'His stirring voice, his musical genius...and his huge heart was extinguished forever' Opening statements in Michael Jackson trial begins.

by **MJ Mod** Mon Apr 29, 2013 6:50 pm

'His stirring voice, his musical genius...and his huge heart was extinguished forever': Opening statements in Michael Jackson trial looks at singer's life and addictions

By: David Gardner
April 29, 2013

An attorney for Michael Jackson’s mother said today that the singer's drug problems started in 1984 when AEG ordered Dr Conrad Murray to ensure Jackson continued to perform despite a serious injury sustained while filming a Pepsi commercial.

The comments by Brian Panish came on Monday during opening statements in Katherine Jackson’s lawsuit against concert giant AEG Live, which she says should be held civilly liable for her son’s 2009 death.

Panish said that AEG is the only entity that claims it didn’t know about Jackson’s addiction to prescription drugs - which took off in 1984 when he suffered second and third-degree burns while filming a Pepsi commercial.

The wrongful-death suit contends the entertainment firm threatened to end Jackson’s career if he failed to come through with the concerts and ordered Murray to keep the performer on track.

AEG officials have denied any wrongdoing, and its lawyers have said company executives could not have foreseen the circumstances that led to a physician giving Jackson doses of the anesthetic propofol as a sleep aid.

A jury of six men and six women will determine whether AEG is liable and any damages award.

Concert giant AEG Live owed a duty to properly investigate the doctor who treated Michael Jackson, an attorney for the singer’s mother told a jury Monday morning.

'His stirring voice, his musical genius, his creativity and his generosity and his huge heart was extinguished forever,' attorney Brian Panish said in opening statements of a civil lawsuit filed over Jackson’s June 2009 death.

Katherine Jackson is suing AEG claiming it failed to properly investigate the doctor convicted of involuntary manslaughter over Jackson’s death.

'You’re going to hear the whole story about what happened in the death of Michael Jackson,' Panish said.

Panish made his remarks in an opening presentation filled with slides detailing the case against AEG, which was promoting Jackson’s planned comeback concerts, This Is It.

Jackson’s mother, brother Randy and sister Rebbie sat in the front row of the courtroom as Panish detailed aspects of Jackson’s life.

An attorney for AEG is expected to begin addressing the panel later today.

Millions, and possibly billions, of dollars are at stake.

Katherine Jackson sued the company in September 2010, claiming it failed to properly investigate former physician Conrad Murray before allowing him to serve as Jackson’s tour doctor.

She is also suing on behalf of her son’s three children, Prince, Paris and Blanket.

AEG denies it hired Murray and its attorneys have said they could not have foreseen the circumstances that led to Jackson’s death at age 50.

A jury convicted Murray of giving Jackson a fatal dose of the anesthetic propofol in 2011. The hospital-grade anesthetic was being administered as a sleep aid.

Panish told jurors they would be putting together a puzzle, with three pieces being Jackson, Murray and AEG Live.

He told the panel that Jackson suffered from addiction to prescription medications and Demerol at times during his life, and the problem increased when he was keeping up a rigorous schedule.

Panish cited a 1984 accident that injured Jackson during a Pepsi commercial suit as causing the singer tremendous physical pain throughout his life.

'Over the years Michael family’s and people who knew him believed he had a problem with prescription medication,' Panish told jurors.

He said the only group that would claim they didn’t know about Jackson’s addiction issues were AEG and its executives.

The lawyer showed a brief clip of Jackson rehearing for the This Is It shows and a clip of the singer dancing in the early stages of his presentation.

He also showed footage of a 1999 show in Munich in which Jackson was performing when a bridge dropped 50 feet with the singer on it. Despite pain, Jackson continued performing, Panish said.

Panish said Jackson turned to Demerol to relieve his pain.

Katherine Jackson and her two oldest grandchildren, Prince and Paris, are listed as possible witnesses.

An AEG attorney said on Monday that the company intends to call Murray as a witness in the case as well.

Murray did not testify at his criminal trial.

Panish told jurors they would have to determine who was responsible for Jackson’s death.

'Michael paid the ultimate price. He died,' Panish said. 'Michael has taken responsibility.'

Hundreds of private emails detailing Michael Jackson’s dramatic deterioration in his final days will play a key role in the trial.

The messages sent by executives at AEG, the US entertainment giant behind the star’s doomed comeback tour, reveal the 50-year-old singer’s turmoil as he struggled with his health and inner demons to prepare for the lucrative concerts.

According to a senior AEG lawyer, the company is likely to bring up Jackson’s drug shopping as well as his acquittal on child molestation charges as part of their case that the promoter had no liability in the tragedy.

The Jackson family's lawyers are likely to zero in on the emails they claim show how aware the company’s senior executives were of the singer's fragile state.

When Randy Phillips, a promoter at AEG, went to Jackson’s London hotel suite the day before the singer announced his comeback concerts he found him so drunk that he had to dress him.

‘MJ is locked in his room drunk and despondent. I [am] trying to sober him up,’ Phillips wrote to the company’s president Tim Leiweke.

In the US where Mr Leiweke had just woken up, he replied: ‘Are you kidding me?’

‘I screamed at him so loud the walls are shaking. He is an emotionally paralysed mess riddled with self loathing and doubt now that it is show time,' Mr Phillips responded.

By June that year the alarm bells were ringing and a production manager wrote that Jackson was a ‘basket case'.

The show’s director, Kenny Ortega, who had known Jackson for two decades, called for him to be evaluated by a psychiatrist. He also said the star would have to lip synch some of his songs because he was racked by ‘paranoia, anxiety and obsessive-like behaviour’.

After Jackson's, Mr Phillips wrote in August 2009: ‘Michael’s death is a terrible tragedy, but life must go on. AEG will make a fortune from merch sales, ticket retention, the touring exhibition and the film/dvd.’

AEG would go on to earn about £160 million from the documentary film This Is It, which featured rehearsal footage.

Lawyers representing the company will claim that Murray was hired by Jackson and not by the promoter. The civil trial jury took more than three weeks to select.

The Jacksons are seeking a judgment against AEG equal to the money he would have earned over the course of his remaining lifetime had he not died in 2009, plus exorbitant damages.

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