Jury selection begins Tuesday morning in the $40-billion US wrongful death civil lawsuit filed by Michael Jackson’s family against his concert promoter AEG Live.
Potential jury members will be interviewed in a Los Angeles court room in the suit filed by Jackson’s mother Katherine Jackson.
Dozens of prospective jurors answered written questionnaires that gauged their ability to serve on the trial, which may last three months. One 24-page section of the questionnaire focused on each person’s knowledge and opinions on Jackson’s life, his music, his family, as well as media coverage and whether they would have a problem deciding a multimillion-dollar case.
The family holds AEG responsible for the singer’s death because it hired Dr. Conrad Murray, the physician convicted of involuntary manslaughter in Jackson’s death. Dr. Murray administered a powerful anesthetic most commonly used in hospital settings on the morning of Jackson’s death.
Jackson’s death on June 25, 2009, was caused by “acute propofol intoxication” in combination with two sedatives, the Los Angeles County coroner ruled.
The lawsuit also accuses the concert promoter of putting undue pressure on the King of Pop, who died two weeks before his This is It concert tourin London, which was to mark his comeback.
Michael’s two oldest children, Prince Michael I, 16, and Paris, 14, are expected to testify in the trial about their father’s final days.
AEG is expected to defend itself by pointing to Jackson’s mental state and raising character issues such as the accusations of child molestationmade against the singer. It also will argue that it could not have predicted Jackson’s drug use.
“I don’t know how you can’t look to Jackson’s responsibility there. He was a grown man,” AEG lawyer Marvin Putnam said in an interview for CNN documentary Michael Jackson: The Final Days.
“Jackson is a person who was known to doctor shop,” Putnam said. “He was known to be someone who would tell one doctor one thing and another doctor something else.”
AEG is expected to argue that Jackson himself hired and paid Dr. Murray. But it also will point to erratic behaviour by the pop star.
“This is a man who would show up in pajamas. This is a man who would stop traffic and get out and dance on top of his car. This is a man who would go to public events with a monkey named Bubbles. This is a man who said he slept in an oxygen chamber,” Putnam said.
A set of AEG e-mails discussing Jackson’s mental state will play a key role in the lawsuit.
0 Replies to “Michael Jackson family files wrongful death suit against AEG Live”