Michael Jackson's family begin $40 billion case against tour promoters

[PStanley]

Michael Jackson's family begin $40 billion case against tour promoters

Almost four years after his shocking death, the bizarre life and sorry demise of Michael Jackson will play out again on Monday in a $40 billion (£25.8 billion) civil trial that pits the singer's family against the organisers of a musical comeback that never happened.

Michael Jackson died in Los Angeles of an overdose of the powerful surgical anaesthetic Propofol and a cocktail of other sedatives in June 2009 Photo: REX

By Reuters
8:41AM BST 29 Apr 2013

Opening statements are due to be heard on Monday in what is expected to be an emotional, three-month long jury trial that seeks to hold AEG Live, the promoters of the never-realised series of 2009 London concerts, liable for the wrongful death of the "Thriller" singer.

The lawsuit, brought by Michael Jackson's elderly mother Katherine on behalf of the singer's three children, alleges that privately-held AEG Live was negligent in hiring the doctor convicted in 2011 of his involuntary manslaughter to care for the singer while he rehearsed for the series of 50 shows.

Jackson, 50, drowning in debt and seeking to rebuild a reputation damaged by his 2005 trial and acquittal on child molestation charges, died in Los Angeles of an overdose of the powerful surgical anaesthetic Propofol and a cocktail of other sedatives in June 2009.

His personal doctor, Dr. Conrad Murray, is serving a four-year prison sentence after being found criminally negligent by administering Propofol to Jackson as a sleep aid.

Murray's six-week trial in 2011 portrayed the former child star known for his stunning dance moves and spectacular public performances as a slurring, drugged-up man offstage who slept with a toy doll on his bed and whose planned comeback tour was plagued with problems.

The civil trial in Los Angeles is expected to be just as sensational, although a request by TV networks for live coverage was turned down.

AEG Live contends that it did not hire or supervise Murray and claims that Jackson had prescription drug problems for years before entering into any agreement for the "This is It" London concerts.

The concert promoters also argue that they could not have foreseen that Murray posed a danger to Jackson.

Los Angeles Superior Court judge Yvette Palazuelos ruled last month that AEG Live can raise Jackson's 2005 child abuse case as it may be relevant to the singer's history of prescription drug abuse and despondency.

Jackson's two oldest children, Prince, 16 and Paris, 15, are on the witness list this time, although neither testified in Murray's trial. Singers Prince and Diana Ross are also potential witnesses along with the singer's ex-wives, Lisa-Marie Presley and Debbie Rowe.

"Any time you start injecting family members and rather sensitive issues (into the mix), there are going to be strong feelings," said Marcellus McRae, a former federal prosecutor.

Murray is not being sued but is also on the witness list, although he has made clear from jail that he will refuse to answer questions for fear of jeopardising his appeal process.

Mr McRae, now a trial lawyer with Los Angeles firm Gibson Dunn, said that while the criminal trial focused heavily on medical and scientific evidence – including a defence theory that Jackson gave himself the fatal dose of Propofol – the jury in the civil case has a very different task.

"The jurors are going to be asked to decide to what extent a third party can be held liable for the actions of someone else.

"To what extent did they (AEG Live) have visibility into what Dr. Murray was doing, did they encourage what he was doing? To what extent was whatever Dr. Murray did a reasonable and foreseeable consequence," said Mr McRae.

Katherine Jackson, 82, and her son's three children are seeking some $40 billion (£25.8 billion) in damages from AEG Live for loss of the singer's earnings and other damages.

AEG Live has argued in court papers that the figure is absurd because Jackson's career was in a downward spiral at the time of his death.

The final amount will be determined by the jury should it hold AEG Live liable for negligence.

 

[Rayden]

MJ looked like death

EMT: Star was already a skeletal shadow

By RICHARD JOHNSON in LA and DAVID K. LI
Last Updated: 4:27 AM, May 1, 2013
Posted: 2:51 AM, May 1, 2013

On the day he died, Michael Jackson was already so emaciated that he looked like a terminally ill hospice patient, a paramedic testified yesterday in a multimillion-dollar lawsuit over the King of Pop’s demise.

Los Angeles EMT Richard Senneff was the first witness called by Jackson’s loved ones, who are suing concert-promoting powerhouse AEG Live for allegedly hiring the quack who killed the pop icon.

Senneff, responding to a 911 call to Jackson’s rented LA mansion on June 25, 2009, said he didn’t even recognize the sickly man in bed.

“The patient appeared to be chronically ill to me,” said Senneff, adding that Jackson’s ribs were visible.

Michael Jackson

“He was very pale and underweight. I thought perhaps this was a hospice patient.”

Jackson (right) seemed so far gone, Senneff said he asked the attending physician, Dr. Conrad Murray, if there was a DNR — a do-not-resuscitate order — for the patient.

Two years after Jackson’s death, Murray was convicted of involuntary manslaughter for giving the pop superstar lethal doses of the anesthetic propofol. The insomniac singer used an IV drip of propofol as a sleep aid.

Senneff testified yesterday that Murray seemed evasive when he, the EMT, desperately asked him questions, in hopes of saving Jackson.

“When did this [cardiac arrest] happen?” Senneff testified he asked the physician. Murray allegedly replied, “Just now.”

But Jackson had no pulse, his pupils were dilated and his eyes were dry — all signs that he had been dead for 20 minutes, according to Senneff.

“To us [other paramedics] it didn’t make sense that it had just happened,” the paramedic told jurors. “His [Jackson’s] skin was very cool to the touch.”

Although Senneff was testifying for the plaintiffs, he might have thrown a small bone to defense lawyers, telling jurors that Murray identified himself as Jackson’s “personal physician.”

Jackson’s family wants to prove that Murray worked for AEG executives, who allegedly knew about the singer’s prescription-drug problems.

Defense lawyers hope to show that Murray was handpicked by Jackson, and that the company had no role in the doctor giving Michael propofol and painkillers.

“Even for [the ritzy LA neighborhood of] Bel Air, a personal physician is unusual,” Senneff testified.

Senneff also described a weird scene at the house after Jackson had been taken away in an ambulance.

The paramedic returned to Jackson’s bedroom and found Murray suspiciously — and frantically — throwing items into a white plastic bag.

An LAPD detective also testified, saying that Dr. Murray had dollar signs in his eyes and would “do whatever he had to do to get paid.”

Detective Orlando Martinez said he pulled an unsigned contract from the trunk of doc’s BMW for a $150,000-a-month salary.