Four years after Michael’s death, his oldest son is ready to tell a jury about the last days of his life.
On Monday June 24, in the Jackson family's wrongful death lawsuit, Jackson lawyers informed AEG Live attorneys that Prince will be the next witness after a doctor who is an expert in medical conflicts of interest completes his testimony Tuesday.
That would likely put Prince on the stand Wednesday June 26. Prince, Paris and Blanket Jackson and their grandmother Katherine Jackson are suing AEG Live, accusing their father's last concert promoter of negligently hiring, retaining or supervising Dr Conrad Murray, who was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in Jackson's death.
Jackson lawyers argue that the promoter and producer of the "This Is It" shows pressured Murray to get Jackson to rehearsals but failed to get Jackson help despite numerous red flags that he was in trouble.
Murray told police he used the surgical anesthetic propofol nearly every night for two months to treat Jackson's insomnia. The coroner ruled that an overdose of propofol killed him.
AEG Live lawyers argue that Jackson chose and supervised Murray and that their executives had no way of knowing the doctor was using the dangerous treatment.
Dr Gordon Matheson, the director of the sports medicine department at Stanford University, testified as an expert in medical conflicts of interest Monday June 24. Murray, who had closed his clinics to take the job and was $1 million in debt, would be inclined not to resist the AEG Live executives' pressure to get Jackson to rehearsals despite evidence of his failing health, Matheson testified.
E-mails from the show director Kenny Ortega and production manager John "Bugzee" Hougdahl warned AEG executives of Jackson's deterioration during June 2009, including indications he was unable to do some of his trademark dances or remember lyrics to songs he had sung for decades.
His makeup artist and a choreographer testified about Jackson's paranoia, his talking to himself and hearing voices, and his severe weight loss.
Associate producer Alif Sankey testified that she "had a very strong feeling that Michael was dying" after a rehearsal 11 days before his death.
"I was screaming into the phone at that point," Sankey testified. "I said he needs to be put in the hospital now."
A Harvard sleep expert testified last week that the nightly propofol treatments likely interrupted Jackson's sleep cycle, robbing him of REM - rapid eye movement - sleep, which is vital to keeping the brain and body alive.
"The symptoms that Mr. Jackson was exhibiting were consistent with what someone might expect to see of someone suffering from total sleep deprivation over a chronic period," Dr Charles Czeisler, a Harvard Medical School sleep expert, testified Friday June 21 at the trial.
If the singer had not died on June 25, 2009, of a propofol overdose, the lack of REM sleep may have taken his life within days anyway.
Prince will be the only one of Jackson's three children who will appear in court, although the video of Paris' deposition over two days in March will be seen at some point during the AEG Live defense presentation. The company compelled her testimony, calling her a key witness to her father's dealings with Murray and to her own relationship with her father.
Jackson confided in his son about his business dealings at an early age. His testimony is expected to include revelations about what his father told him in his last weeks about whom he trusted and distrusted.
