Katherine Jackson is a “strong woman” who won’t just beat it after losing her bid to collect $1.5 billion in damages from the King of Pop’s last concert promoter, her lawyer said Thursday.
“She’s obviously disappointed, but she’s a very strong woman,” lead plaintiff’s lawyer Brian Panish told the Daily News in an exclusive interview Thursday.
“She’s been through a lot in life, and she’s doing the best she can. She only wants what is best for Michael’s children, who are her No. 1 priority.”
He said the five-month wrongful death trial was “a search for the truth” that likely didn’t end with Wednesday’s verdict.
“There’s going to be more to this story. I don’t think it’s over yet,” Panish said. “We’re not giving up all hope yet.”
He said Katherine, 83, was heartened by the jury’s unanimous vote that AEG Live did in fact hire Conrad Murray.
AEG Live argued during the trial that it was Michael who hired the doctor now serving four years for providing the anesthetic propofol that killed Jackson in his bedroom on June 25, 2009.
“AEG denied it all along, but the truth was that AEG hired the doctor who killed Michael Jackson,” Panish said.
He declined to give specifics on how he might file an appeal, but said he believes the wording of the verdict form question that decided the case in AEG’s favor was possibly faulty.
The form had 16 questions total. But jurors were instructed to stop at the second question and award no damages if at least nine jurors voted “no” on the query, “Was Dr. Conrad Murray unfit or incompetent to perform the work for which he was hired?”
Jurors who spoke after the verdict said Murray was qualified to act as Michael’s general practitioner - not an anesthesiologist - at the time of his hiring.
“Conrad Murray had a license, he graduated from an accredited college, and we felt he was competent to do the job of being a general practitioner,” said jury foreman Gregg Barden.
“Now that doesn’t mean that we thought he was ethical. Had the word ‘ethical’ been in the question, it could have been a different outcome.”
Panish also said some jurors expressed annoyance over the length of the trial that started last April - possibly leading to a bias against Katherine as the plaintiff.
“They were upset about how long it took. They told the judge that in her chambers,” he said, referring to a 20-minute closed-door session the judge held with the jurors and lawyers for both parties after the verdict.
Katherine was “taking a break” Thursday and not giving any direct media interviews, her personal lawyer Perry Sanders told The News.
He released a statement on her behalf late Wednesday that slammed AEG for repeatedly calling Katherine’s lawsuit “a shakedown.”
“Such a statement is a slap in the face of the entire judicial system that allowed this case to get to a jury,” the statement said.
Michael’s siblings including Jermaine, Randy and La Toya had no immediate comment on Twitter.
Tito’s son Taj Jackson, who testified during the trial and accompanied Katherine in the gallery on several occasions, bashed the verdict as unjust.
“Thank you guys for all your support. Unfortunately there will be no closure for my family #bigmoneywinsagain AEG,” Taj tweeted.
Michael’s ex-wife Debbie Rowe - the mother of Prince, 16, and Paris, 15 - defended Katherine on Twitter.
“She wanted answers to questions,” Rowe tweeted.
Rowe also challenged her fellow ex-wife Lisa Marie Presley after Elvis’ daughter praised Michael’s makeup artist Karen Faye.
Lisa Marie, who was on Katherine’s original witness list but never testified, said she was thankful because Faye alerted her that an alleged hacker someone accessed her Twitter account and posted a video suggesting Michael was a pedophile.
“Thank God for Karen Faye for giving me the heads up about all this,” Lisa Marie tweeted, claiming she was hacked.
Faye testified early in the wrongful death trial that she was close friends with Michael and witnessed him acting “paranoid” and disoriented the week before he died with unusually dry skin that was cold as an “ice cube.”
Faye also told jurors that Michael was getting large amounts of painkillers during his 1993 Dangerous tour from a doctor who put his hands around her neck when she objected.
Rowe answered Lisa Marie’s tweet about Faye saying, “really? She could have stopped it she chose not to”
Source: NYDailyNews / MJ-Upbeat.com
