‘He is an emotionally paralysed mess, riddled with self loathing and doubt’: Jackson family prepare 250 emails
Hundreds of private emails detailing Michael Jackson’s dramatic deterioration in his final days will play a key role in a £26.5billion ($41billion) wrongful death trial beginning today in Los Angeles.
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.
Opening statements begin this morning in the case being brought by Jackson's mother and his three children, who claim AEG was liable in the June 25, 2009 tragedy.
Doomed: The emails between executives from entertainment giant AEG are believed to reveal Michael Jackson's declining health ahead of his doomed This Is It comeback tour
Suit: Jackson's mother Katherine Jackson is one of the family members who have brought the suit against AEG
Children: Damages are also being sought on behalf of the star's children Prince (left) Blanket (middle) and Paris (right)
The trial, expected to last up to three months, could include testimony from Jackson’s two older children, Prince Michael, 16, and Paris, 14, as well as celebrity witnesses including Diana Ross, Prince and the singer’s two ex-wives, Lisa Marie Presley and Debbie Rowe.
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The suit, demanding a staggering £26.5 billion in damages, accuses AEG’ s concert promotions arm of hiring and controlling Dr Conrad Murray, who administered the fatal dose of propofol to the pop singer shortly before he was scheduled to appear in the ‘This Is It’ O2 Arena shows.
‘AEG had legal duties to Michael Jackson to treat him safely and to not put him in harm’s way. But AEG, despite its knowledge of Michael Jackson’s physical condition, breached those duties by putting its desire for massive profits from the tour over the health and safety of Michael Jackson,’ the complaint alleges.
Evidence: The star's former wives Lisa Marie Presley (left) and Debbie Rowe could be asked to give testimony during the trial
Jailed: Dr Conrad Murray wwas jailed for four years for causing involuntary manslaughter for his role in Michael Jackson's death
Mr Jackson’s personal doctor is serving a four-year prison sentence after being found guilty of manslaughter in 2011.
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.
Stars: Singer Diana Ross is one of a number of celebrities who could be asked to give evidence during the court case
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.