycle. Your eyes actually dart back and forth rapidly during REM sleep.

"In REM, we are integrating the memories that we have stored during slow-eyed sleep, integrating memories with previous life experiences," he said. "We are able to make sense of things that we may not have understood while awake."

Learning and memory happen when you are asleep, he said. A laboratory mouse rehearses a path through a maze to get to a piece of cheese while asleep.

The area of a basketball player's brain that is used to shoot a ball will have much greater slow-eyed sleep period since there is more for it to store, he said. Players shoot better after sleep.

The Portland Trailblazers consulted with him after they lost a series of East Coast basketball games, he said. He was able to give their players strategies for being sharper when traveling across time zones.

He's worked with the Rolling Stones on their sleep problems, he said. Musicians are vulnerable since they are often traveling across time zones and usually "all keyed up" to perform at night, he said.

Czeisler developed a program for NASA to help astronauts deal with sleep issues in orbit, where they have a sunrise and sunset every 90 minutes.

Other clients include major industries that are concerned about night shift workers falling asleep on the job, the CIA, the Secret Service and the U.S. Air Force, he said.

Jackson lawyers argue that AEG Live should have consulted a sleep expert like Czeisler for Jackson instead of hiring Murray -- a cardiologist -- for $150,000 to treat the artist.

The trial ends its eighth week in a Los Angeles courtroom Friday. Lawyers estimate that the case will conclude in early August.

Source: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

by WeAreTheWorld. Tue Jun 25, 2013 12:39 am

Michael Jackson's son to testify about father's death

June 24, 2013
By: Alan Duke

Los Angeles (CNN) -- Four years after Michael Jackson died, his oldest son is ready to tell a jury about the last days of his life.

Prince Jackson, now 16, was 12 when he followed an ambulance carrying his father to Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center on the afternoon of June 25, 2009.

On Monday, in the Jackson family's wrongful death lawsuit, Jackson lawyers informed AEG Live attorneys that Prince will be the next witness after a doctor who is an expert in medical conflicts of interest completes his testimony Tuesday.

That would likely put Prince on the stand Wednesday, a day after the fourth anniversary of his father's death.

Prince, Paris and Blanket Jackson and their grandmother Katherine Jackson are suing AEG Live, accusing their father's last concert promoter of negligently hiring, retaining or supervising Dr. Conrad Murray, who was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in Jackson's death.

Jackson lawyers argue that the promoter and producer of the "This Is It" shows pressured Murray to get Jackson to rehearsals but failed to get Jackson help despite numerous red flags that he was in trouble.

Murray told police he used the surgical anesthetic propofol nearly every night for two months to treat Jackson's insomnia. The coroner ruled that an overdose of propofol killed him.

AEG Live lawyers argue that Jackson chose and supervised Murray and that their executives had no way of knowing the doctor was using the dangerous treatment.

A medical conflict of interest

Dr. Gordon Matheson, the director of the sports medicine department at Stanford University, testified as an expert in medical conflicts of interest Monday.

After reviewing testimony and evidence in the case, Matheson concluded that AEG Live created a conflict of interest because the contract it negotiated with Murray to serve as Jackson's personal doctor for $150,000 a month "was likely to lead to poor medical decisions."

Matheson, the team doctor for Stanford's athletic department, compared it to a football coach telling a team doctor on the sidelines in the fourth quarter of a big game that a star quarterback has to go back in the game despite a suspected concussion.

Murray, who had closed his clinics to take the job and was $1 million in debt, would be inclined not to resist the AEG Live executives' pressure to get Jackson to rehearsals despite evidence of his failing health, Matheson testified.

Murray himself was conflicted because the negotiated contract was structured so that he answered to AEG, but it also could be canceled if the tour was canceled, he said. "I think that conflict played out as Michael Jackson's health began to deteriorate."

E-mails from the show director Kenny Ortega and production manager John "Bugzee" Hougdahl warned AEG executives of Jackson's deterioration during June 2009, including indications he was unable to do some of his trademark dances or remember lyrics to songs he had sung for decades.

His makeup artist and a choreographer testified about Jackson's paranoia, his talking to himself and hearing voices, and his severe weight loss.

Associate producer Alif Sankey testified that she "had a very strong feeling that Michael was dying" after a rehearsal 11 days before his death.

"I was screaming into the phone at that point," Sankey testified. "I said he needs to be put in the hospital now."

Lost battle for sleep

A Harvard sleep expert testified last week that the nightly propofol treatments likely interrupted Jackson's sleep cycle, robbing him of REM -- rapid eye movement -- sleep, which is vital to keeping the brain and body alive.

"The symptoms that Mr. Jackson was exhibiting were consistent with what someone might expect to see of someone suffering from total sleep deprivation over a chronic period," Dr. Charles Czeisler, a Harvard Medical School sleep expert, testified Friday at the trial.

If the singer had not died on June 25, 2009, of a propofol overdose, the lack of REM sleep may have taken his life within days anyway, according Czeisler's testimony Friday.

Lab rats die after five weeks of getting no REM sleep, he said. It was never tried on a human until Murray gave Jackson nightly propofol infusions for two months.

Prince to testify

Prince will be the only one of Jackson's three children who will appear in court, although the video of Paris' deposition over two days in March will be seen at some point during the AEG Live defense presentation. The company compelled her testimony, calling her a key witness to her father's dealings with Murray and to her own relationship with her father.

Jackson lawyers informed the court last week that Paris, 15, would not be available to testify in person because she is hospitalized for psychiatric treatment after a suicide attempt earlier this month.

In testimony last week, chef Kai Chase recalled how devastated Paris was in the first moments at home when she realized something was very wrong with her father.

"We were literally pulling her by her ankles down the stairs as she was trying to go back up, screaming 'Daddy, Daddy, Daddy!'" Chase testified.

Paris made millions cry two weeks later when she spoke at the public memorial for Jackson.

"Ever since I was born, Daddy has been the best father you could ever imagine," she said. "And I just want to say that I love him so much."

Jackson confided in his son about his business dealings at an early age. His testimony is expected to include revelations about what his father told him in his last weeks about whom he trusted and distrusted.

"Prince has always been, even at 12, the little man -- daddy's little man," Chase testified. "He wanted his father to be very proud of him, which Michael was."

"The weight of the world is on his shoulders, the eldest, big brother and father figure to his siblings," Chase testified. "It's a lot for him, growing, liking girls. He wishes his father was here to give him advice. It's devastating to him."

Life after his death

Jackson died just two weeks before he was to travel with Prince, Paris and Blanket to London where 50 concerts were scheduled over the next 10 months. Their father told them they would go on a long world tour after the London shows, which they were excited about, Paris said in her deposition.

After the tour, Jackson intended to buy a mansion in Las Vegas to serve as a base while he concentrated on making movies, his children said. To prepare them, Jackson hired a film professor from the University of Southern California to teach them movie-making techniques in their home school.

With their father gone, the children moved in with their grandmother in the same Los Angeles home where Michael Jackson lived at a teen. The veil of privacy -- which included wearing masks when in public with their father -- was soon replaced by occasional public appearances to honor their father.

The children spoke at the Grammys, a Hollywood Boulevard dedication ceremony, a tribute concert and to Oprah Winfrey. In each event, they appeared poised beyond their years.

The two oldest enrolled in a private school, a major change from the home tutoring their father provided.

Prince and Paris have both begun exploring careers in entertainment.

Prince worked several days as a "special correspondent" for "Entertainment Tonight" and acted in an episode of the television show "90210." Aunt La Toya Jackson arranged the jobs for him.

Paris signed up with an A-list Hollywood manager to help with her acting career earlier this year, but that's on hold while she is being treated.

Blanket, whose nickname came from the blanket his father often covered him with in public, is still taught at home, which is now a big hilltop house in a gated Calabasas, California, community.

"He does dance moves like his father," according to Chase, who was rehired as the children's chef last year.

Blanket, now 11, does "a lot of remembering what daddy did, and it's constant nonstop talking of him and his father's relationship together," Chase testified last week. He often wears a T-shirt from the Cirque du Soleil "Immortal" show based on his father's music, Chase said. "He wears it constantly."

The trial, in its ninth week in a Los Angeles courtroom, is expected to last into August, according to lawyers on both sides.

Source: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

by WeAreTheWorld. Wed Jun 26, 2013 3:04 pm

'They're going to kill me,' Michael Jackson told son

By: Alan Duke
June 26, 2013

Los Angeles (CNN) -- Michael Jackson often cried after talking to AEG Live executives as he prepared for his comeback concerts, his oldest son testified Wednesday.

"After he got off the phone, he would cry," Prince Jackson testified. "He would say 'They're going to kill me, they're going to kill me.'"

His father told him he was talking about AEG LIve CEO Randy Phillips and his ex-manager, Dr. Tohme Tohme, Prince said.

Prince, 16, began his testimony Wednesday morning in his family's wrongful death lawsuit against Jackson's last concert promoter, AEG Live.

His first 30 minutes on the stand were filled with videos and photographs of Jackson with his children, but then the questioning by Jackson lawyer Brian Panish focused on the last weeks of his father's life.

Prince testified that Phillips visited Jackson's rented Los Angeles mansion and spoke aggressively to Dr. Conrad Murray the night before his father's death.

"He was grabbing his elbow," Prince said. "It looked aggressive to me. He was grabbing by the back of his elbow and they were really close and he was making hand motions."

He couldn't hear what Phillips was saying to Murray, he said.

Michael Jackson was not there because he was at his last rehearsal, Prince said. He called his father from the security guard shack telephone to let him know Phillips was there. His father asked him to offer Phillips food and drink.

Prince said that was his last conversation with his father.

Prince was 12 when the pop icon died, but he said his father confided in him about whom he trusted and didn't trust and what he feared as he prepared for his comeback concerts.

Michael Jackson's three children -- Prince, Paris and Blanket -- and their grandmother Katherine Jackson are plaintiffs in the lawsuit, which contends AEG Live is liable in Jackson's death because the company hired, retained or supervised Murray, the doctor convicted of involuntary manslaughter.

Murray told investigators he gave Jackson nightly infusions of the surgical anesthetic propofol to treat his insomnia. The coroner ruled the singer died of an overdose of the drug.

AEG Live executives allegedly created a medical conflict of interest that pressured Murray to pursue the dangerous treatments so Jackson would be rested for rehearsals, while ignoring warning signs that his health was failing, Jackson family lawyers argue.

AEG Live lawyers contend that it was Jackson who chose and controlled the doctor and that company executives had no way of knowing what treatments Murray was delivering.

'Daddy's little man'

AEG Live lead lawyer Marvin Putnam is expected to handle the cross-examination of Prince later Wednesday.

It is possible that jurors will also hear from Paris Jackson on Wednesday, since Putnam could play video clips from her deposition in an effort to highlight any contradictions between brother and sister.

Paris, who was 11 when her father died, is not available to testify live in court since she is hospitalized for psychiatric treatment following an apparent suicide attempt earlier this month.

AEG Live attempted to compel the youngest child -- 11-year-old Blanket -- to testify, but the judge rejected its request after a psychologist said it would harm the boy.

Jackson confided in his oldest son about his business dealings at an early age.

"Prince has always been, even at 12, the little man -- Daddy's little man," Jackson chef Kai Chase testified. "He wanted his father to be very proud of him, which Michael was."

"The weight of the world is on his shoulders, the eldest, big brother and father figure to his siblings," Chase testified. "It's a lot for him, growing, liking girls. He wishes his father was here to give him advice. It's devastating to him."

Prince recently began pursuing an entertainment career, working several days as a "special correspondent" for "Entertainment Tonight" and acting in an episode of the television show "90210."

Michael Jackson's two-month decline

Prince was also asked to describe how his father's health changed from April 2009, just before Murray began his nightly visits to the rented Los Angeles mansion, until his death on June 25, 2009.

E-mail introduced as evidence and previous witnesses have told of a physical and mental deterioration over Jackson's last two months.

Show director Kenny Ortega and production manager John "Bugzee" Hougdahl warned AEG executives of Jackson's deterioration during a series of e-mails in Jackson's last two weeks, including indications he was unable to do some of his trademark dances or remember lyrics to songs he had sung for decades.

His makeup artist and a choreographer testified about Jackson's paranoia, his talking to himself and hearing voices, and his severe weight loss.

Associate show producer Alif Sankey testified that she "had a very strong feeling that Michael was dying" after a rehearsal 11 days before his death.

"I was screaming into the phone at that point," Sankey testified. "I said he needs to be put in the hospital now."

An expert testified last week that Jackson's downward slide toward death could be explained by the insidious effects of chronic infusions of propofol. The nightly treatments probably interrupted Jackson's sleep cycle, robbing him of REM -- rapid eye movement -- sleep, which is vital to keeping the brain and body functioning.

"The symptoms that Mr. Jackson was exhibiting were consistent with what someone might expect to see of someone suffering from total sleep deprivation over a chronic period," said Dr. Charles Czeisler, a Harvard Medical School sleep expert.

The trial is in its ninth week and is expected to last until August.

Source: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

by WeAreTheWorld. Fri Jun 28, 2013 1:52 am

Nephew: Michael Jackson was murdered

By Alan Duke
June 27, 2013

Los Angeles (CNN) -- Michael Jackson's nephew testified Thursday that he believes his uncle was murdered.

T.J. Jackson, the youngest son of Jackson brother Tito, revealed his suspicion while being cross examined by an AEG Live lawyer in the Michael Jackson wrongful death trial.

Jurors also heard him testify about the emotional devastation caused by Michael Jackson's death.

"He was just everything," said T.J. Jackson, who shares guardianship of Michael Jackson's children -- Prince, Paris and Blanket -- with their grandmother.

Michael Jackson's mother and his children contend his last concert promoter was liable for his death because it hired, retained or supervised Dr. Conrad Murray, who was convicted of involuntary manslaughter.

AEG Live lawyers argue it was Jackson, not the company, who chose and controlled Dr. Murray. Their executives had no way of knowing he was giving nightly infusions of the surgical anesthetic propofol to Jackson, which the coroner ruled killed the singer, the lawyers say.

"Do you believe your uncle was murdered?" AEG Live attorney Jessica Stebbins Bina asked T.J. Jackson.

"I do," he answered. "I believe it because he did tell me and the brothers that he was going to be murdered on a couple of occasions.

"He said that just because of his position he was a target."

T.J. Jackson had earlier testified that his mother, Delores Jackson, was the victim of murder 19 years ago.

"My mother was murdered for money, too, so I don't put that past anyone," he said.

Initially it was believed that his mother, Delores Martes Jackson, who had divorced from Tito Jackson in 1993, drowned in a swimming pool, but the case was reopened, and her sons in 1995 filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against a man they accused of killing her. Three years later, the man was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to 15 years to life in prison.

If the jury concludes AEG Live has liability in Jackson's death, then they must put a dollar figure on damages -- including the emotional toll on the children caused by the loss of their father.

The oldest child, 16-year-old Prince, testified Wednesday that sister Paris, 15, "was probably hit the hardest because she was my dad's princess."

Paris has been hospitalized since a suicide attempt earlier this month, although it is unclear whether jurors will know about it.

"The loss of my uncle has hit her at a different level and she's in a tough spot, but we're loving her and doing everything we can," T.J. Jackson testified Thursday

He said he was at a loss for words to describe what Paris is going through. "It's tough, you know, it's tough."

"She was daddy's girl," he said. "My uncle was her world. My uncle gave them more love and for it to be taken away, it's been very hard for Paris, and for all of them."

Blanket, who was 7 when his father died, "was always wrapped around his leg, very shy," T.J. Jackson said. "Wherever my uncle was, Blanket was a foot away, My uncle was everything to Blanket."

"Right now, I don't know if Blanket realizes what he lost," Prince said. "He was so young. He is still growing up just like I am and he doesn't have a father to guide him."

Prince said he has "a hard time sleeping" since his father's death in 2009. It left him "emotionally distant from a lot of people" for a while, he said.

He's missed sharing with his father "the first day of going to school, having the first girlfriend, being able to drive," Prince testified.

T.J. Jackson said Prince was Michael Jackson's "little assistant."

"He was very mature for his age, very smart. My uncle would prepare him for things" by telling him about his business deals.

"He's very strong, he's very smart," he testified. "He was always the smartest kid I'd ever known."

As a guardian, T.J. Jackson said he must constantly deal with paparazzi stalking the children for photographs.

"It's, just to be frank, a complete annoyance," he said. "It's awful."

He suggested there should be a new law to protect celebrity children from photographers.

"I know it's making everything harder for the kids to grieve and to recover and to progress," he said.

Source: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

by midangerous Wed Jul 03, 2013 6:16 pm

Prince, Blanket Jackson celebrate dad's life amid death trial

By: Alan Duke
July 1, 2013

Los Angeles (CNN) -- A business management expert testified Monday as lawyers try to prove Michael Jackson's last concert promoter is liable in the singer's death.

Human resources consultant Jean Seawright's analysis of AEG Live's hiring practices may lack the drama of last week's testimony by Jackson's oldest son, but it could be crucial for proving that the company negligently hired, retained or supervised Dr. Conrad Murray.

The trial of the lawsuit filed by Jackson's mother and three children began its tenth week with their lawyers nearing the end of their case. AEG Live lawyers are expected to start presenting their defense around July 15.

AEG Live contends that Michael Jackson, not its executives, chose and controlled Murray, who is serving a prison sentence for an involuntary manslaughter conviction.

If the jury decides that AEG Live executives have responsibility for Jackson's death from an overdose of the surgical anesthetic propofol, they will then have to decide how much he might have earned in the years he didn't get to live.

Jurors would have learned a lot about Michael Jackson's work and worth if they had traveled with the Jackson family to Las Vegas over the weekend for the premiere of Cirque du Soleil's "Michael Jackson One" show.

Prince, 16, and Blanket, 11, sang and danced while watching the Cirque celebration of their father's music and life in a Mandalay Bay Casino theater. Paris, 15, was unable to attend because she is still hospitalized since last month's suicide attempt.

The children never saw their father perform live, one of his motivations for attempting his comeback concerts, but thanks to technology Jackson appeared to be back on stage for a ghostly performance of "Man in the Mirror."

Prince's appearance at the opening of the permanent show, which is different from Cirque's traveling "Immortal" show, came three days after he appeared in court to tell jurors about his father's life and last days.

His father often cried after talking to AEG Live executives as he prepared for his comeback concerts, his oldest son testified Wednesday.

"After he got off the phone, he would cry," Prince Jackson testified. "He would say 'They're going to kill me, they're going to kill me.'"

His father told him he was talking about AEG Live CEO Randy Phillips and his ex-manager, Dr. Tohme Tohme, Prince said.

Negligent hiring?

Seawright, who has worked as a human resources consultant for businesses for nearly 25 years was paid $300 an hour by Jackson lawyers to review documents and testimony on the wrongful death case. After about 100 hours, she said she reached an opinion about if AEG Live's hiring of Dr. Murray was negligent.

"They did indeed fail to follow adequate hiring practices," she testified Monday.

Serving as a personal doctor for Michael Jackson was "a very high risk position" that warranted a background check to determine if Murray was fit for the job, competent to do the work and did not have a conflict of interest, Seawright testified.

Jackson lawyers contend that Murray's deep debt, which included $1 million in foreclosures and judgments, made him conflicted since he could lose his $150,000 a month job if Jackson didn't make to rehearsals and perform his concerts.

A simple credit check -- taking five minutes and costing less than $10 -- would have revealed the conflict of interest, she said.

Credit checks are routine for many companies hiring for high-risk positions, she said.

A key piece of evidence used by the Jackson lawyers is an e-mail sent by AEG Live CE Randy Phillips to "This Is It" show director Kenny Ortega on June 20, 2009 -- five days before Michael Jackson died from an overdose of propofol administered by Murray.

"This doctor is extremely successful (we check everyone out) and does not need this gig so he is totally unbiased and ethical," Philips wrote in an effort to assure Ortega Jackson was in good hands with Dr. Murray.

Seawright testified that she found no evidence the company did anything to check out Dr Murray for fitness, competence or any conflict of interest that might lead him to provide unsafe treatments.

AEG Live argues that it never hired Murray, but simply negotiated with him on Jackson's behalf.

Seawrght said companies have the same obligation in hiring, whether for a regular employee or and independent contractor.

Jurors can expect to be watched more closely by court bailiffs after an incident near the end of Friday's session. Two alternate jurors told the judge that a woman approached them during a court break.

"She mention 'Please don't give anyone any money,'" alternate juror No. 1 said.

Alternate juror No. 5 quoted the woman, saying "I just wanted to say not to award them any money."

While the woman apparently was opposed to the Jackson's lawsuit seeking billions of dollars in damages, AEG Live lawyer Marvin Putnam used the incident to suggest that the judge should crack down on Michael Jackson fans who wear Jackson shirts and carry signs of support for Katherine Jackson in the court hallway.

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Yvette Palazuelos rejected Putnam's request, saying Jackson fans have free speech rights that she cannot limit.

Both alternate jurors said the incident would not affect their ability to make an impartial decision in the case.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

by Capricious Anomaly Sat Jul 06, 2013 3:16 pm

AlanDukeCNNAlan Duke 21h

No court today so a pilgrimage to Neverland #MichaelJackson pic.twitter.com/CznRlT9OOG

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Note: The gates are really gone Sad

by midangerous Sat Jul 06, 2013 4:06 pm

by WeAreTheWorld. Sun Jul 07, 2013 2:53 am

I saw his tweet yesterday I think and noticed the gates too Sad

by corlista Sun Jul 07, 2013 9:19 am

MI & CA: The gate Alan is standing in front of are the wooden gates into the property with a guard station right behind. The beautiful gold gates I think you're talking about were a mile in just before the house/rides/zoo, etc. We saw them at Fanfest so they've been saved. A couple shots from our visit to Neverland and Fanfest.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] our ride over Neverland

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] Michael's house is in the middle in the clump of trees

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] gates at Fanfest

by **Admin** Sun Jul 07, 2013 10:36 am

Yes, the gate is still being exhibited around different events, I was referring to the gate not being "home" anymore at NVRL. Mainly because it is no longer named NVRL, it is SVR again. It's just not ever going to be NVRL again, unless one day the MJ3 can buy it back from Colony C. ~

(The Neverland Forum has 100's of pix of NVRL. Many are featuring the main gate).

ALL CNN TRIAL REPORTER ALAN DUKE'S NEWS ARTICLES - UPDATED DAILY - Page 2 2347364501

ALL CNN TRIAL REPORTER ALAN DUKE'S NEWS ARTICLES - UPDATED DAILY - Page 2 2347364501

by corlista Sun Jul 07, 2013 10:51 am

Got it. You're right, it's gone from its "home" as are all the beautiful things that were taken away. Thank heaven, per the 60 Minutes show a couple weeks ago, vast amounts of Michael's belongings are in storage and being cared for. (We saw Karen Langford at ONE.) We can only hope that someday PP&B will take it over again.

I'm off to the Neverland thread. Smile

by Sponsored content

ALL CNN TRIAL REPORTER ALAN DUKE'S NEWS ARTICLES - UPDATED DAILY

ALL CNN TRIAL REPORTER ALAN DUKE'S NEWS ARTICLES - UPDATED DAILY

AEG executive called Michael Jackson 'freak' before signing

Elvis' connection to Michael Jackson's death enters Jacksons V AEG trial

Witness in Jacksons V AEG case: 'I kind of knew what was going to happen' to Michael Jackson

AEG exec's memory strained about Michael Jackson's last days

Promoter grilled about 'smoking gun' e-mail in Jacksons V AEG trial

Re: ALL CNN TRIAL REPORTER ALAN DUKE'S NEWS ARTICLES - UPDATED DAILY

Re: ALL CNN TRIAL REPORTER ALAN DUKE'S NEWS ARTICLES - UPDATED DAILY

Re: ALL CNN TRIAL REPORTER ALAN DUKE'S NEWS ARTICLES - UPDATED DAILY

Re: ALL CNN TRIAL REPORTER ALAN DUKE'S NEWS ARTICLES - UPDATED DAILY

What killed Elvis? It's a question at the Jacksons V AEG trial.

Re: ALL CNN TRIAL REPORTER ALAN DUKE'S NEWS ARTICLES - UPDATED DAILY

Witness in Jacksons V AEG case: I didn't know Michael Jackson abused drugs

Re: ALL CNN TRIAL REPORTER ALAN DUKE'S NEWS ARTICLES - UPDATED DAILY

Re: ALL CNN TRIAL REPORTER ALAN DUKE'S NEWS ARTICLES - UPDATED DAILY

Re: ALL CNN TRIAL REPORTER ALAN DUKE'S NEWS ARTICLES - UPDATED DAILY

Phillips' e-mail: Michael Jackson's dermatologist 'scares us to death'

Jacksons V AEG case: 'Miracle' of Michael Jackson's concert announcement described

Exec asked: 'Does Michael Jackson need a straitjacket?' days before death.

Re: ALL CNN TRIAL REPORTER ALAN DUKE'S NEWS ARTICLES - UPDATED DAILY

Expert witness in Jacksons V AEG: Michael Jackson went 60 days without real sleep

Re: ALL CNN TRIAL REPORTER ALAN DUKE'S NEWS ARTICLES - UPDATED DAILY

'They're going to kill me,' Michael Jackson told Prince Jackson.

Michael Jackson's nephew says MJ was murdered

Prince, Blanket Jackson celebrate dad's life amid death trial

Re: ALL CNN TRIAL REPORTER ALAN DUKE'S NEWS ARTICLES - UPDATED DAILY

Re: ALL CNN TRIAL REPORTER ALAN DUKE'S NEWS ARTICLES - UPDATED DAILY

Re: ALL CNN TRIAL REPORTER ALAN DUKE'S NEWS ARTICLES - UPDATED DAILY

Re: ALL CNN TRIAL REPORTER ALAN DUKE'S NEWS ARTICLES - UPDATED DAILY

Re: ALL CNN TRIAL REPORTER ALAN DUKE'S NEWS ARTICLES - UPDATED DAILY

Re: ALL CNN TRIAL REPORTER ALAN DUKE'S NEWS ARTICLES - UPDATED DAILY

Re: ALL CNN TRIAL REPORTER ALAN DUKE'S NEWS ARTICLES - UPDATED DAILY