Jacksons v AEG Timeline Legal

Will civil trial reveal more about Jackson death?

By | Published on Wednesday 9 November 2011

Michael Jackson

While the Conrad Murray trial revealed a lot about the final hours of Michael Jackson’s life, and gave a few insights into what happened in the preceding weeks, there was a lot about Jackson’s health, his various medical treatments, and the stress AEG’s planned 50 night residency in London possibly put on the late king of pop, that Murray’s defence wanted to explore during the court hearing, but which the judge forbid.

As noted yesterday, Judge Michael Pastor felt allegations about Jackson’s possible drug dependencies, and how he accessed prescription medication, were a distraction, and an unnecessary invasion on the deceased’s privacy. It hit the defence’s case hard, Murray’s lawyer Ed Chernoff keen to portray his client as a naïve but good man who found himself treating a patient with many drug dependencies fuelled over the months and years from various sources.

But those claims could only be hinted at during Murray’s criminal trial. However, some commentators reckon those allegations may yet get a public airing when the Jackson family’s civil lawsuit against AEG Live comes to court next year. Whereas Joe Jackson’s civil lawsuit targets Murray as well as AEG, the Katherine Jackson led litigation targets AEG as sole defendant, and will likely allege that the live music giant, as well as hiring the criminally negligent Murray, piled too much pressure on Michael Jackson, aggravating the health problems that led to Murray’s negligent treatment.

AEG will dispute those allegations head on, claiming Jackson was very much in control of his affairs, was an equal partner in terms of expanding the O2 residency, and personally chose Murray to be his private physician. But whatever way the case goes, there will possibly be more opportunities for revelations about Jackson’s health to be made during the civil hearing. A lawyer representing the Jackson clan told the LA Times: “The conviction of Dr Murray is just the beginning of bringing forth the truth on what happened to Michael Jackson. Forces much larger than Dr Murray were involved in this tragedy”.

Elsewhere in Jackson-related news, Channel 4 will air a documentary in the next week called ‘Michael Jackson And The Doctor’ which will include an interview with Murray, who was found guilty of causing the late king of pop’s death on Monday of course. The programme, recorded over the last couple of years, will also air in the US on Friday.



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