The latest super-trial involving Michael Jackson will hinge on a few key questions: Did executives from AEG Live, Jackson’s concert promoter, hire Dr. Conrad Murray? And did they pressure Murray into pumping Jackson full of drugs so he could sleep properly and be ready to perform his scheduled multimillion-dollar shows at London’s O2 Arena?
Jackson’s family – mother Katherine and children Paris, Prince Michael and Blanket – argue that AEG is at fault for the singer’s unexpected death after an overdose of sleep medication on June 25th, 2009. They’re suing AEG for $40 billion, claiming wrongful death. “The truth about what happened to Michael, which AEG has tried to keep hidden from the public since the day Michael died, is finally emerging,” the family’s attorney, Kevin Boyle, said earlier this year. “We look forward to the trial where the rest of the story will come to light.” (Attorneys for the family and AEG would not comment to Rolling Stone.)
The trial began last week with jury selection. It could last from two to four months, with potentially dramatic testimony from all three Jackson children as well as high-profile witnesses such as the musicians Prince, Diana Ross, Quincy Jones, Lisa Marie Presley, Jackson’s brothers and Sharon Osbourne.
The family’s goal is to make an emotional case to the Los Angeles Superior Court jury, painting AEG as a money-hungry promoter. The $40 billion claim may be to draw attention to the case for public-relations purposes, or to create a strong starting point for a settlement negotiation – or it may actually be what the Jacksons believe they can win. “They may feel they’re going to fight this to the bitter end because [AEG] killed Michael,” explains Stan Goldman, a Loyola Law School law professor who teaches criminal law and legal ethics and has closely followed trials involving Michael Jackson over the years. “They may feel as strongly about getting them punished as they did about Conrad Murray being punished.” (Murray is in prison after a 2009 involuntary manslaughter conviction.)
Supporting the Jacksons’ case are emails reportedly sent by AEG executives in the 2009 run-up to Jackson’s O2 shows. In March 2009, Randy Phillips, the company’s president, wrote in an email to his superiors, “MJ is locked in his room drunk and despondent. I [am] trying to sober him up. I screamed at him so loud the walls are shaking. He is an emotionally paralyzed mess riddled with self-loathing and doubt now that it is show time.” At the time, Phillips was offering a very different sentiment in public: “In order to do this deal, Michael had to submit to a five-hour physical by an independent, third-party physician picked by the insurance carrier,” he said then. “He passed with flying colors.”
Source: RollingStone / MJ-Upbeat.com
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