All the Los Angeles Times Jackson v AEG News Stories Thread

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All the Los Angeles Times articles will be posted in this thread now-Here is the link to the update page: AEG-Michael Jackson wrongful death trial:

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Family tried to get Jackson to stop taking drugs, detective says
By Corina Knoll

May 2, 2013

This post has been corrected. See note at bottom for details.

Michael Jackson’s family tried over and over to talk with the pop singer about his drug abuse and attempted one intervention at his Neverland retreat, a Los Angeles police detective who interviewed Michael Jackson’s mother testified Thursday.

Det. Orlando Martinez said that when he interviewed Katherine Jackson on Dec. 9, 2009 — months after Jackson’s death — she told him she had never met nor known about Dr. Conrad Murray until her son died. Murray, who gave the singer a lethal dose of propofol, is now serving a jail sentence for involuntary manslaughter.

The detective, under questioning from the attorney representing the Jackson family in a wrongful death case against concert promoter AEG, also verified that he wrote the following summary about that discussion:

“Mrs. Jackson stated that she last spoke with Michael at his residence on Carolwood approximately one and a half weeks prior to his death. When asked if Mrs. Jackson had ever met Dr. Murray she stated that she had not and didn’t even know who he was until after Michael’s death.

“Mrs. Jackson was asked if she or any other family members ever attempted to do an intervention with Michael as it relates to painkillers or any other drugs. She stated that there had been one attempted intervention at Neverland on behalf of Janet, however Michael didn’t want to participate.

“Mrs. Jackson stated that she had been informed Michael had been taking drugs, however she had no idea which drugs, and she had never seen Michael take any drugs. Mrs. Jackson stated that the family attempted several times to help Michael however he would have nothing to do with it. She further stated that she had asked Michael if he was taking any drugs and Michael denied it.

“When asked if Michael had any chronic medical conditions that she was aware of, Mrs. Jackson stated that he had problems sleeping and that his back frequently bothered him. She stated she thought the back pain was a result of falling off of a stage during a performance.”

Katherine Jackson has been present at the trial since it began Monday, stepping out of the courtroom only when a paramedic described finding the singer on his bed.

Jackson’s mother and the singer's three children are accusing the entertainment company of pushing the singer beyond his physical abilities and of negligently hiring and controlling Murray, who gave Jackson a fatal dose of propofol.

On Thursday, defense attorneys objected to Katherine Jackson being accompanied by her daughter Rebbie, who, like many of her siblings, is on the witness list.

Judge Yvette Palazuelos overruled the objection. “I think Mrs. Jackson should have at least one support person in the courtroom,” the judge said.

For the record, 4:15 p.m., May 2: An earlier version of this post said that Katherine Jackson and her three children sued AEG. Katherine Jackson and Michael Jackson's three children sued AEG.

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[midangerous]

Good question.

[WeAreTheWorld.]

I'm almost certain it was after the pepsi commercial accident.

[WeAreTheWorld.]

AEG didn't properly check Conrad Murray's background, witness says

By Kate Mather
July 1, 2013

Entertainment group AEG did not properly check Dr. Conrad Murray’s background before bringing him on board for Michael Jackson’s ill-fated “This Is It” tour, a human-resources consultant testified Monday.

Jean Seawright, head of the Florida-based Seawright & Associates consulting group, said that based on her review of the case, AEG Live “did indeed fail to follow adequate hiring practices” in the selection of Murray, regardless if he was considered a company employee or independent contractor.

Seawright, an expert witness retained by the attorneys representing Jackson’s mother and three children in their wrongful death lawsuit, said her testimony came under the assumption that AEG hired Murray, who gave the singer a fatal dose of the anesthetic propofol in 2009. The jury will ultimately determine which party retained the doctor. Jackson’s family alleges AEG hired and controlled Murray, while AEG maintains he worked for Jackson.

Murray is serving time in prison for involuntary manslaughter.
Seawright called the role of Jackson's personal physician a “very high-risk position” given the responsibilities of the job – such as accessing the singer's medical history and personal life, working remotely and providing medical care.

Companies following appropriate hiring practices assess the risks of a position before hiring, she said. When asked by Jackson family attorney Brian Panish if she thought AEG had done so in this case, Seawright said she “saw no evidence of that.”

Seawright then testified about an email from AEG Chief Executive Randy Phillips to tour director Kenny Ortega, in which Phillips said Murray was “extremely successful” – noting “we check everyone out” – and “does not need this gig, so he is totally unbiased and ethical.”

Seawright said that email indicated Phillips understood the criteria for the job and that AEG had a process in place for examining its workers. When asked if she saw evidence indicating the company in fact “checked out” Murray’s background, she replied: “I did not.”

Ultimately, she said, the email indicated AEG was in a "sort of trap … where if you don’t check out a worker adequately, then you are in a situation like this.”

“It was Mr. Phillips saying what he hoped was the case but we later found out was not the case,” she said.

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[jw224]

I think it was sometime after the pepsi accident.

[WeAreTheWorld.]

Specialist: 'I don't know' if Michael Jackson was a drug addict

By Kate Mather
July 3, 2013

Michael Jackson’s drug use was again the topic of conversation in court Wednesday, where an addiction specialist testified that he saw no evidence the singer was addicted to painkillers or the anesthetic propofol that ultimately led to his death.

Dr. Sidney Schnoll acknowledged that after Jackson interrupted his 1993 “Dangerous” tour to seek treatment for an addiction to painkillers, he was given propofol during medical procedures and Demerol for back and scalp pain.

But Schnoll said that based on his review of the case, there was not enough material to provide a definite diagnosis.

“I don’t know if he was a drug addict,” Schnoll testified. “I’ve not seen any evidence that would give me the information that would allow me to make a diagnosis of addiction.”

Schnoll’s testimony came in the wrongful death suit filed by Jackson’s mother and three children against entertainment giant AEG Live. The family contends that AEG hired Dr. Conrad Murray, who gave the singer the fatal dose of propofol two weeks before his “This Is It” tour was supposed to begin. The company maintains that Jackson hired Murray.

Murray is serving jail time on an involuntary manslaughter conviction.

Jackson's drug use has come up several times during the 10-week trial, including opening statements when Jackson family attorney Brian Panish said the singer had at times been "dependent" on prescription medication after being badly burned while filming a Pepsi commercial in 1984.

Schnoll, hired by the Jacksons' attorneys, said that even if the singer was addicted or dependent on drugs, "If he got proper treatment, he would have had a normal life expectancy."

He added: "If his underlying medical conditions — the pain, the insomnia — had been appropriately treated, he may have been able to get off of those medications or been treated appropriately."

When asked by Jackson family attorney Michael Koskoff if other factors — including Jackson's family, career, financial resources and love of fans — would have helped improve the success of any treatment, Schnoll said it would.

But a cardiologist such as Murray, Schnoll said, would not be "competent" to treat any drug problem Jackson might have had.

"He was an intervention cardiologist, which is a highly specialized area of medicine," Schnoll said of Murray. "Intervention cardiologists have no background in treating problems of substance abuse, they have no background in treating pain ... they look at hearts, which is totally unrelated."

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[Admin]

He added: "If his underlying medical conditions — the pain, the insomnia — had been appropriately treated, he may have been able to get off of those medications or been treated appropriately."

BINGO! That is the fact of all of this! Where were all these 'so called' close friends (such as KF, KO, Diana R. etc.. etc..)? It frankly really pisses me off how stupid and self absorbed these people are that they could not SIMPLY temp shut down the production/rehearsals for a short while so MJ could get help and GET AWAY from that POS Murray! And those asses at AEG! Makes me SICK!

[jw224]

Money, kenny was going to leave if michael didn't turn up for rehearsals, some friend

[WeAreTheWorld.]

Doctor says he told AEG exec that Michael Jackson was a drug addict

By Jeff Gottlieb
July 8, 2013

A doctor who traveled on Michael Jackson's 1993 worldwide "Dangerous" tour testified that he gave the singer a shot of Demerol and a 24-hour intravenous morphine drip while they were in Thailand and that he told a ranking AEG executive that the singer was a drug addict.

Dr. Stuart Finklestein, who testified via a video deposition that was played for jurors Monday, said he was a long-time friend of Paul Gongaware, who was tour manager of the "Dangerous" concerts and is one of the defendants in the wrongful death suit brought by Jackson's mother and three children.

The testimony came in the 43rd day of the wrongful-death trial, a case that seeks to put blame for Jackson's death of entertainment titan and two music industry executives.

Finklestein is now an addiction specialist, but when he went on tour with Jackson his job was to minister to the crew. He said the first time he met Jackson was when he was called to his hotel room, where the singer appeared to be in pain. Finklestein said he was put on the phone with Allan Metzger, the singer's doctor in Los Angeles. Metzger told him that Jackson had a severe headache and that he should administer pain medication.
Finklestein said he gave Jackson a shot of Demerol, “but his buttocks were so scarred up and abscessed that the needle almost bent. ... He obviously had had multiple injections in his buttocks prior to arriving in Bangkok.”

The doctor said he spend the next 24 hours giving Jackson morphine until he was able to go on stage. “We were watching the Three Stooges and having squirt gun fights," Finklestein testified.

After a second concert in Bangkok was postponed, Finklestein said, he met with promoter Marcel Avram and a publicist. The publicist said “the sound byte is that Michael Jackson is dehydrated,” the doctor testified, and repeated that explanation to CNN.

The doctor said that Jackson was wearing a Duragesic patch, which contains another opiate, fentanyl, that is absorbed through the skin. He also said that Karen Faye, Jackson's longtime makeup artist and hair stylist, gave him two ampules of Demerol that were for Jackson's injections. According to Finklestein, Metzger had written a Demerol prescription for Faye. But Finklestein said he understood the prescription was actually for Jackson.

Finklestein said that he told the concert promoters that he thought Jackson was an addict but that no one believed him. The doctor said he also told Gongaware that Jackson was dependent on opiates.

The doctor said that Gongaware, a current AEG Live executive, told him, "Don't be a Dr. Nick," a reference to the doctor who supplied Elvis Presley with the prescription drugs that led to his death.

Finklestein said Gongaware was trying to warn him, "don’t get all infatuated where you start administering drugs to a rock star and having him die on you.”

The tour came to an early end in Mexico City when Elizabeth Taylor flew in for an intervention and took Jackson to a hospital in England.

The Jacksons are suing AEG Live, saying the entertainment giant negligently hired and controlled Conrad Murray, the doctor who gave the singer a fatal dose of the anesthetic propofol. AEG says that Jackson hired Murray and that any money the company was supposed to pay the doctor was an advance the singer would have to pay back.

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[WeAreTheWorld.]

Tour director in tears as he recalls Michael Jackson's decline

By Jeff Gottlieb
July 10, 2013

The director of Michael Jackson's ill-fated "This Is It" concert series in London broke down on the witness stand Wednesday as he read an email he wrote five days before the singer died in which he described Jackson's deteriorating physical and mental condition and suggested the performer needed to see a therapist.

The June 20, 2009, email from Kenny Ortega to Randy Phillips, chief executive of AEG Live, had been shown to the jury previously in the wrongful death case, but it never packed the emotional wallop of Ortega's reading.

“My concern is, now that we’ve brought the doctor in to the fold and have played the tough love, now or never card, is that the artist may be unable to rise to the occasion due to the real emotional stuff," Ortega wrote. "He appeared quite weak and fatigued this evening. He had a terrible case of the chills, was trembling, ranting and obsessing.

“Everything in me says he should be psychologically evaluated. If we have any chance at all to get him back in the light, it’s going to take a strong therapist to help him through this as well as immediate physical nurturing.... Finally, it’s important for everyone to know, I believe that he really wants this. It would shatter him, break his heart if we pulled the plug.

“He’s terribly frightened it’s all going to go away. He asked me repeatedly tonight if I was going to leave him. He was practically begging for my confidence. It broke my heart. He was like a lost boy. There still may be a chance he can rise to the occasion if we get him the help he needs.”

As Ortega read the email out loud, he paused between words, then began to cry. He took off his wire-rimmed glasses and wiped his eyes with a tissue. "I'm not OK right now," he said, and the judge called a 10-minute recess.

Katherine Jackson, Michael's mother, also was wiping away tears.

When Ortega returned to the courtroom, he could be overheard telling Brian Panish, the Jackson family's attorney: "It's devastating."

Katherine Jackson and Michael's three children are suing AEG Live and two of its executives, saying they negligently hired and controlled Conrad Murray, the doctor who gave the singer the fatal dose of the anesthetic propofol on June 25, 2009. AEG says that Murray worked for Jackson and that any money the company was supposed to pay him was an advance that the singer would have had to repay.

Ortega's email came after Jackson, who had been coming to rehearsal sporadically, failed to show up several days in a row. He finally showed up in a condition that alarmed Ortega and others, less than three weeks before the first concert was scheduled in London.

"I saw a Michael that frightened me," Ortega testified.

He said Jackson, who had come to the Forum, where rehearsals were taking place, for a costume fitting, looked emaciated.

"I observed Michael like I had never seen him before, and it troubled me deeply, " Ortega said.

The director, who had worked with Jackson on his "Dangerous" tour in the early 1990s and on several other occasions, called Murray several times but never spoke to him that night.

He said there was no question Jackson needed a doctor.

“I wanted someone who was a professional to be aware that Michael had showed up in this condition,” he said.

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[WeAreTheWorld.]

Michael Jackson 'a lost boy,' concert director said in email

By Jeff Gottlieb
July 10, 2013

The director of Michael Jackson's ill-fated comeback concerts broke into tears Wednesday as he read jurors an email he wrote five days before the singer died, calling the pop star a "lost boy" whose deteriorating physical and mental condition had left him near a breaking point.

The June 20 email from Kenny Ortega to Randy Phillips, chief executive of AEG Live, had been shown to the jury previously in the wrongful death case, but Ortega's reading gave it a new emotional depth.

"My concern ... is that the artist may be unable to rise to the occasion due to the real emotional stuff," Ortega wrote. "He appeared quite weak and fatigued this evening. He had a terrible case of the chills, was trembling, ranting and obsessing.

"Everything in me says he should be psychologically evaluated. If we have any chance at all to get him back in the light, it's going to take a strong therapist to help him through this as well as immediate physical nurturing ... I believe that he really wants this.

"It would shatter him, break his heart if we pulled the plug. He's terribly frightened it's all going to go away. He asked me repeatedly tonight if I was going to leave him. He was practically begging for my confidence. It broke my heart. He was like a lost boy. There still may be a chance he can rise to the occasion if we get him the help he needs."

As Ortega read the email out loud, he paused between words and he began to cry. He took off his wire-rimmed glasses and wiped his eyes with a tissue.

"I'm not OK right now," he said, and the judge called a recess.

Katherine Jackson, Jackson's mother, sitting in the front row of the courtroom, also wiped away tears.

Jackson's mother and three children are suing AEG Live, Phillips and another executives, saying that they negligently hired and controlled Dr. Conrad Murray, who gave the singer a fatal dose of the anesthetic propofol on June 25, 2009. AEG says that Murray worked for Jackson, not the entertainment giant.

Murray was convicted of involuntary manslaughter and is serving jail time.

Ortega said he wrote the email after Jackson — who had been showing up for rehearsals sporadically — had stopped coming at all. He finally showed up in a condition that alarmed Ortega and others in the crew, less than three weeks before the first concert was scheduled.

"I saw a Michael that frightened me," Ortega testified. "I observed Michael like I had never seen him before, and it troubled me deeply.

The director, who had worked with Jackson on his "Dangerous" tour in the early 1990s and on several other occasions, said he called Murray several times but never spoke to him that night.

"I wanted someone who was a professional to be aware that Michael had showed up in this condition," he said.

Ortega said he was in a room with Jackson and Karen Faye, his longtime makeup artist and hair designer. The singer was shivering and had a blanket wrapped around him, and Faye placed a heater nearby. Ortega was massaging his feet. The director remembered crying.

Ortega was so disturbed by Jackson's appearance that he didn't think the tour could take place. "I wanted to stop," he testified.

Ortega's email led to a meeting at Jackson's Holmby Hills mansion the next day attended by the singer, Murray, Phillips and the director. Ortega called the meeting "accusatory" and said Murray was angry, telling him not to be an amateur psychiatrist or physician, words that echoed an email Phillips sent the director a few hours earlier.

According to Murray, Jackson was fine. "I was flabbergasted," Ortega said.

Jackson showed up to rehearsal three days later, a changed man. "I remember saying, 'Did I see something that wasn't there, because Michael just didn't seem like the Michael I had seen on the 19th, he was charged up, raring to go," Ortega said.

Two days later, he was dead.

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[WeAreTheWorld.]

Michael Jackson was a father figure, nephew testifies

By Jeff Gottlieb
July 11, 2013

Michael Jackson’s eldest nephew testified Thursday that his uncle was a father figure to him and his brothers who helped them not only with their music, but with life lessons.

“He was definitely our mentor, and everything we did in life we’d kind of gear it toward what he was doing, whether it was music or how he was as a person,” Taj Jackson said during his testimony in the wrongful-death suit his uncle’s mother and three children have brought against AEG Live, the company that was promoting and producing his comeback concerts when he died.

Taj Jackson, 39, is the son of Michael Jackson’s brother and fellow Jackson 5 member Tito. His younger brother TJ, who with Michael’s mother is guardian of the pop star's children, testified about two weeks ago.

Taj, TJ and a third brother made up the singing group 3T.

Their uncle encouraged them, but told them they would have to work hard. Taj read one of the many notes Jackson wrote him as a youngster. “I love you all and am proud of you. P.S. please rehearse.”

Taj Jackson said he and his brothers would have been foolish not to ask for their uncle’s musical advice. “He always let us know we could ask him anything about music, whether it’s songwriting or song selection,” he said.

“He was always right.”

Michael Jackson, he said, was a perfectionist, who told him “study the greats, study the classics.” His uncle followed that advice not just for music but also in their shared passion for film. Michael would watch old movies with the sound off so he wouldn’t be distracted, to study the camera work. He knew the opening scene of “Raiders of the Lost Ark” shot by shot, he testified.

Michael Jackson persuaded his nephews to record one of their hits, “I Need You,” even though they thought it was old-fashioned.

“Once he heard it, he said, ‘You need songs like that, that touch the world,’” Taj Jackson said.

Their uncle popped into the studio while they were recording it and added his voice to the track.

“What was most amazing about it is it was all in one take,” Taj Jackson said. “That’s when I realized he was in another league than we were.”

He also suggested using a choir that gives the song the feel of “We Are The World.”

The producer, Max Martin, cried when he heard the pop star sing. “He said it was a dream come true,” Taj Jackson said. “He never thought he’d be producing Michael Jackson.”

Michael Jackson also tried to teach them the secrets of songwriting, although the nephew said he didn’t want to give away too many of them during his testimony. In one instance, he said, his uncle played a tape of the Fine Young Cannibals singing “She Drives Me Crazy” over and over, telling him to listen to a different instrument each time.

“He would constantly tell us we had to carry on the legacy, carry on the torch when he retired,” the nephew said.

Taj Jackson said his uncle was constantly working on new material and was working on an album shortly before he died. “I know he wanted an album to come out,” he said.

Michael Jackson also believed in writing down his goals and posting the notes where he could see them. “What you can conceive and believe you can achieve,” was his motto, the nephew testified.

He said he saw it firsthand for the “Thriller” album. “I saw the note on his mirror, “’Biggest-selling album of all time,’” Taj Jackson said.

“I learned to never underestimate my uncle. When he put his mind to something, it usually happened.”

The Jacksons say in their lawsuit that AEG negligently hired and controlled Conrad Murray, the doctor who gave Michael Jackson the fatal dose of the anesthetic propofol to help him sleep on June 25, 2009. AEG says that the doctor worked for Jackson and that any money the company was supposed to pay Murray was an advance the singer would have to repay.

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[jw224]

Yes, Michael was working on a lot of songs in 2009. I hope they get released in some form

[WeAreTheWorld.]

Michael Jackson tour could have made $1.5 billion, accountant says

By Jeff Gottlieb
July 15, 2013

Michael Jackson would have earned $1.1 billion to $1.5 billion if his ill-fated "This Is It" concerts in London had turned into a worldwide tour, an accountant with decades of experience working with pop music acts testified Monday in downtown Los Angeles.

Jackson had been scheduled to perform 50 shows in London's 02 Arena when he died in June 2009 as he prepared for the comeback tour.

Arthur L. Erk testified as an expert witness for Jackson's mother and three children, who are suing concert promoter and producer AEG Live and two of its executives in the wrongful-death case. Erk based his projections, he said, on AEG budgets, emails from company executives, Jackson's written notes and testimony in the wrongful-death case.

The white-haired Erk, wearing a dark suit and a white shirt, looked the antithesis of the rock world. A certified public accountant in New York, Erk has worked with many rock and rap acts, including Kiss, Britney Spears and Notorious B.I.G.

His projections, sure to be attacked on cross-examination by AEG's lawyers, are the first indication in the trial of damages the jury will be asked to award the Jacksons.

Erk, who described his financial calculation as conservative, said his projections included a 37-month tour with the London shows and an average of two concerts a week in Central Europe, Asia, Australia and the U.S. He said he also included a 10-year show in Las Vegas based on Jackson's music, where the singer would not have performed. It also included sales of merchandise and endorsements.

AEG sold 750,000 tickets to Jackson's London concerts in five hours, meaning the equivalent of 1.4% of Great Britain's population bought tickets. Erk said the tickets sold in "record-breaking time. It never happened before, and it still hasn't happened again."

The jury was shown a chart from Billboard magazine of the highest-grossing tours of 2009, led by U2, Madonna and Paul McCartney. Jackson, he said, would have beat them all.

"Michael Jackson was in a class by himself," Erk said. "He was known as the King of Pop. There’s no one who comes close to him."

His projections include the often-extravagant Jackson spending $134,386,236 total over the next 15 years, which took him to age 65 and retirement, Erk said.

His projections did not include CD and songwriting royalties, since Jackson would have received those anyway, said Kevin Boyle, one of the Jackson family's attorneys.

Erk figured that if AEG charged $108 a ticket for the concerts, Jackson's worldwide tour and the Las Vegas show would net him $1,127,378,787. If tickets were $200 each, what were described as his "lost economic damages" would total $1,511,182,374.

“Demand was so wild that he probably could have charged more for tickets and still sold out,” Erk said.

Erk pointed to the singer's record sales. "Thriller" sold 65 million copies worldwide, "Bad" 45 million, "Dangerous" 32 million, "Off the Wall" and "HIStory" 20 million and "Invincible" 13 million.

“Looking at it historically, he has a huge fan base," the accountant said.

Although he had only signed a contract for the 50 London concerts, AEG was hopeful Jackson would follow it up with a four-year tour.

AEG Live chief executive Randy Phillips was ecstatic after the astonishingly swift sale of the London tickets, and at the same time worried about the star.

“We could have done 200 plus shows based on demand," he wrote in an email. "Major stars like Coldplay, Akon, Blackeye Peas, etc., want to support. We so underestimated the demand.

"Now I have to get him on stage. Scary!”

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[WeAreTheWorld.]

Michael Jackson making $1.5 billion? No way, attorney says

By Jeff Gottlieb
July 16, 2013

An accountant’s projection that Michael Jackson would have made as much as $1.5 billion if he’d taken his doomed “This Is It” 260-show world tour was attacked sharply Tuesday by a defense attorney, who said the singer had never pulled off an engagement even half that long.

"What you're projecting is totally inconsistent with Michael Jackson's history, isn't it?" asked attorney Sabrina Strong, one of the attorneys representing AEG Live, the entertainment titan that was producing what was to be Jackson’s comeback tour in 2009.

Strong previously told jurors that Jackson had been sued for canceling shows and had a history of drug use. She suggested Tuesday that his popularity may have been diminished by the 2005 child molestation trial and the instance where he dangled one of his young children over a hotel balcony. Jackson was acquitted in the molestation case.

Arthur Erk, a certified public accountant who has worked with various rock acts, testified that Jackson’s earning power remained strong and that he could have made as much as $1.5 billion if he’d gone on tour after his 50-concert stand in London.

Erk disagreed that Jackson’s earning power had diminished or that he was incapable of pulling off a long, multi-year tour. He said "This Is It" was going to be a "blow-out tour, and he was going to earn a lot of money.”

“I packed a lot of shows in to go out with a bang,” he added.

The most Jackson had ever performed in one tour was 123 show in the "Bad" tour in 1987, according to a chart Strong showed the jury. His highest grossing tour was his last one, "HIStory," which began in 1996, in which he performed 82 shows and grossed $165 million in ticket sales and merchandise.

Strong told Erk that AEG executive Paul Gongaware, a defendant in the case, had testified Jackson didn't make any money on "HIStory." Outside the courtroom, Jackson attorney Brian Panish said that was only because the pop singer had given 85% of his share to charity.

Erk said that the five-hour sale of 750,000 tickets to his 50 London concerts showed that Jackson's popularity had not suffered. AEG's plan, was that after the London shows the singer would perform in Europe and Asia, finally ending the tour in the U.S., he said, "and by that time his image would be rehabilitated.”

Strong kept insisting that Jackson had not agreed to anything other than the London shows, although Jackson's contract included the possibility of extending the tour.

Erk said he spoke to Jackson's son, Prince, Saturday night. "He said his father specifically told him, 'We're going to Asia,' " according to Erk.

Jackson's mother and three children have sued AEG for wrongful death, saying the entertainment firm hired and controlled Conrad Murray, the doctor who gave the singer the fatal dose of the anesthetic propofol in June 2009. AEG says the doctor worked for Jackson and that any money the firm was supposed to pay Murray was an advance to the singer.

Strong talked about Jackson's prolific spending, saying he was $400 million in debt and that his mother's home was in foreclosure. She said that a former Jackson business manager had quit because the singer showed no interest in pulling back on his spending.

Strong said that in one instance, Jackson bought a $1-million watch but had to return it because he couldn't afford it.

Another former Jackson business manager said Jackson spent $20 million to $30 million a year more than he earned, Strong said.

Erk said Jackson had a $320-million loan on his portion of the Sony/ATV musical catalog, which includes Beatles songs.

Erk's calculations of Jackson's projected earnings also included a Las Vegas show based on the pop star's music, but one in which he would not perform. Erk calculated that Jackson could have earned as much as $1.96 billion if Jackson's tour was extended to four years, a plan based on an email from AEG chief executive Randy Phillips.

His more speculative projections had Jackson taking a nearly three-year break after the global tour and then performing in four smaller sets of concerts through 2024, which would have earned him an additional $376 million, including merchandising.

The trial action was nearly overshadowed by a confrontation outside the courtroom between AEG Live attorney Marvin Putnam and Panish. The two men have been sniping at each other almost since testimony began 2 ½ months ago. Tuesday, their apparent dislike for each exploded.
A reporter asked Panish about AEG’s mention of the molestation case, the first time it has been brought up in the trial. Panish called it “totally disingenuous.”

“They can bring it all out,” Panish said. “We’ll be ready.”

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[midangerous]

Judge in Michael Jackson trial chides lawyers for childish spats


By Jeff Gottlieb

July 17, 2013, 2:16 p.m.

Following a blow-up outside the courtroom between two attorneys in the Michael Jackson wrongful death suit, the judge warned the attorneys in chambers that they could be sanctioned if the feuds continue and prohibited them from speaking to reporters about the case near the courtroom.

Kevin Boyle and Brian Panish, lawyers for Michael Jackson and his three children, said that Marvin Putnam, AEG's lead attorney, refused to shake hands with Panish and called him "despicable."

"Where I’m from, handshakes mean something, and they're not empty gestures,” said Putnam, who had the confrontation with Panish a day earlier.

Putnam said that he may have told Panish, "What you did yesterday was despicable."

Panish, a former football player at Fresno State, and Putnam, who received his bachelor's degree from Harvard, seem to have an almost visceral dislike of one another, and the two sides have been sniping at each other inside and outside the courtroom almost since the trial began 2-1/2 months ago.  Last month, Putnum accused Panish of giving him "the finger" twice.

After the trial recessed Tuesday, the two men were giving their spins on the case to reporters in the hall outside the courtroom when they got into a very loud and heated discussion. "Don't yell at me, Mr. Putnam," Panish said.

Court clerk Nelli Raya, who was holding the courtroom door open, said, "Everyone go your separate ways."

The men continued arguing after Raya said she was going to tell the judge. "He's afraid of the truth," Putnam said.

"Where's Mr. Anschutz?" Panish replied.

Putnam asked what Philip Anschutz, the owner of AEG, the parent company of AEG Live, had to do with the case. As he walked away, Putnam took a parting shot at Panish. "He says these lies to the press and they pick it up."

Putnam said in an interview Wednesday that Panish had "defamed a number of people inside the courtroom and outside the courtroom."

Even before the courthouse opened Wednesday, reporters received an email from the Superior Court's public information office telling them interviews could not be conducted in the hallway "per order of the supervising judge of this building."

Before Superior Court Judge Yvette Palazuelos took the bench, she called the attorneys into her chambers. Panish and Boyle said she told the attorneys they were embarrassing everyone.

Palazuelos told them not to repeat their actions or she would punish them or bring them over to Presiding Judge Daniel Buckley. Both apologized, the two attorneys said.

Boyle said he jokingly asked Palazuelos if it was OK for him to argue with Jessica Stebbins Bina, another AEG attorney, who, like Putnam, works for O'Melveny and Myers.

The attorneys returned to the courtroom after about 10 minutes.

While the attorneys were in the judge's chambers, Raya passed out a one-page list of rules to reporters and emphasized they could not talk to attorneys about the case near the courtroom.

"So you have all been warned," she said. "Basically it means I will kick you out of the court if I see you violating the rules." She also said that reporters and other spectators were prohibited from laughing.

The jury was called in and AEG attorney Samantha Strong continued her cross examination of an accountant who said Jackson could have made $1.5 billion if he had taken the "This Is It" concerts on a worldwide tour.

Strong was standing behind a lectern, a foot or two behind the seated Panish, who had turned around to look at her. At one point jurors laughed. "Did I miss something?" the judge asked.

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Katherine Jackson on stand: 'When I lost Michael, I lost everything'

By Kate Mather
July 19, 2013

This post has been corrected, see note at bottom for details.

Katherine Jackson wept on the witness stand Friday as she described her relationship with her son Michael, saying that when he died, she “lost everything.”

The 83-year-old matriarch said she and her seventh child were “very close,” saying “a mother wouldn’t want a better son than Michael.”

He took care of her “every need, my every want,” Katherine Jackson said, for example by remodeling her Hayvenhurst home, covering the walls of a room with enlarged pictures of their family.

He also wrote her poetry, she said. After Michael Jackson died, his older brother Jermaine found another handwritten poem to his mother and had it framed. Katherine Jackson said she cried when she read the words.

“All my success has been based on the fact that I wanted to make Mother proud,” the poem ends. “To win her smile of approval.”

When attorney Brian Panish asked how she had been affected by her son’s death, Katherine Jackson broke down.

“When a mother loses a child,” she said, crying. “No one knows until it happens to them. That’s the worst thing that could happen to a person, losing a child.

“I lost my mother, my father and my sister … but when I lost Michael, I lost everything,” she said.

Katherine Jackson and her grandchildren -- Prince, Paris and Blanket -- claim AEG Live negligently hired and controlled the physician who gave the singer a fatal dose of the anesthetic propofol in 2009, days before his "This Is It" tour was to open in London. AEG Live was promoting and producing the comeback tour.

AEG says it was Jackson who hired Dr. Conrad Murray, and that any money the company was supposed to pay the doctor was actually part of an advance to the singer. Murray was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in Jackson's death and is serving jail time.

Katherine Jackson, a Jehovah’s witness, said she was out in “field service” — going door to door to share her faith — and returned home to a message from her husband on that June 2009 day. One of the fans who had gathered outside Michael Jackson’s rented Holmby Hills home had called Joe Jackson, saying someone had left on a gurney “completely covered up,” she testified.

“Later on I got a call to come to the hospital, so I thought maybe he was just sick,” she said.

Katherine Jackson said she arrived to find Jackson’s staff and a man she later learned was “packing back and forth.” Someone took her to a room where she waited, she said, until her son’s manager approached.

“Frank DiLeo came and told me that Michael had a reaction, and I said, ‘Well how is he?’ ” she said. “And nobody said anything.”

“I said, ‘Did he make it? Did he make it?’ and Frank said no,” she said, her voice breaking.

Katherine Jackson continued to cry on the stand as she described her reaction. “I just started screaming.”

Jackson said she was then taken to another room, where she was attended to by nurses and later met with her grandchildren. Paris Jackson, she said, was particularly emotional.

“She was screaming, looking up at the sky and said, ‘Daddy, I want to go with you.' ” Katherine Jackson said.

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Fans line up to see Katherine Jackson testify in AEG lawsuit


By Kate Mather

July 19, 2013, 10:05 a.m.

About a dozen fans of Michael Jackson gathered Friday outside the downtown Los Angeles courtroom where Katherine Jackson was set to testify in her family's wrongful-death lawsuit against AEG.

One wore a black T-shirt that read: "We support you Katherine."

Fans regularly attended the months-long trial, watching from an overflow room or one of the coveted public seats raffled off each morning. A short cheer broke out Friday for the woman who received a ticket allowing her inside the courtroom.

"Yay!" one of the other fans said. "I had a feeling."

Katherine Jackson and her the singer's three children -- Prince, Paris and Blanket -- filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against AEG Live, the company that was promoting the singer's ill-fated comeback tour. It would be her first court appearance in the case.

The suit claims the entertainment giant negligently hired and controlled the physician who gave the singer a fatal dose of the anesthetic propofol in 2009, days before his "This Is It" tour was to open in London.

AEG says it was Michael Jackson who hired Dr. Conrad Murray, and that any money the company was supposed to pay the doctor was an advance to the singer.

Murray is serving jail time for his involuntary manslaughter conviction.

Other Jackson family members have already testified in the trial, which began more than two months ago and could continue through October.

Michael Jackson's eldest son, Prince, took the stand in late June, when the 16-year-old testified about his childhood, his father's preparations for the "This Is It" tour, and the day the singer died.

Two of Michael Jackson's nephews have also testified, including TJ Jackson, who with his grandmother shares guardianship over the King of Pop's children.

Katherine Jackson has spent much of the trial seated in the front row of the courtroom, where she has been well-received by her son's fans who also routinely watch the proceedings.

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Katherine Jackson: Michael Jackson denied using prescription drugs

By Jeff Gottlieb
July 22, 2013

Katherine Jackson testified Monday that her pop star son denied he was using prescription drugs when she asked him about rumors she had heard.

Testifying for the second day in her family's wrongful-death suit against entertainment giant AEG Live, the family matriarch said the conversation occurred as she was getting ready to leave her son's house in Las Vegas, where Michael Jackson lived from 2006 to 2008. She said she told Michael that she had heard he was using prescription drugs and that she didn't want him to end up "like all the others."

Speaking in a soft, muffled voice that was sometimes difficult to hear through the courtroom sound system, Katherine Jackson, when asked a question by AEG Live attorney Marvin Putnam, said her son sometimes didn’t remember things. Several times she told Putnam that she didn't want to answer a question.

Jackson and the pop star’s three children are suing AEG Live, arguing that the company is complicit in Michael Jackson’s 2009 death because it hired and supervised Conrad Murray, the Las Vegas physician who administered a fatal dose of a strong anesthetic as the singer prepared for his “This Is It” comeback tour. AEG contends it was Michael Jackson who hired Murray.

On the stand Monday, Katherine Jackson said she knew her son was using prescription pain pills for burns he suffered to his scalp during the filming of a Pepsi commercial and for a back injury and said that she figured he would deny any drug abuse because he didn't want her to worry.

"If a child goes out to play and does something real ugly, and a parent asks them about it, he’s gong to deny it,” she said.

“If you knew your son was gong to deny it, why did you ask him?” Putnam asked

“I’m not answering that question ... because to me it doesn’t make sense," Jackson said.

"I didn't know he was gong to deny it, but he did.”

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AEG offered Michael Jackson estate $60 million for Las Vegas show

By Jeff Gottlieb
July 23, 2013

An AEG Live executive testified Tuesday that the firm offered Michael Jackson's estate a guarantee of $60 million over 10 years in a deal that included a Las Vegas theatrical show based on the pop star's songs.

John Meglen said the proposal included a "Michael Jackson campus" at the Planet Hollywood Hotel that would have included the singer's artifacts, two restaurants, a nightclub and stores to sell merchandise.

The show would have been directed by Kenny Ortega, the director of the ill-fated "This Is It" 50-concert comeback tour Jackson was preparing when he died in 2009.

The AEG executive testified his company would have paid an additional $40 million to create the show.

"The $40 million gets you to opening night," he said.

Meglen, dressed in a dark blue suit and a white shirt open at the collar, said this would have been AEG's first shot at creating what he called a "conceptual show," rather than one where a live performer is the main attraction.

Conceptual shows, he said, are riskier.

“With the headliner, you have a certain track record of how many tickets they’re going to sell … but if you do a show based on Elton’s music or Celine’s music, it depends on how good the show is, I guess,” said Meglen referring to Elton John and Celine Dion, singers who have done extended runs at Las Vegas hotels.

Meglen said that hearing that Cirque du Soleil was talking to the Jackson estate is what led AEG to make its pitch.

He said they had a meeting with the estate's co-executor, John Branca, in his conference room. Meglen said AEG did a "B-minus, C-plus pitch. In my opinion, they were already down the road and they wanted to do the show with Cirque.”

The Circue du Soleil tribute to Jackson is playing at the Mandalay Bay Hotel, with shows scheduled to open soon in China, Australia and New Zealand.

Meglen said AEG never made Jackson an offer for a conceptual show while he was alive.

“We thought if we could create the show with Michael’s catalog that that could be very successful, but it’s risky,” Meglen said.

The court is hearing the wrongful death case filed by Jackson's mother and three children against AEG Live.

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Anesthetist: Surgery halted when Jackson showed up 'a little goofy'

By Kate Mather
July 25, 2013

The nurse who gave Michael Jackson anesthesia during medical procedures spanning a decade testified Thursday that he pulled the plug on one because of the star's "inappropriate" behavior.

David Fournier, a certified nurse anesthetist who first worked with Jackson in 1993, said the singer was scheduled to receive some "facial work" in 2003 when Fournier canceled the procedure.

Everything was ready to go, he said, when Jackson arrived acting "a little goofy, a little slow to respond."

"I've known him for 10 years ... he was acting inappropriate," Fournier testified.

Fournier said he asked Jackson "if anything was going on" and whether he had taken any medication, which the singer denied.

"I didn't believe him," Fournier said, noting it was the last time Jackson called him for work.

About three months previously, Fournier said the singer stopped breathing during a dermatological procedure. Fournier said he had to "control" the singer's ventilation twice, and had to "assist" it at another point. That was an "unusual reaction" for Jackson, he said.

Fournier said he spoke to Jackson on the phone three days before that procedure when the singer called to wish him a happy birthday. Jackson's speech was slurred during that conversation, he said.

The anesthetist said he asked Jackson about the call when prepping for the June 2 procedure. The singer told him he was just tired, he said. Fournier said he "quizzed him extensively" about whether he had taken any recreational drugs or medication, but Jackson denied doing so.

"He was more than tired," Fournier said. "He was slurring his words."

Fournier was called to the stand as a defense witness in the wrongful death suit Jackson's mother and three children filed against AEG Live, the company behind the singer's ill-fated "This Is It" tour.

Katherine Jackson and her grandchildren allege the entertainment giant hired and negligently controlled Dr. Conrad Murray, who gave the singer a fatal dose of the powerful anesthetic propofol on June 25, 2009, two weeks before the London tour was set to begin. AEG says Michael Jackson hired Murray.

Murray is currently serving jail time after being convicted of involuntary manslaughter in Jackson's death.

Fournier spent Thursday morning describing the multiple times he assisted in Jackson's medical procedures, noting he gave the singer propofol 14 times between 2000 and 2003.

Jackson one time referred to the drug as "the milk," Fournier said, referring to its street name: "the milk of amnesia."

Overall, Fournier said he administered anesthesia to Jackson for procedures including scalp work, dental treatment, Botox and collagen injections, and "extensive tattooing" on the singer's lips and eyes.

Unlike most people who receive "a half-dozen" Botox injections, Fournier said, Jackson would get "hundreds of injections around the eye and face."

"He often needed to be sedated," Fournier said.

Fournier said he and Jackson became friends, describing him as a "very warm, likable guy." The two would discuss Jackson's medical history before each procedure, he said, as well as post-op instructions. Fournier recalled two occasions when Jackson disobeyed those instructions.

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Michael Jackson's survivors vs. AEG: a gold mine for witnesses

By Jeff Gottlieb
August 3, 2013

A lot of people are making a lot of money off the Michael Jackson wrongful-death case — and then there are the lawyers.

Witnesses in the case are being paid huge sums to analyze the pop star's earning power, his health, his popularity, even his inability to get a good night's sleep.

Attorneys representing concert promoter AEG Live on the one side and Jackson's mother and his three children on the other have so far spent around $1 million just on experts who have testified about how much money the singer could have earned had he not died in 2009 from an overdose of the anesthetic propofol.

That doesn't include physicians who are also being paid as expert witnesses. One of them, Dr. Charles Czeisler, a Harvard University sleep expert, testified how propofol may have affected Jackson. He was paid $950 an hour.

"For $950 an hour, can you please keep your answers short?" said attorney Michael Koskoff, drawing laughter from jurors.

The stakes in the lawsuit, in its third month and counting, are enormous — at least in terms of dollars. Each side is bringing in highly paid experts to convince jurors of their case, sometimes leading to dueling witnesses.

Certified public accountant Arthur Erk, testifying for the Jacksons, calculated that the singer could have made $1.5 billion if his doomed "This Is It" concert series in London had blossomed into a world tour, and an additional $500 million from subsequent tours, endorsements and merchandise sales.

Erk told jurors that he was being paid $475 an hour and that his firm had so far billed $332,500. The clock was ticking as he sat on the witness stand, telling the jury how much he was making.

AEG's expert was Eric Briggs, a senior managing director at FTI Consulting in Century City. He said it was speculative to think Jackson would earn anything at all because of his drug use, erratic behavior and track record of canceling shows. The notion that he could even pull off such an ambitious tour was doubtful, he said.

Briggs testified that he was costing AEG $800 an hour and that he had already spent about 350 hours on the case. He said his team put in 500 to 600 hours and that they had billed AEG between $600,000 and $700,000.

From the beating he took on the stand from Jackson attorney Brian Panish, he might not have thought that was enough.

One of the consultants who worked with him, Briggs testified, was a year out of college. Briggs said he had done "general research," such as finding out the capacities of arenas where Erk said Jackson might perform during his world tour.

The recently graduated consultant charged $350 an hour.

So whom are the 12 jurors to believe?

USC law professor Jody Armour said people tend to think of experts as neutral observers reciting facts.

"But these experts are actually trying to persuade the jury that their version is the version they should buy," he said. "It's an odd role these scientific experts are thrown into."

The Jacksons have sued AEG Live and two of its executives, alleging that the entertainment company negligently hired and controlled Dr. Conrad Murray, who administered the fatal dose of propofol to Jackson. AEG says the singer hired Murray and that any money the company was supposed to pay the doctor was part of an advance to Jackson.

When the dollar stakes are far lower, plaintiffs' attorneys, who usually foot the bill for experts, must think twice before taking a case. The amount they can collect — even if they win — might make it not worth their time, lawyers said.

Expert testimony can backfire. The Jacksons' attorneys liked the deposition of AEG expert Dr. Paul Early so much that they played portions of it during the trial. Early testified that addicts shouldn't be blamed for their problem.

AEG has not called him to the witness stand.

The fees that witnesses charge can vary greatly. Gordon Matheson, head of Stanford University's sports medicine program, testified as an expert for the first time. His fee was $500 an hour. Matheson testified that Murray had conflicts of interest that would probably lead to poor medical decisions.

Dr. Daniel Wohlgelernter, a cardiologist who testified for the Jacksons, said he receives about 20% of his income as an expert witness. He said he had testified in 31 trials and been retained as an expert in 400 cases. He was paid $4,250 for half a day of testimony and $450 an hour to prepare.

Czeisler, the Harvard sleep expert, testified for the Jacksons for several days. AEG's attorneys argued that though he may be a world-renowned sleep expert, he wasn't an expert on propofol.

That forced the Jacksons' attorneys to call anesthesiologist Emery Brown, who holds endowed chairs at Harvard and MIT and is considered one of the world's experts on the anesthetic.

Brown, who testified in a video deposition, said he was being paid $1,000 an hour but that he was donating his $75,000 fee to Massachusetts General Hospital.

Jurors, Armour said, often suspect that one side or the other is buying an expert to provide the testimony it wants. Brown's contribution, Armour said, boosts his credibility to the jury.

"He's donating it all to charity, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, so this is coming from the heart," Armour said. "It's a bowl-you-over rhetorical move to make."

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Michael Jackson case may not reach jury until late September


By Jeff Gottlieb

August 8, 2013, 2:35 p.m.

The judge in the Michael Jackson wrongful death lawsuit said Thursday that she doesn’t expect the case, now in its fourth month, to go to the jury before late September.

Superior Court Judge Yvette Palazuelos said she thought jurors needed an update on the case, which has moved slowly.

One juror, according to the judge, had signaled that the end of August was a “drop dead date.” The judge did not address what will happen at that time, but it raises the question of whether an alternate will take the juror’s place. One juror, who moved to Atlanta, already has been replaced.

The judge gave jurors no explanation for the length of the trial.

“It is what it is,” she said.

Palazuelos told jurors to write her a note if they had problems.

The pace of the trial will slow considerably next month with no court scheduled on several days. Palazuelos said earlier in the trial that jurors had pushed back appointments to September, when they expected the case would be over. As a result some are busy on certain days.

Jackson’s mother and three children are suing AEG Live, saying the concert promoter and producer negligently hired Conrad Murray, the doctor who administered the fatal dose of the anesthetic propofol to the singer to help him sleep in June 2009. AEG says Murray was Jackson’s personal physician, that the singer hired him and that any money it was supposed to pay Murray was part of an advance to Jackson.

Kenny Ortega, the director of Jackson’s ill–fated 50 comeback concerts in London, continued his testimony Thursday after a break of several weeks so he could travel to China for work.

Ortega wrote an email to AEG chief executive Randy Phillips five days before Jackson’s death expressing his concern with the singer’s physical and emotional state, saying the pop star wouldn’t be ready for the concerts and that he needed to be evaluated by a psychiatrist. .

Asked if Jackson was responsible for his own health, Ortega replied, “I didn’t think he was being very responsible but it was his responsibility, in my opinion.”

Debbie Rowe, Jackson’s former wife and mother of two of his children, is expected to be called to the witness stand next week.

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Michael Jackson trial: Pop star was 'tapped out,' millions in debt


By Jeff Gottlieb

August 12, 2013, 2:13 p.m.

Despite receiving millions of dollars annually from his song catalogs, Michael Jackson year after year spent more than he earned, including $30 million in annual debt payments, a forensic accountant testified Monday.

William R. Ackerman, testifying as a defense witness on behalf of AEG Live in the wrongful-death trial, offered a detailed look at the singer's finances, telling jurors that Jackson spent money on donations to charity, gifts, travel, art and furniture.

"He spent a lot of money on jewelry," Ackerman said with a chuckle.

Neverland Ranch -- which Ackerman called "a mini-theme park," with its maintenance staff, zoo and train that traveled around the property -- was also a huge drain on his income, the certified public accountant testified.

Still, he said, “consistently, his largest expenditure was interest expense. He spent a ton of money on interest.”

Jackson's biggest expense was $30 million in annual payments on his debt when he died in 2009.

Interest on the loans grew over the years, ranging from a little less than 7% to 16.8% annually, Ackerman said in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom.

As early as 1993, Jackson owed $30 million, a figure that grew to $140 million by 1998. From June 2001 through June 2009, Jackson's debt increased by about $170 million. When he died, Jackson owed $400 million to $500 million, Ackerman testified.

Ackerman said Jackson received no loans after 2007, and at the time of his death, he was three to four months behind on payments for the San Fernando Valley home where his mother lived.

"He was tapped out," Ackerman said.

The CPA is the latest high-priced expert to testify in the trial. Ackerman said his company has received $825,000 for its work on the trial. Concert promoter AEG Live has spent around $1.5 million on experts to testify about Jackson's financial condition, which could be a key factor in how much damages the firm could owe Jackson's mother and three children.

The Jacksons are suing AEG Live, claiming it negligently hired and supervised Conrad Murray, the doctor who administered the lethal dose of anesthetic to the singer as he prepared for his 50 comeback concerts in London.

AEG says Jackson hired the doctor and any payments the firm was supposed to make to Murray would have been advances to the pop star.

Jackson's debt has become a contentious issue during the trial, now in its fourth month. During testimony by a previous expert called by AEG, it was revealed that the Internal Revenue Service had valued Jackson's portion of the Sony/ATV song catalog as being worth hundreds of millions of dollars more than his total debt.

But Ackerman, whose testimony is continuing, said the singer was in a "precarious financial position."

He provided details of Jackson's 1985 purchase of the ATV music catalog, which contains many Beatles songs, for $49.5 million. Jackson merged it with Sony's catalog a decade later, receiving $115 million, along with a guaranteed $6.5 million a year, which was increased to $11 million annually in 2008.

The CPA also testified that Jackson's tours in the 1990s were not moneymakers. He said Jackson broke even on the Dangerous tour and lost $11.2 million on the HIStory tour.


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Man who vouched for Conrad Murray testifies at Michael Jackson trial


By Jeff Gottlieb

August 21, 2013, 1:26 p.m.

A man who worked security for Michael Jackson testified Wednesday that he introduced the singer to Conrad Murray, the doctor who later administered the fatal dose of the anesthetic propofol to the singer more than two years later.

Jeffrey Adams testified he was "positive" the first time Jackson and Murray met was in February 2007. Adams' video deposition, given under oath, was played to jurors in the wrongful death lawsuit filed by Jackson's mother and three children against concert promoter and producer AEG Live and three of its executives.

Adams' relationship with the singer was a bit confusing. He said he worked security at special events for Jackson, but also said he "didn't officially work for Michael, I orchestrated his staff."

Adams said that one of Jackson's security staff members, Bashier Muhammad, called him and told him that Jackson's children were sick and he didn't want to take them to the hospital "due to the fact that they ... weren’t made up or didn’t have anything to cover their faces.”

Murray was Adams' doctor and had also treated Adams' father. Muhammad asked if the doctor could be trusted.

“I said he’s been my doctor," Adams testified. "He’s my friend. He definitely can be trusted.”

Adams said he called the doctor within 10 minutes.

“I told Dr. Murray that I needed a huge favor from him, that I had a high-profile client that I was working with -- I couldn’t give him that name, but that once he got there he would know who he was -- would he mind going over there" and examine his children, Adams testified.

Adams declined a request from Muhammad to provide Murray's resume: "We were doing him a favor," Adams said.

Muhammad told him the next day that Murray had visited Jackson's Las Vegas home. "Everything's fine," Muhammad told Adams.

Adams said he did not know how many times Murray treated Jackson or his children.

Adams testified that he met Murray in the 1990s through a mutual friend and remained his patient until Murray was convicted for involuntary manslaughter in the Jackson case.

He testified that when Jackson died on June 25, 2009, he called Murray and asked if the doctor needed him.

“I told him that he had taken care of my father for me and that I would be by his side in this situation until it was completed,” Adams said.

He said he arrived in Southern California the next day and lived with Murray until his conviction, providing security and traveling with him to Philadelphia, Las Vegas, Houston, San Diego, Boston and Miami. He said Murray would see patients in Las Vegas and Houston.

Murray never discussed the details of Jackson's death with him, Adams said.

In its lawsuit, the Jackson family accused AEG of negligently hiring and supervising Murray while the singer was preparing for his 50 comeback concerts in London. AEG says that Jackson hired the doctor and that any money the company was supposed to pay the doctor was an advance to the singer.

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Michael Jackson trial: Doctor expected to discuss sleep, drugs




By Jeff Gottlieb

September 18, 2013, 11:25 a.m.

Jurors in the long-running Michael Jackson wrongful death trial are expected to be shown video testimony Wednesday from a physician who allegedly arranged for the singer to be given a powerful anesthetic during a mid-1990s concert tour.

Allen Metzger, who treated the performer for 15 years, twice arranged for German doctors to administer the anesthetic propofol to Jackson in a hotel room when the singer was having trouble sleeping during a stint of concerts in that country, Jackson’s former wife Debbie Rowe testified last month.

Rowe’s testimony provided the first evidence that Jackson had a history of using the drug or that he had used it as a sleep aid prior to the days leading up to his death in June 2009, when the singer was fighting insomnia as he prepared for a comeback tour.

Jackson died after he was administered a fatal dose of propofol in his rented Holmby Hills mansion by Dr. Conrad Murray, who was later convicted of involuntary manslaughter and is serving a jail term.

Testimony in the trial, which started in late April, has been delayed for about a week because of an illness in a juror’s family.

Jackson’s mother and three children are suing concert producer and promoter AEG Live, saying the company negligently hired and supervised Murray. AEG says that the doctor worked for Jackson, and that any money it was supposed to pay the physician was just part of an advance to the singer.

Rowe testified that Metzger was one of the only doctors treating Jackson that she trusted.

Metzger testified at Murray’s criminal trial that the singer was concerned about his health, especially his insomnia, and asked for an anesthetic to help him sleep. Metzger testified he advised against using propofol.

He also testified during the manslaughter trial that the singer was feeling anxious about his scheduled 50 concert dates in London but felt up to the task.

After Metzger’s video deposition is played, AEG is expected to play a deposition from Prince Jackson, Michael’s oldest child. Prince Jackson, 16, testified for about 90 minutes earlier in the trial, detailing life with his father and the singer’s final moments.

Prince Jackson also testified that his father felt he needed more time to rehearse before starting the “This Is It” tour. He said his father would sometimes cry after getting off the phone with AEG Live Chief Executive Randy Phillips and his manager.

“He would say,`They’re going to kill me, they’re going to kill me,’” Prince Jackson testified.

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Michael Jackson judgment day nears as final arguments begin

By Jeff Gottlieb
September 24, 2013, 11:16 a.m.
Final arguments in the nearly five-month Michael Jackson wrongful death trial began Tuesday in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom where jurors will be asked to decide whether one of the country’s most powerful entertainment firms is responsible for the pop star’s drug overdose death.

Attorneys for Jackson’s mother and three children were trying to convince jurors that concert producer and promoter AEG Live pushed Jackson to pull off a comeback tour even as his mental and physical health were deteriorating and hired the Las Vegas doctor who gave the singer a fatal dose of a powerful anesthetic as he rehearsed for the doomed “This Is It” tour.

AEG Live’s attorneys claim it was Jackson who brought Dr. Conrad Murray aboard as his personal physician. Murray, now serving jail time after being convicted of involuntary manslaughter, refused to testify in the wrongful death trial.

AEG negotiated Murray’s $150,000-a-month deal, but neither Jackson nor his representatives saw a draft of the contract. Murray signed the contract the day before Jackson died in June 2009, but his is the only signature on the contract.

The entertainment firm contends the money that was to be used for Murray’s monthly salary was actually part of an advance to Jackson.

Lawyers for AEG Live will present closing arguments Wednesday, and the case should be in the juror’s hands by week’s end.

At times, the long-running trial has veered toward the sensational, with testimony about Jackson’s drug use, his rapid weight loss and his inability to pull off his signature dance moves in rehearsals.

Though the case does not seek a specific sum, the financial stakes could be enormous. A witness for Jackson’s family testified that the pop star could have made $1 billion or more if he had lived to perform in the planned concerts in London and then gone on a worldwide tour.

Unlike a criminal case, the jury does not have to reach its decision beyond a reasonable doubt, “only that it is more likely to be true than not true,” Judge Yvette Palazuelos told jurors. Also unlike a criminal trial, the verdict does not have to be unanimous; a vote of only nine of the 12 jurors is needed.

AEG attorney Marvin Putnam said the Jacksons have no proof to back up their case.

“This has never been anything other than a shakedown,” he said.

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