AEG-Jackson trial. Days 8 and 9. KAREN FAYE’S Sad Thriller Silenced by the Press
KAREN FAYE’s testimony at the AEG trial is a total thriller. A very sad thriller but nevertheless a thriller.
Its every page is a story and its every chapter is a sensation. One could imagine that after so many true answers given to the most intriguing questions and so much curiosity about Michael Jackson satisfied the media would jump at the chance and have food for the discussion for weeks or even months, however they again prefer bad smelling lies to true stories about Jackson, even though this is where the real sensation is.
I first read about Karen Faye’s testimony in newspapers and short tweets and then was lucky to read the full transcripts provided by the great TeamMichaelJackson blog here: http://teammichaeljackson.com/archives/8324 and here: http://teammichaeljackson.com/archives/8342 .
Now I don’t even know what to begin with as everything Karen said during the two days of her testimony is a sensation.
Days 8,9
MAY 9-10, 2013
This is the way Lisa Marie’s news was reported in 1996
Just for a start here is what Karen said of the way Lisa-Marie Presley swindled Michael Jackson during their divorce.
Lisa asked him to give their marriage a chance and not file for divorce, and poor Michael fell for her lies and even decided to have another try with her, but the next morning every paper came with the news that it was Lisa Marie who was ending the ‘sham’ and ‘weirdest’ marriage and ‘kicking the freak out’.
I hope that now Lisa Marie will stop claiming that Michael Jackson was ‘manipulating’ her and ‘disposing’ of her as she said to Oprah. The divorce episode shows her to be a complete professional in manipulating people as she took advantage of Michael’s trust in order to present herself as the initiator of the divorce and then did her best to cast the story in stone so that it goes down into history in her version of the events. Her hurt feelings of an abandoned woman may be partially understood, but it still does not allow people to be mean and to such an extent too.
In the place of TMZ and other vulgar press I would focus on this true story instead of boosting the new Judah Iscariot’s pathetic lies. Lisa Marie’s betrayal of Michael is also quite spectacular, and when you come to think of it there was hardly anyone who did not betray him (with very few exceptions). Michael was so trusting in people’s good and had so much goodwill towards others that very few people resisted the temptation not to take advantage of his good nature.
Here is the story:
Michael Jackson Was Blindsided by Lisa Marie Presley’s Divorce Filing
By Craig Rosen | (Jeff Kravitz, FilmMagic)
Lisa Marie Presley played Michael Jackson like a “Smooth Criminal” when she blindsided the King of Pop with a divorce filing, after she convinced him to hold off from filing first.
That bombshell is the latest nugget to come to light in the Jackson family’s wrongful death lawsuit with concert promoter AEG Live.
It was revealed Thursday by Karen Faye, Jackson’s longtime hair and makeup artist. During Faye’s testimony, the jurors were shown several photos of her with Jackson, including a shot taken in January 1996, the day after the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll’s daughter filed for divorce from Jackson.
Faye testified that Jackson was upset after Presley blindsided him with a divorce filing, after she asked him not to file.
“She begged and begged, saying please don’t file,” Faye said, according to a CNN report. To appease his estranged wife, Jackson promised not to file. Yet “the next morning it was all over the press that she filed before him,” Faye said.
Indeed, when news of the divorce first broke, a publicist for Jackson claimed he knew nothing about it.
In an effort to control the negative press, the Jackson camp issued a photo of him with Faye. It “was to give the press something to talk about” with Faye being “the mysterious blonde,” she said.
Calls and emails to Lisa Marie’s press representatives weren’t immediately returned.
Jackson and Presley married in 1994, just 20 days after she divorced her first husband Danny Keough. The marriage, which brought together two generations of pop royalty, was such a big event that MTV opened the 1994 Video Music Awards with the couple onstage sharing a kiss. “Just think, nobody thought this would last,” Jackson famously said, before kissing his then-bride.
Although they divorced in 1996, in a 2010 interview with Oprah Winfrey, Presley said that she and Jackson tried to reconcile for four years following their split and often traveled the world to be together.
They went to Motown Cafe on January 26, 1996 ‘to give the press something to talk about’
In her testimony Karen Faye commented on the photo of herself and Michael the next day after Lisa Marie’s announcement – they went out together to give the press something to talk about:
Q. Who’s in this photo? Tell us about this photo.
A. That’s Michael and me. The day before this was taken, Lisa Marie Presley was calling Michael begging him not to divorce her. They weren’t getting along. She said let’s try to work this out. Michael kept saying: No, I don’t think it’s going to work. She begged and begged: Please don’t file, please don’t file. So, he promised her that he wouldn’t file for divorce. The next morning it was all over the press – she filed for divorce. He was devastated. He had decided to really try again with her. Then she turned around and did that.
Michael was devastated
Out of many articles covering Karen Faye’s testimony I again select the one by Alan Duke, CNN as he is focusing on really meaningful points in Karen’s testimony.
Actually he is the only one to also report the fact which was the main reason for Michael’s frustration, suffering and ultimate death and I mean the tour schedule of course.
Witness: Michael Jackson was paranoid, talking to himself in last days
By Alan Duke, CNN
May 10, 2013 — Updated 0224 GMT (1024 HKT)
Los Angeles (CNN) — Michael Jackson appeared paranoid, repeating himself and shivering from chills in his final days, his longtime makeup artist testified Thursday.
“This was not the man I knew,” Karen Faye testified. “He was acting like a person I didn’t recognize.”
Faye, who did Jackson’s makeup and hair for 27 years, was the sixth witness called by lawyers for Michael Jackson’s mother and children in their wrongful death lawsuit against concert promoter AEG Live. She testified Thursday and will return to the stand Friday in a Los Angeles courtroom.
The Jacksons contend that AEG Live is liable in the pop icon’s June 25, 2009, death from an overdose of a surgical anesthetic because it negligently hired, retained or supervised the doctor treating him.
Michael Jackson’s brightest and darkest moments brought laughter and tears as Faye testified.
His last day
Faye, who traveled with Jackson on his “Bad,” “Dangerous” and “History” tours, said she was concerned when she first saw the schedule for Jackson’s 50 “This Is It” shows at London’s O2 arena.
“On looking at that, I said, ‘He can’t do this,'” Faye testified. “The shows are far too close together. I knew what he needed between shows. I thought he might last a week.”
When she raised the matter with show director Kenny Ortega, “he kind of fluffed it off,” she said.
“Michael’s adrenaline and what it takes for him to perform with that much effort and what he himself puts into a show, he needed a lot more time to at least get some rest and sleep, and to be healthy and maintain that kind of longevity,” she said.
He was “very upbeat, but he was on the thin side” when she saw him in April as preparations for the start of the shows in July were under way, she said. “I thought he had plenty of time to put on some body mass and muscle mass.”
Jackson appeared “very, very excited” in early production meetings, but “the first time he actually got up on stage and rehearsed, I saw the change in him.”
“The turning point was when he had to get up on stage and actually start performing,” she said. Jackson hated live performances, she said. “It was just too hard on him.”
Eventually, “they had to make him rehearse,” she said. “They’re insisting to the point of going to his home.”
In Jackson’s last days, Faye was pressured to ignore what Jackson told her to do and instead take her direction from Randy Phillips, AEG’s CEO, she testified. She once was ordered to put Jackson on stage and place his earpiece in when he did not want it, she said.
“I was supposed to exhibit tough love” and not listen to what Jackson was telling her to do, Faye testified.
At one point, Jackson locked himself in a bathroom at his home, refusing to leave for rehearsals at the Forum. AEG Live Co-CEO Paul Gongaware, who was in charge of the production, was “angry and kind of desperate to get Michael to the Forum,” she said.
She overheard a phone call in which Gongaware was telling Jackson’s security guard “to get him out of the bathroom. Do you have a key? Do whatever it takes,” she said Gongaware screamed.
At a rehearsal in mid-June, Jackson was “very stoic” and seem “frightened.” He was talking to himself, she said. “When I was around, he was repeating himself an awful lot, saying the same thing over and over again.”
“He kept repeating, ‘why can’t I choose,’ it was one of the things he repeated over and over again,” she said.
A show producer testified Wednesday that Jackson told Ortega “God keeps talking to me.”
Faye said she suggested to Ortega that a psychologist should be brought in to assess Jackson.
Faye, who had to touch Jackson when she put on his makeup, said it was “like I was touching ice.” At one rehearsal, she covered him with blankets and put a space heater next to him, she said.
“I’ve never seen him so emaciated,” she said.
Faye said she raised her concerns once in June with Phillips. He told her, “Yeah, this is bad. It’s not so good. I had to scrape Michael off the floor in London at the announcement because he was so drunk,” she said.
Faye testified that Phillips told her at Jackson’s funeral that “he tried to do everything he could.”
Did she believe him, asked Jackson lawyer Brian Panish.
“Sir, Michael Jackson is lying in a casket only a few feet away from me,” she said. “I had no words to respond. That’s not everything you can do.”
The dark days
Michael Jackson endured pain for years caused by head burns suffered while filming a Pepsi commercial in 1984 and a back injury from an onstage mishap during a concert in Munich, Germany, she said.
Faye, who witnessed both incidents, described them.
“His hair caught fire, but he kept dancing,” she said, as jurors watched the infamous video of pyrotechnics igniting Jackson’s head as he danced down stairs on a stage. “I was screaming and Miko (Brando) got through somehow and had to wrestle him to the ground, because he had no idea he was on fire. Miko put the fire out with his hand.”
The fire burned off a section of hair, which doctors tried to repair with surgery to stretch his scalp, she said. Jackson suffered migraine headaches after that, she said.
Later, a bridge suspended above a stage collapsed as Jackson danced on top of it during a show in Munich, she said.
“When I saw what happened, I thought he could be dead,” Faye testified. But Jackson held onto his microphone, stood up and finished the song. “He said ‘I can’t disappoint the audience,'” she said. So he finished the show finale but collapsed in the dressing room when it was over, she said.
“He suffered back pain from that moment on,” she said.
Along with the pain, Jackson had trouble sleeping on tour.
Jackson “was so buzzed by his own adrenaline after a show” it would “take him 24 hours to relax his body and, sometimes it would take two days to be able to sleep,” said Faye.
“As the tour went on, shows got closer and closer, and he would have trouble sleeping,” she said. “It would start out OK, but it would get worse and worse. He tried to find ways to deal with it.”
Dealing with it involved a series of doctors, she said.
“Michael always believed that a doctor had his best interest at heart,” Faye said. “He believed if he got something through a doctor that it was safe and OK for him to use it.”
Faye testified that nurse Debbie Rowe, who would later become Jackson’s second wife and the mother of his two oldest children, would travel with them on the “Dangerous” tour in 1992 with “a little bag” of medications.
“Debbie Rowe asked me to learn how to give injections,” she said. “I thought about it and said ‘No.’ I am not qualified to handle any kind of medications.”
When the tour was on its way to Bangkok, Thailand, Faye was asked to carry a package she was told contained medicine patches for Jackson’s pain, she testified. She refused to travel with it, she said.
Faye testified that the tour doctor, Dr. Stuart Finkelstein, later told her “I’m glad you weren’t carrying it. It has vials and syringes. If you had brought this in, you might not be here.” The implication was she could have been arrested for smuggling drugs.
Gongaware, now the Co-CEO of AEG Live, was in charge of logistics for the “Dangerous” tour and was involved in the incident, Faye said.
Finkelstein used “a balance of medications strong enough to overcome Michael’s pain,” Faye said.
Later in the tour in Singapore, Jackson stumbled into his dressing room before a show, she said. “He was having a very hard time walking,” she said. “He was glazed over. He fell over a tree.”
She told the tour doctor, whom she identified as Dr. David Forecast, that “Michael can’t go on.”
His show opened with him being thrust onto the stage by a “toaster,” which requires him to “curl up and be shot up” from a small enclosure under the stage, she said.
“His arm could be severed,” Faye said. “I feared for his safety, I feared for his life. I told Dr. Forecast, ‘You can’t make him go out. You can’t take him.’ And he said, ‘Yes, I can.'”
The doctor “backed me up against the wall and put his hands around my neck and said ‘You don’t know what your doing,'” she testified. “I nearly fainted, and he grabbed Michael and took him to the stage.”
The show, however, was eventually canceled, she said.
“Michael was under a lot of stress at that time because that’s when the first child allegations were made public,” Faye said. “Michael had to go on stage every night knowing that the whole world thought he was a pedophile. He had to stand up in front of all these audiences with the physical pain that he had and knowing that everybody in that audience is thinking that he was the vilest pedophile on earth. To this day I don’t know how he did that.”
The tour ended early when it reached Mexico City “because everybody knew Michael had a problem,” she said. Elizabeth Taylor came down to Mexico to get Jackson, and “we all went home.”
Faye later flew to England to join Michael at a rehab facility, which she described as a beautiful country home.
Michael’s brighter days
Before Faye’s darker testimony began, the courtroom was unusually relaxed with smiles and laughs throughout the jury box.
It started when Jackson lawyer Panish asked her “What is a makeup and hair artist?”
“Makeup and hair!” Faye responded, triggering loud laughter from jurors.
“Can you help me?” Panish joked.
Panish had Faye read to the jury the dedication note from the “Thriller” album: “This album is lovingly dedicated to Katherine Jackson.”
Faye and Jackson became “very close” starting in the early 1980s, she said. “It was almost like a brother and sister relationship. If I was having trouble, I could call him and he could call me. You talk, you share, you become very close and imagine that over 27 years.”
Jurors viewed a series of photos of Faye and Jackson together through the years, including one taken in January 1996, the day after Lisa Marie Presley filed for divorce from Jackson.
Jackson was upset because just before filing, Presley called him and begged him not to file for divorce, she said.
“She begged and begged, saying please don’t file,” Faye said. Jackson promised not to file, only to see “the next morning it was all over the press that she filed before him.” The photo of Jackson out with Faye “was to give the press something to talk about” with Faye being “the mysterious blonde.”
Jurors watched several videos that showed Jackson’s talent and impact, a sharp contrast to all of the testimony about drug addiction and death.
They viewed several minutes of Jackson’s “Thriller,” which Faye pointed out was a short film, not just a music video.
Part of Jackson’s 1993 Super Bowl halftime show was viewed, including his rendition of “We Are the World.” “It was a very big deal, sir,” Faye said. “I think it started the trend of having a big artist at the Super Bowl.”
A clip from a Jackson concert in Bucharest, Romania, showed jurors how fanatical his fans were, dozens of them fainting as he sang “Man In the Mirror.”
When his 1995 MTV awards performance was shown, Faye noted, “He can moonwalk in a circle.”
Jackson’s stamina during a show was remarkable, she said. “Some dancers would pass out, but Michael would be fine. He was able to do it.”
Faye’s testimony took all day Thursday and was set to resume Friday morning.
http://edition.cnn.com/2013/05/09/showbiz/jackson-death-trial/
Let’s focus on some of the details mentioned above.
THE SCHEDULE
Even in the first 10 shows 9 were set with a 1-day break only
So from her past experience with the tours Karen realized that with Michael’s lack of sleep and high adrenaline after the shows the schedule was impossible. She informed Ortega about it but he ‘fluffed it off’ underestimating the problem.
After all his job was to direct the show and once it was ready he was to leave the stage and take up other projects, so of all people around Michael he was probably the only one who never saw Michael battling with the rigors of his tours. He was always involved in the initial stage only and never knew how the show progressed later. His job was to create a show and this is all he cared about. The rest was none of his business.
Here is the final schedule. Out of 50 concerts 34 still had a one-day break only (marked by a different color here). Four more dates had a two-days break. So 38 concerts out of 50 were IMPOSSIBLY close to each other
Karen Faye says that after her unsuccessful talk with Kenny Ortega she spoke to Michael. We don’t know Michael’s answer to her as she was not allowed to tell us of his views on the tour schedule.
Any information about it is totally missing in the testimony, most probably due to numerous objections and side bars determining what can or cannot be discussed. Evidently this is the subject not to be discussed as Jackson’s attorney did not even try to ask a question.
This is the only information we have:
A. After the conversation when I told him that I wanted to do it I went on line to the website and I viewed his schedule that they had for him. And upon looking at that, I was like, he can’t do this. The shows are far too close together and I know what he needs more to recuperate in between shows and with schedule he may last a week. I was really concerned with that.
So I got in touch with Kenny Ortega and I said Kenny there has to be some changes if you really want Michael to do this schedule and he kind of fluffed it off and he didn’t seem real concerned about that. So the next conversation I had about that was with Michael himself.
Q. What was it that concerned you about the shows being real close together?
A. Well, like I said before, Michael has a lot of adrenaline and what it takes for him to do a show physically and emotionally and mentally to be able to perform at that … with the effort it too, what he himself took put into the show. As I was explaining with that adrenaline he needed that time between shows he needed more time to rest and sleep for him to be healthy, for him to maintain any kind of longevity.
Generally it took him 24 hours to calm down after the show and sometimes even two full days:
Q. Did Michael ever talk to you about him having difficulty sleeping when on tour?
A. Yes sir. What would happen is his adrenaline would pump through his body. He would do a 2 hour or longer show and his adrenaline level was so high that it took him at least 24 hours to relax and be able to sleep. Sometimes it would take him 2 days. So he would have trouble trying to sleep.
Q. When he would have insomnia, what would he do?
A. In the beginning when we first started out, his shows would be scheduled far enough apart where he had a chance to unwind and be able to sleep. He’s do 1 or 2 concerts a week. Then time to relax. But as the tours went on, the shows got closer and closer together. So he would have trouble sleeping. It would start out okay, but it got worse and worse as the tours progressed and he couldn’t get sleep. So to perform – he tried to find ways to sleep.
Q. Did he rely on certain people to help him try to sleep?
A. Doctors. Michael always believed that a doctor had his best interest at heart. He always believed that if he had something from a doctor that it was safe.
Q. Do you know if he ever took prescription medications after performances for pain or to sleep?
A. I really don’t know. He never took them in front of me.
So even in the past when Michael was much younger his tours started with only 1 or 2 concerts a week. Later when they were set closer to each other he would develop problems with his sleep and this in its turn demanded finding ways to cope with the problem. Michael trusted doctors with it believing they had his best interest at heart, so if a doctor was recommending something he always thought it was safe.
Gongaware was present during the Dangerous and other tours and knew perfectly well about Michael’s tour problems and the need for a good rest, so when they were setting the first 10 dates with only one day between the shows they were already dooming Michael to a failure and knew what they were doing.
* Shirley A. shared with us the opinion of Jonathan Moffet on the same issue which I would like to add to this post:
Last May 2012, I met with MJ’s drummer and friend, Jonathan Moffet, after an IMMORTAL show in Quebec City, and we sat down to talk about the This Is It tour. I had asked him specifically about Michael’s health and Jonathan explained that while MJ was getting stronger and that his voice was excellent, he (Jonathan) had been worried about the number of shows and the schedule.
When I brought up the notion that the 50 shows were over a 9 month period, which didn’t seem that bad, and that MJ looked so capable in the This Is It film, Jonathan informed me of the winter break in the schedule, and that in actuality, they would be playing 3 to 4 shows PER WEEK!!
He shook his head solemnly and said, for a singer, 50 years old, who suffers from intense insomnia due to adrenaline, and who lays his all out on stage for every performance, Michael needed more “off time” to recuperate between shows.
The fact that they (AEG) kept adding more and more shows to the itinerary was cause for deep concern. And the fact that Michael objected and they didn’t care, was even more disturbing. He had been genuinely concerned for Michael’s health.
I agree, the most disturbing thing about AEG’s attitude towards Michael was that they didn’t care.
Besides a huge problem with sleep the other reason why Michael was given painkillers during the tours were the two big accidents he had – the burn on his head and the fall from the height of a three or four storey building during a Munich concert.
ACCIDENTS
Munich 1999
Karen described the awful Munich accident as follows:
A. On the stage there was a bridge. A high bridge. Michael would run up the bridge and it would split in three parts, with him suspended on center part. In Munich, Michael ran up the bridge, the bridge was lifted, then the whole bridge collapsed with Michael on it.
Q. Did he fall down?
The central part of the bridge has fallen down. Munich accident 1999
A.Right down past the audience. When I saw what happened, I thought he was dead. That was a tragic accident. I was devastated. Then I saw an arm go on stage. Then another arm. And then his leg. And he got up – and finished that song. We wanted to take him to the hospital. He said: I can’t, I can’t. I can’t disappoint the audience. He finished the show. After he went backstage and he collapsed.
Q. Do you know if he suffered any pains as a result of that?
A. Yes sir. He suffered back pain from that moment on. He only ever mentioned about his back being in pain when he was under physical or emotional stress.
So that pain in the back grew worse when he was under a heavy physical or even emotional stress. No surprises here – our spinal cord is a place to bring together all the nerves in our system.
With regard to the burn it is probably the first time ever that the problem of stretching Michael’s scalp is at last being raised and discussed so openly.
Up till now the general public had no idea that after the burn in 1984 and the initial healing Michael had to go through additional surgeries to stretch his skin in order to cover the bald spot on the top of his head.
Michael Jackson in Bangkok in August 1993
Now we learn that these operations lasted at least until the year 1993 when Michael was to go on the Dangerous tour. In fact the balloons stretching his skin was taken out just on the eve of his Bangkok concert on August 23, 1993 which was exactly the time when the Chandler case was breaking. And this means that in addition to the pain of the horrendous false accusations he was going on a tour having a fresh wound on his head!
If we calculate how long this burn treatment took it will make no less than 9 years. The period could be even longer as Karen says the operations were made between the legs of the tours and she did not name the date of the last surgery.
The effect of all those surgeries was so devastating that the initial small bald spot turned into a vast baldness which finally demanded wearing a wig.
And the wig means perspiration especially during the show and Botox injections as it fights sweating. The need for it was also mentioned by Karen in her testimony.
Initially the burned area was like this – 1984
(sorry for the pictures)
The surgeries left Michael not only with baldness but with terrible migraine headaches. When the expanding balloon was under the skin it gave him excruciating pain as he said to his friend David Nordahl, but when it was taken out the pain still went on as Karen Faye says – he often had to go on a tour or do some important projects when the wound was still unhealed (like the Addams family short film, later turned into Ghosts if I remember it right, made on the eve of the Dangerous tour).
Some of the medications to dull the pain came in the form of special patches of slow-release painkillers placed on his scalp, but painkillers also had to be injected, and over here it was Michael’s future wife Debbie Rowe who often came with a little bag to his trailer during the making of the Addams family short film.
Then it basically healed but still required a hair piece to cover the bald spot
Since Karen was going on a tour and Debbie wasn’t, she asked her to continue with the injections, but Karen refused and they were evidently taken care of by Dr. Finkelstein who was Michael’s doctor during the Dangerous tour. Later the doctor told her that ‘it was a good thing she wasn’t carrying the package’ he had received. It had vials and syringes in it. If she had carried it ‘she might not be here’ probably implying that she could have been detained for smuggling drugs.
But then they started stretching the skin and cutting out the bald spot. It did not work, but the pain was unbearable (very sorry for the pictures, guys)
Of course all this surgery started because it was Michael who wanted to grow some hair on the bald spot, but this I perfectly understand. Dancing with a hair piece was difficult and straining him in his movements for fear of losing it during the show – just imagine how embarrassing it could have been if such an incident happened.
But continuing with the surgery when Michael had lupus was an extremely reckless thing too as lupus prevents scars from healing. Moreover all that surgery formed Michael’s dependency on painkillers.
Who is ultimately to blame for it? Doctors only – the final decision is always theirs. A patient cannot do surgery on his scalp all by himself.
Karen Faye says:
A. Regarding operations – he had 1st, 2nd and 3rd degree burns on the top of his scalp. At first they tried to have it heal. Later he had surgeries.
He was basically okay afterward the initial burn. His skin healed. We used a small hair piece that would cover the top of his head where he’d been burned. Doing that wasn’t the best for performances so Michael had an operation on his scalp for the hair to grow back. A bladder had to be inserted under his skin and stretch the skin.
His schedule was so busy that he never had time to heal from the surgery. He did a short film Addams Family Values, or something like that. His scalp was healing from the operation, but he was getting chronic migraine headaches from this operation. It caused incredible pain.
Q. Did anything unusual happen before the [Dangerous] tour started?
A. Yes. We were doing the short film for Addams Family. Michael was going through the pain from the scalp surgery with the inserted balloon (bladder). He was having slow release pain medication patches put on his scalp to help him.
Karen was asked to take some packages with her on a tour but refused, and when she did the matter was taken to Gongaware who was friends with Dr. Finkelstein.
Putnam: And he had this surgery just before going to Bangkok?
Faye: I really don’t know the exact date of the surgery, sir. I worked with him on the shoot and the actual inflation device was under his scalp, just before we left Bangkok, the device was removed, an operation to bring the skin together on his scalp had already been complete.
Q. And you saw his scalp every time he performed, right?
A. Not every time he performed. But I had to deal with his wounds and covering them.
Q. Do you remember seeing any signs of that surgery on the prior leg of the tour?
A I do not recall on which leg of the tour, the in between stages, when he had the surgery.
Q. You do remember between legs of the tour he had the surgery and then you saw the results, but you don’t remember between which leg of the tour he had the surgery, correct?
A Correct. Or the year?
Q That was 92-93. This was 1993, we’re talking about Bangkok. And to be really specific, I can tell you it was August 23, 1993.
A And you’ve done your homework, sir.
Q And you said yesterday he would get headaches as a result of the surgery, correct?
A Yes. Migraine headaches. He was in a lot of pain.
….Q. I’m asking you of you remember any other times during the Dangerous Tour where you thought he was under the influence of drugs?
A. I’m just really confused by this. I’m telling you that this entire leg of the tour, I was really concerned. Doctors were telling me they were working on the BALANCE of – killing the pain for him, and being able to perform. I was always conscious of what was happening during this part of the tour. Other than the traumatic ones. I can’t really recall any specific time.
During the Dangerous tour painkillers had to be used both for Michael’s physical and emotional pain due to his enormous stress from all those molestation issues. Each time he went on stage everyone in the audience thought him to be the vilest of criminals. This was so terrible a strain that Karen doesn’t know how he managed to do the tour at all. The situation with drugs was compounded by the molestation issues:
Panish: Did there come a time in that tour when you felt Michael was getting worse?
Faye: Yes. Michael was under a lot of stress at that time because that’s when the first child allegations were made public (becoming emotional). And Michael had to go on stage every night, literally with the whole world thinking he was a pedophile. He had to stand up through all of that slander and all of those things. The visible pain this had – He had to perform and be up there. To this day, I don’t know HOW he did that.
Putnam: Back to the Dangerous Tour. You’ve testified you don’t recall having any conversations with Mr. Jackson about your concerns about his use of painkillers?
Faye: I said I don’t recall any details about a conversation. As I’m saying, I kind of avoided the molestation/drugs issue like the plague.
Q I’m only asking about the drugs, ma’am.
A I avoided them both. Because they were both interconnected, sir.
After all that said about the burn, stretching Michael’s scalp and the need to perform even with the wound still unhealed I was totally amazed to find that all these intriguing details previously never covered by the media are not attracting their attention even now, when the news finally became known. I was able to find only one article mentioning stretching Michael’s skin by a balloon in the NY Daily News.
Okay, but where are all the rest of them? Where are all those tabloids who love sensational stories of the stars’ personal life which is their fodder and means to existence at all? Or is learning that Michael had a hundred reasons for taking pain killers not in line with their agenda? And does their sudden total silence over the subject mean that they were instructed not to show the true Michael Jackson as it is not in the interests of one powerful corporation currently sued by his family?
Observing all this media silence over the key (and true) issues on the one hand and their boosting someone’s mad lies (Robson) on the other hand I am almost ready to scream to everyone around – don’t believe their claims that they are independent media and speak their mind only! Either their minds are totally crazy or they are told not to cover things which are not in the interests of those with big money in their deep pockets. Will there ever be a time when the power of Mammon ends?
Below are some excerpts from the article which was the only one to mention Michael’s stretching the scalp procedure. Besides those surgeries it also speaks on two other points omitted from Karen Faye’s testimony by everyone else.
The first one is the fact that during the 2005 trial Michael didn’t eat as he was afraid to throw up when listening to the filthy things said about him by the people he used to love (so these were indeed lies as Michael even had a physical reaction to them).
And the second is his skeletal condition noticed by his fan when she presented him with a jacket in the middle of June 2009. The fan sent Karen an email about it and Karen forwarded it to Dileo agreeing that Michael was emaciated.
Michael Jackson wrongful death trial: Makeup artist recalls singer looked ’emaciated’ and acted ‘paranoid’ in days before his death
BY NANCY DILLON / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
THURSDAY, MAY 9, 2013, 7:45 PM
Karen Faye detailed Michael Jackson’s difficulties with drug use during the eighth day of his wrongful death trial. On one occasion during the 1993 Dangerous tour, ‘he stumbled and fell over into a tree,’ she said.
An “emaciated” Michael Jackson had dry skin and dry eyes — and he was “paranoid” and repeating himself in the days before his overdose death, his longtime makeup artist told jurors Thursday.
Makeup pro Karen Faye tearfully testified for Katherine Jackson in the matriarch’s megabucks negligence lawsuit against concert promoter AEG Live in Los Angeles — recounting her dire concerns about the King of Pop as he rehearsed for his ill-fated “This Is It” tour.
She said Michael was cold as an “ice cube” on June 19, 2005, after a costume fitting.
“He couldn’t get warm. I had a space heater, (and) I put it next to him and put him on the sofa and wrapped him in blankets and held him very close to me,” Faye said.
She said she watched tour director Kenny Ortega try to feed the ultra-skinny singer some chicken and pleaded with him to call a doctor.
The next day, Faye sent a frantic email to Jackson’s manager, Frank DiLeo. A fan who had a recent meeting with Jackson had contacted her with concerns, and she told DiLeo she agreed with the fan.
Jurors and Jackson’s 82-year-old mom watched as the fan’s email was projected on a courtroom screen.
“(Michael) took his jacket off, and I saw something horrible. A skeleton. I watched his back. It was only bones. I am still in shock,” the fan said of her June 2009 meeting with the star, during which he tried on a jacket.
“It is humanly impossible for a human being to be a skeleton and dance for two hours straight without any danger,” the fan wrote.
Faye said she forwarded the email to DiLeo and learned at Jackson’s funeral that AEG Live bigwig Randy Phillips saw it, too.
<>“He would say things over and over again, repeating the same thing,” she testified. “He wanted to see me all the time. He would say, ‘Make sure I’m able to see you on the stage at all times.’ I’d go, ‘Okay,’ and he’d say it again.”
Her emotional testimony also touched on the superstar’s long struggle with substance abuse.
She said he was so wasted on pain medication during his “Dangerous” tour in the early 1990s that he was stumbling around a venue in Singapore and sparked a violent clash between her and a doctor.
<> Faye said the singer suffered debilitating pain and migraines stemming from burns sustained on the set of his 1984 Pepsi commercial and surgery that involved the insertion of a skin-stretching balloon under his scalp.
She said his physical pain was later compounded by accusations of child molestation.
“Michael was under a lot of stress,” she said. “Michael had to go on stage every night knowing that the whole world thought he was a pedophile.”
She and Jackson decided to hit the Motown Café on Jan. 25, 1996, to “give the press something to talk about,” she said.
And she described working with Jackson during the 2005 molestation trial that ended with his aquittal. She would go to Neverland Ranch each morning before daybreak to help him wash his hair and dress, she said.
Faye recalled praying, crying and laughing with him as they listened to classical music and watched “Three Stooges” videos.
“I wanted people to think he still looked good and was still strong,” she testified.
She said it was a particularly difficult time for the superstar.
“He was losing weight,” she said. “He couldn’t eat because he didn’t want to throw up because he had to watch all these people he loved and cared about tell all those lies.”
Let me also add to the above the following details from Karen’s testimony also about the 2005 trial:
He got worse, sir. He wasn’t eating. He was getting thinner. His physical pain. His back pain. He started losing weight. He said he couldn’t eat because he didn’t want to throw up. He had to watch all the people that he loved and cared about, be worried about him. He wouldn’t go to the bathroom at the court because the guard would stand behind him and he was too shy for that, he was too much of a gentleman. He could never go to the bathroom with someone watching him. So he wouldn’t drink before we left. Then he had fallen and hurt his back. The media called it “pajama day.” You all saw it. He was taken to the hospital. They gave him some pain killers. The court said he had to be there or he would be put in jail. They put him in the car. We followed in another car with his clothes. We hoped we’d be able to dress him somewhere, but there was no time. They kept saying: He has to be here or he goes to jail. So he had to go to court in his pajamas.
Every night Karen went to Michael’s home at 3 in the morning to get him ready for leaving for the trial at 6-7 am. She used this time with him to help him cope with all the pain of it.
Q. How was he doing through the criminal trial?
A. He was being really brave. I would go to Neverland Ranch at 3am every morning to get him ready by 7am. We had to be out the door by 6-7am to get to the trial. If we didn’t show up on time they’d throw him in jail. They made it a parade, every single day. They had a red carpet, making him go into that courthouse every day. And the media. All the media. Other people, the witnesses got to go in around the back. They made him – every single day – walk the red carpet. Just to put him on display, and give the media bites. Michael – we got him dressed every day. We made sure he looked really good. I washed his hair. Every day, get him ready. Every day, we would hug – be arm and arm together and cry. I’d blow dry his hair. We’d listen to classical music. We’d watch Three Stooges videos.
The time I spent with him was a time of peace. Not confrontation. He had to go into court. I didn’t see him other than that space in time every morning. It was my job. It was my during as a friend. To make that time and space as peaceful and calm as I could before he had to go where he had to go. I didn’t want to confront him with anything. And no matter what he was doing, I could never blame him for that. Because of the pain. Physical, psychological, emotional pain.
In fact Karen Faye acted like the best therapist for Michael. Interesting that doctors who are in theory supposed to help people were doing exactly the opposite to him.
DOCTORS
Perhaps one of the most sensational pieces in Karen Faye’s testimony is that the doctor who was either feeding Michael with painkillers or was at least fully aware of them and was ready to put his life at a grave risk was an insurance doctor provided by Lloyds.
This information was also mentioned by one paper only though in Karen’s testimony the insurance doctor was discussed several times both in direct and cross examinations. This ‘doctor’ was evidently accompanying Michael to make him do the shows at whatever cost it took – even if Michael had to be given all painkillers in the world and despite their absolutely devastating effect on his health. In fact the ways of this ‘doctor’ were so brutal that even Karen had to experience them when she wanted the show cancelled due to Michael’s condition.
The only one article saying that it was an ‘insurance’ doctor reported the scene as follows:
The makeup artist testified that the man, who she said was “an insurance doctor,” backed her against a wall and choked her until she couldn’t breathe.
“He said, ‘You don’t know what you’re up against,‘” Faye testified.
The doctor took Jackson on stage to perform, she said.
The tour soon came to an end in Mexico City, when Elizabeth Taylor flew down to take the singer to a rehabilitation facility outside London, she said.
“Everyone knew Michael had a problem,” Faye said.
Faye also testified that she was at Jackson’s side during the 2005 trial in which Jackson was acquitted of molestation, helping him prepare for court each morning.
Faye cried as she described dressing him and washing his hair. They would get on their knees and pray, and then hug each other and cry. They played classical music and watched Three Stooges videos.
“He was afraid,” she testified. “The pain got worse. He got thinner. ”
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-0510-jackson-aeg-20130510,0,5468100.story
Karen was never under the impression that Dr. Forecast was Michael Jackson’s personal doctor, but she was definitely under the impression that he was put there by the insurance company Lloyds. In her testimony this brave woman said:
Putnam: You say you believe this Dr. Forecast was the insurance doctor for Lloyds, is that right?
A. It’s kind of what I recall, sir. That he was from Lloyd’s of London regarding the insurance.
Q. Do you recall why you thought this?
A. Somebody told me, I guess. Or it was on a call sheet, I really don’t know.
Q. Did you ever get the impression that Dr. Forecast was Mr. Jackson’s personal doctor on the tour?
A. I never got that impression.
Q. Did you ever tell you that Dr. Finkelstein was also doctor for rest of the tour, for the crew and others?
A. He served in that purpose also, sir.
Despite his condition Michael was able to observe the scene and later thanked Karen for intervening and stopping the show. Aside from that they never discussed the episode between themselves:
Putnam: Do you remember ever discussing it with him, at all?
A. I can’t remember, sir. It may have come up. Especially after what happened in that dressing room, it’s not anything that I would have ever brought up in our space. So I can’t recall. But I know he thanked me for what I did in Singapore. If that’s what you mean about any kind of conversation.
Q. He thanked you for what?
A. For stopping the show.
To Brian Panish Karen described the episode in more detail. By stopping the show she must have indeed prevented possible heavy injuries – at that moment Michael could barely stand on his feet and a toaster was to push him with the force of a cannon. It is a very narrow tube, so one awkward move could cost Michael both of his arms.
Panish: Dr. Forecast. Was it your understanding that he was a medical doctor?
A. I just knew he was brought in. He was the insurance doctor.
Q. There was a time on the tour you discovered Michael had been given too many drugs and couldn’t perform. What did you learn?
A. Yes. Michael came into the dressing room. He was stumbling. He had a hard time walking. He actually fell over a potted plant/tree. Dr. Forecast was there. I told him: Michael can’t go on. He has to enter on a toaster. Toasters are very small. You have to curl up and be shot out of it. He could lose an arm. I’m seeing Michael in this state and I said you can’t put him in this position. I feared for his safety. I feared for his life. I told Dr. Forecast: You can’t. You can’t make him go out there like this. I put my arms around Michael and said: You can’t take him. And he said: Yes, I can. He put his hands around my neck, backed me against the wall and said: You don’t know what you are doing. I couldn’t breathe. I almost fainted. I fell to the floor. He grabbed Michael and took him off to the stage.
Q. That was Dr. Forecast.
A. That was Dr. Forecast.
The world must have completely gone mad if a doctor who was supposed to take care of Michael’s well-being was ready to subject him to a grave danger and behaved like a regular Mafioso, while one honest woman who is not even in the medical profession was the one who stopped this madness and saved his life…
And what did he mean by saying “You don’t know what you’re doing”? Let me guess – money again? Losses which the insurance company did not want to pay in case the shows were cancelled?
So this is how these white-collar guys behave when a lot of money is at stake? And this is what doctors do when they want performers to do their concerts – they pump them with drugs so that they can barely stand on their feet and then push them on stage never minding the consequences?
And after that the media keeps blaming Michael for everything that befell his poor head?
This process is absolutely not the ‘doctor-shopping’ which is the media’s favorite term for Michael. It is exactly the opposite of it and is a sort of doctors ‘selling their patients’ process – they feed drugs to them to keep them going and when the inevitable happens shift all the blame onto their shoulders. And Conrad Murray seems to be not the only one. If Lloyds doctors do it, then who doesn’t?
Let me also note that when the Dangerous tour was indeed cancelled it was Michael Jackson and not the insurance company who had to pay $20 mln damages to Marcel Avram, the organizer of the tour. The reason cited by Avram for his lawsuit was failing to obtain payment under the insurance as Michael was taking drugs and this factor was allegedly ‘not disclosed to anyone when obtaining the policy’.
But look here, how could the insurance company be unaware of Michael’s problems if their own doctor was drugging the patient during the tour and pushing him on stage in a half-conscious state?
It looks like their whole greedy world based on hypocrisy, pretense and lies is collapsing just in front of our eyes…
All of it is in this article of the 1993 period which even mentions the Singapore concert that had to be cancelled (the one which Karen Faye interfered with) and the poor Lloyds being totally “unaware” of Michael’s problems with the drugs.
Please also note that Michael “barely rehearsed” for the tour but this was no obstacle for making fabulous shows:
Marcel Avram and Michael Jackson
Jackson Hit With $20-Million Lawsuit : Pop music: The pop star faces a fraud and breach-of-contract claim by the promoter of his canceled ‘Dangerous’ tour. The singer performed only 24 of the 43 shows.
December 29, 1993|CHUCK PHILIPS | SPECIAL TO THE TIMES
Embattled pop star Michael Jackson was sued Tuesday for more than $20 million in a fraud and breach-of-contract claim by the promoter of his abruptly canceled “Dangerous World Tour.”
The suit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, alleges that Jackson refuses to reimburse Marcel Avram, the owner of Munich-based Mama Concerts, the money for debts resulting from cancellations on the tour.
It also charges that the singer concealed that he was addicted to drugs and embarked on the tour, in part, to avoid a looming investigation into child molestation allegations.
The tour ended Nov. 12 when the singer announced he was seeking help for an addiction to drugs–a condition, he said, that stemmed from coping with the molestation allegations by a 13-year-old boy, who has also filed a lawsuit against the star. Jackson performed 24 of the 43 scheduled dates.
“Michael Jackson has yet to pay one nickel to the people he left stranded after canceling his world tour,” said Los Angeles attorney Don Engel, who represents Avram, owner of Mama Concerts.
“He stiffed hundreds of thousands of his fans and hung my client out to dry. We had no alternative but to bring suit against him.”
Representatives for Jackson did not return repeated phone calls.
Engel said Avram filed the suit because Jackson’s representatives have refused for six weeks to pay outstanding bills and reimburse millions of dollars in cash advanced to the singer for shows he canceled without notice. Among others reportedly due money: tour employees, vendors and associate promoters.
Despite the international uproar created when the allegations of child molestation became public in August, Jackson had publicly pressed on with his world tour, performing across Asia and Europe despite setbacks and distractions.
At the tour’s outset, as the allegations surfaced, Jackson canceled two Bangkok shows, citing dehydration. He shelved a date in Singapore after collapsing backstage. Other shows were canceled in South Africa, Australia, Chile and Peru.
But in Tuesday’s lawsuit, Avram alleges that Jackson’s conduct and performance problems resulted from the entertainer’s addiction to morphine and Demerol.
The suit claims that agents or advisers for Jackson provided the singer with a supply of drugs and deceived Avram by misrepresenting the singer’s health problems. False information about the status of Jackson’s health was unknowingly used by the promoter on Aug. 17 to obtain an insurance policy from Lloyds of London to guarantee against financial losses resulting from Jackson’s failure or inability to perform scheduled concerts on the tour, the suit says. The settlement of the insurance policy is now in question.
Avram himself has been sued twice by vendors and promoters who lost money due to the cancellations.
He alleges that Jackson barely rehearsed for the tour and indeed requested to cancel or postpone it on Aug. 19–less than one week before the first concert was scheduled to take place in Bangkok.
http://articles.latimes.com/1993-12-29/entertainment/ca-6422_1_pop-star-michael-jackson
So they accuse Michael of using false information while they themselves take people by their throats so that they do not stand in their ways? Incredible hypocrisy!
Besides Dr. Forecast Karen named three more doctors in her testimony. Dr. Stewart Finkelstein was accompanying Michael on the Dangerous tour as a personal doctor and a friend of Paul Gongaware. Since he was a friend there was no way for Gongaware not to know of Michael’s grave insomnia, and this takes us back again to a question why they set the shows so close to each other if you knew of his sleep problems:
Q. At a point in Bangkok, there was a doctor on the Dangerous Tour. What was his name?
A. Dr. Stewart Finkelstein.
Q. Was he friends with Mr. Gongaware?
A. I found out he called Paul Gongaware when I said I wouldn’t carry the packages into Bangkok.
Q. Did you ever see Mr.Gongaware hanging out with Dr. Finklestein?
A. Yes, quite often because they were friendly. They were friends.
Another doctor was mentioned by Karen in connection with the concert at Madison Square organized by Frank Cascio. Over there the problem before the concert again arose due to Michael’s lack of sleep. The doctor gave Michael something to make him sleep for 5 or 6 hours. His name is unknown:
Q. Did you work on the 30th Anniversary event at Madison Square garden?
A. Yes.
Q. Did anything happen while preparing for that? Tell us.
A. Yes sir. I went to get him ready for the show, two hours before he was due at Madison Square Garden. There was a doctor there. He was surprised to see me. He said you can’t come in here now. I’ve given Michael something and he’s going to be asleep for 5-6 hours. I said this can’t happen. I think it was Frank Cascio, helped me get him up. I did his makeup and hair while he was almost out. I was working him around. I gave him Gatorade and a bagel, trying to get whatever they put in his system out. His fans and everyone were all there waiting. It was a desperate situation. He was still sleepy. But he did get there and he did perform.
One more doctor was Dr. Ratner whom Karen saw appear in Michael’s life at the end of the first leg of the History tour. What happened later she did not see as she was fired due to the interference Michael’s then manager Tarok and Debbie Rowe who was pregnant at that time and was extremely jealous of Karen. Karen was replaced with another makeup artist, a man and a friend of Debbie’s, but later Debbie had to apologize for her role in dismissing Karen. Actually it was Michael who asked her to apologize.
‘WHY CAN’T I CHOOSE?”
Karen Faye saw Michael in April 2009 and though he was very excited and upbeat she noticed that he was on the thin side. But in those days she still hoped he had time enough to build the body mass.
However the first time Michael came on stage, which was two months later, she saw the difference even from the way he looked in April.
A. At the beginning time frame he seemed happy I was with him, I’d touch him up and he’d seemed relatively normal.
Q. When did it change?
A. Well, I felt the turning point happened when he got on the stage.
Panish: So you told us about the skin and you told us about the weight.
Karen: His eyes were very dry.
Q. Anything else, you told us about him repeating himself?
A. For instance, whenever before he’d get on the stage for a scene. He would say make sure you stand where I can see you and he would say it repeatedly.
If the first Michael’s rehearsal on the Forum stage was June 5th as Alif Sankey told us earlier, then the change in Michael has an explanation. Karen Faye could not know it as she was not privy to this information, but Michael came to the Forum after an exhausting struggle with AEG over the schedule and its 50 dates, the humiliation of a ‘tough love’ meeting, and the AEG ultimatum which set him a condition that he should attend every rehearsal (or otherwise they would pull the plug).
Beginning with that moment Michael was frightened enough to make himself dance and sing at every rehearsal (June 5-11) until he collapsed at the end of the week. ‘Brother’ Michael had to send a note that Dr.Murray was ordering a sick leave for his patient (Saturday 13th), but as you remember the sick leave did not work and on Monday-Tuesday June 15-16 Michael was again present at rehearsals.
The fact that Michael was faced with an ultimatum during the “tough love” meeting is the reason why Michael kept repeating again and again during those rehearsals “Why can’t I choose?” Indeed why couldn’t he choose between having to dance/sing or simply sitting at rehearsals, training at home and showing himself at his best when he knew that he was ready for it? And why in general couldn’t he choose to keep to his own training schedule?
Alif Sankey told us that Michael was supposed to be at almost all rehearsals as per schedule, and this is understandable from the point of view of production, but I don’t understand why they insisted that he got up on stage every time? Especially since he was the one to pay for everything in that show and ultimately bore full responsibility for it?
By the way Karen Faye said that at the beginning of June the video shootings at Culver Studios went deep into the night, so how was Michael supposed to attend rehearsals too during those days at all I wonder?
A. <> May, we were doing the video content for the show at the Culver City Studios
Q. And those would be at night time.
A. We work long hours.
Q. Did you see any changes in Michael when this was occurring?
A. Yes.
Q. Did you notice whether he was losing weight?
A. He was getting thinner and thinner every month.
Q. Did you notice whether or not he was talking to himself?
A. He was repeating himself a lot, repetition… Saying the same things over and over.
Q. Did that concern you?
A. Yes.
Sorry for having to repeat it again, but AEG’s contract with Michael says that Michael was to give a first-class show only, but not the first-class rehearsal, and AEG could have had claims and demands towards Michael only if he failed the show, but not earlier.
However when talking to Alif Sankey Marvin Putnam tried to confuse her with questions about the contract and tried to create the impression that rehearsals were part of the contract. The implication is that if the attorney is asking whether she knows about it, it means that the point is there (though it is not):
Putnam: Did you ever read the contract between AEG and Michael?
Alif: No.
Putnam: Do you know if the contract had information regarding MJ having to be at rehearsals?
Plaintiff attorney: Objection.
These Putnam’s questions are actually misleading, because attending rehearsals was absolutely not an obligation of Michael Jackson (and Michael knew it and therefore wondered “Why can’t I choose?”).
If you come to think of it almost everything in that contract was Michael’s obligation, except attending rehearsals – the contract did not say a word about it.
When asking his questions the Jackson attorney Brian Panish even implied that Michael could have gone to the beach (or observed the rehearsals from his seat only), and AEG could have still done nothing about it. However Ortega and Phillips still insisted on Michael getting up on stage and this is the crucial point of it – they wanted him to dance and sing and not simply sit and observe:
Q. Was anyone insisting that Michael Jackson get up on the stage and rehearse?
A. Yes.
Q. Who was that?
A. Randy Phillips.
Q. Did you ever see anyone else besides Kenny Ortega and Randy Phillips insist that Michael get up on the stage and rehearse?
A. No, that was it.
They pressured him so much that at the rehearsals in mid-June Michael was reduced to a state of being frightened.
On the day prior to the 19th of June fateful rehearsal when Ortega had to send Michael home, Michael did come to rehearsal but looked frightened:
Q. On June 18th he did come to rehearsal.
A. He came late.
Q. How was he doing on that day?
A He was very stoic.
Q. Did you ever see him in a condition like that before?
A. No.
Q. Did he rehearse that evening?
A. No.
Q. When you say stoic, did he look unhappy, sad, how you would describe how he looked?
A. Frightened.
Q. Was the last rehearsal that was scheduled for the Forum supposed to be June 19th?
A. Yes.
Q. Were you instructed by that point not to communicate with the fans anymore?
A. Yes.
Q. Who instructed you not to?
A. Frank Dileo.
As regards the fans Paul Gongaware took measures to stop any communication between them and Michael. He removed Michael’s security and isolated him from his fans:
Q. Do you know if Mr. Gongaware did anything in regards to removing Michael’s security guards and keeping his fans away from Michael Jackson?
A. Well, I don’t know who, but fans told me about that.
This lack of communication is the reason why the fans who managed to get in contact with Michael sometime around June 13th thought they were lucky to be able to present him with a jacket (and this is when they saw him to be a skeleton):
Q. Just read us what you wrote [to Frank Dileo] on June 20th 2009 five days before Michael Jackson died <> Let’s move down to an email that you forwarded:
“Hi Karen I will try to make this short but I don’t known if I will be able to. Last week I was in LA trying to see Michael. We got really lucky and were invited over on the set of the 3rd thriller. We were trying to give a jacket to him. He was dressed with white pants, they were tight with a white shirt and white T and he had a red small jacket on. We told Michael to try it on, when he came to put it on, he couldn’t really fit it. He took his jacket off and we saw something horrible, a skeleton and then we saw his back and we were still in shock. We don’t know if he is anorexic and stopped eating or if it’s something more complicated than that. Well in the case, if he has stopped eating, here is what I want to tell you. If you do nothing he will die. I know that it is humanly impossible for a human being to be a skeleton & dance for two hours straight and not be in danger”.
Despite every visible sign pointing to Michael growing frailer with every coming day AEG chose not to notice Michael’s condition. Their opinion was that he was “doing something to himself” and all that was needed in the circumstances was full control over his life. Hence Randy Phillips’ reaction to Karen’s words:
Q. Before Michael Jackson died, did you ever speak to Randy Phillips about Michael missing rehearsal?
A. I ran into Randy in the hallway and everybody was sad about Michael missing rehearsal.
Q. What did Randy say to you?
A. “I had to scrape Michael off the floor in London to get him to the announcement because he was so drunk”
And hence the measures they took to ‘help’ Michael – they told everyone not to listen to what Michael Jackson was telling them.
Later they also put a person into his dressing room who was monitoring everything Michael was doing there. It never occurred to them that the reason why Michael was dying was the harassment they were subjecting him to:
Q. Did Kenny Ortega tell you about the intentions or the plans of the producers to help Michael Jackson?
A. He told me that Randy Phillips hired the ten top doctor(s) in the country.
Q. After you had talked with Kenny and he said that they had these top ten doctors did you continue to have concerns about Michael’s condition?
A. Yes.
Q. What were you concerned about, what did you see?
A. Michael was very cold, his body was cold to the touch.
Q. Did you ever have an understanding that Mr. Jackson was having problems sleeping?
A. Yes.
Q. Did you ever get instruction from AEG about who you should take instructions from afterward?
A. I was instructed by Kenny Ortega.
Q. Were you ever instructed not to listen to what Michael Jackson told you to do?
A.Yes.
Q. What was your understanding of who you were to listen to and take direction from?
A. Randy Phillips.
Q. Were you ever told to get Michael on stage with his ear pieces in, even though he didn’t want that?
A. Yes.
Q. Did you know the pressures to get Michael on the stage and not to listen to you?
A. Yes.
Q. Did you feel torn over who to listen to?
A. Yes.
Q. After the meeting, when Mr. Ortega came back, did he give you instructions on what to do with Mr. Jackson?
A. Yes.
Q. What did he instruct you to do?
A. To not listen to what he (MJ) tells me
Q. Did you have a conversation with Dr. Dileo and Mr. Ortega around this June 16th time period about Michael’s physical condition?
A. Yes.
Q. Did they seem to listen to you?
A. No.
Q. Around this time were you getting communication from fans?
A. Yes.
Q. Were those communications concerning you?
A. I was very concerned.
Q. Did you forward those communications on to Mr. Dielo as you have been instructed to do?
A. Yes.
As far as I understand Frank Dileo rarely responded to any of these concerns and two days before Michael’s death gave an answer which struck Karen by its coldness and made her cry on the stand:
Panish: Did you hear Mr. Dileo make a statement about Michael’s food?
A Yes.
Q. What did he say?
A Get him a bucket of chicken.
Q. How did that make you feel?
A. Sir… (crying) It was so cold.
Putnam: You said you talked with Frank Dileo and he said get him a bucket of chicken?
A. That wasn’t with me. I heard it through a partition.
Q. At Staples Center the 23rd and the 24th that would have been on one of those two days?
A. Yes sir.
Q. You previously testified on those days Mr. Jackson looked good?
A. I didn’t say he LOOKED good. There’s no way somebody could look good that quickly. His rehearsal was better, sir.
Q. He had better rehearsal o the 23rd 24th but you still thought he was too thin?
A. Absolutely, sir. He was cold, very cold.
On almost all days at the end of June Michael was cold, but on June 19th he was cold like ice cubes:
‘That was the day that Michael was cold like ice cubes, he was shivering and shaking and couldn’t get warm. I got my space heater and put it next to him and wrapped him in a blanket.”
Michael was also so thin that when Michael Bush helped him change his clothes due to perspiration he saw the impossible – he saw his heartbeat under his skin:
Q. What happened at the rehearsal?
A. Michael sweat a lot when he was rehearsing. Michael Bush took him to the bathroom to give him dry clothing. I was in the living room. Bush came out of the bathroom, he said to me: Oh my God Turkle, I can see Michael’s heart beating through the skin on his chest.
Q. Who’s Turkle?
A. That was Michael’s nickname for me.
Q. How were you both?
A. We were shocked, upset.
Q. Yesterday you said you received no written response to your email to Dileo, about your concerns, you were worried Michael would get so sick and die, is that right?
A. Correct.
Q. Did Mr. Dileo say anything to you about those emails?
A. No, but I asked if he received them. He did not respond.
Q. Did Mr. Dileo say anything to you about Michael Jackson’s eating or physical condition?
A. I told him Michael’s losing weight rapidly. To ask Michael Bush to verify how much weight he’s losing. Later I saw him talking to Michael Bush. I heard him asking something about Michael’s weight, I heard Bush verify.
SKELETAL June 19th, 2009 Michael is trying on his costumes
Corina Knoll of the LA Times did describe the horrendous picture of Michael’s health in the final days of his life. This is how we learn for the first time that Michael was so skeletal that they could see his heartbeat under his skin.
This awful detail was mentioned just once or twice in the media reports and did not receive the attention it should receive. Imagine the sight of them seeing Michael’s heartbeat through his skin…
And the way Frank Dileo, Michael’s own manager responded to his problems also makes us wonder what role he was playing in the whole nightmare.
Jackson so thin ‘I could see Michael’s heartbeat,’ costumer said
By Corina Knoll
May 10, 2013, 12:04 p.m.
The costume designer who worked with Michael Jackson was alarmed by the music legend’s frail figure during his last days, a makeup artist testified Friday.
Michael Bush — who created much of the singer’s wardrobe for 25 years and wrote a book about the experience — appeared upset after he finished up a June 2009 fitting inside Jackson’s bathroom at Staples Center, Karen Faye said.
“He said ‘Oh my god, Turkle. I could see Michael’s heartbeat through the skin in his chest,’” Faye recounted.
Turkle was Jackson’s nickname for Faye, who worked as his makeup artist off and on for nearly three decades.
Faye, in her second day on the stand, was emotional as she described the moment.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Yvette Palazuelos then asked Faye about Bush’s tone of voice at the time.
“It was like, ‘Oh my god,’” Faye said. “He was pretty much in shock.”
Around the same time, Faye said she tried to warn Jackson’s manager, Frank DiLeo, about Jackson’s health.
“[Frank] was saying pretty much, ‘I got it under control, don’t worry about it,’” Faye said.
“I said, ‘But he’s losing weight rapidly.’ … I said, ‘Why don’t you ask Michael Bush to verify taking in his pants and how much weight he’s actually losing?’”
Faye said DiLeo went to speak to Bush and she overheard the manager say, “Get him a bucket of chicken.”
“It was such a cold response,” Faye said. “I mean, it broke my heart.”
The 2-week-old civil trial pits AEG against Jackson’s mother and three children who accuse the concert promoter of negligently hiring and controlling Conrad Murray, the doctor who administered a fatal dose of the anesthetic propofol to Jackson. Murray is now serving jail time for involuntary manslaughter.
Faye, who began working with Jackson in the early 1980s and did his hair and makeup for the “Thriller” album cover, said she felt the singer “did not have enough muscle mass to do a concert” as he was prepping for his “This Is It” comeback tour.
She said Jackson realized he didn’t look good in a video that was filmed to be used on giant screens during the concert series. At his request, she said, she assisted technicians retouching the singer’s image on the footage.
But the makeup artist said that although she was asked, she did not help retouch the posthumous “This Is It” documentary.
“Everybody was lying after he died, sir, that Michael was well,” Faye said to the Jacksons’ attorney, Brian Panish. “And everybody knew he wasn’t. I felt retouching Michael was just a part of that lie.”
During cross-examination by an AEG attorney, Faye clarified and said she had been torn about working on the documentary.
“My initial feeling was that I didn’t want to lie, and the second, my other thing that was tugging at my heart, was that if this movie was going out, I wanted him to look good.”
Faye said she helped prepare Jackson’s body for his casket.
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-jackson-thin-20130510,0,3229693.story
The jury also saw some photos of Michael:
Q. Did he look robust, muscular, skeletal? How would you describe this?
A. Skeletal.
In comparison with his usual self in This is it he looked skeletal
The portrayed picture of Michael’s last days and weeks is so sad that I cannot even comment on it.
What I need to comment on though is that all those terrible changes for the worse were already visible at the beginning of June when Michael made his first appearance on the Forum stage on June 5th which was 20 days before his death.
Despite all these visible signs of an imminent disaster AEG chose not to really look into Michael’s condition, but told everyone around Michael to ignore his wishes, take directions from them only and even exhibit tough love to him.
We can have a feel of this “tough love” approach when we recall a scene from ‘This is it’ when Michael was explaining that an earpiece felt like a fist pushed into his ear and Kenny Ortega rather rudely replied to him something like “You’ll have to wear it. Anything else we can do for you?”
The way it hurt Michael was even noticeable and watching it was like scratching a sore wound. But this was only one of the innumerable offences he had to cope with every day of his cooperation with AEG and their people.
Unfortunately it was also part of Karen Faye’s job to ignore Michael’s wishes as she, for example, had to place that earpiece back even when he was objecting to it. She had to follow AEG’s instructions – she was hired by them and was answerable to these people.
And this matter opens the last subject for today. If Karen Faye was invited to the project by Michael Jackson but was hired by AEG and had to do what they ordered her to, how is her situation different from that of Conrad Murray?
THEY WORKED FOR AEG
Indeed, Conrad Murray was also brought in by Michael Jackson, but had a contract with AEG. Same as Karen Faye he started working earlier waiting for the contract to be drawn so that his payment would be recompensed later, and same as Karen he was to fulfill the orders of AEG and not Michael Jackson as his contract with them even clearly stated it.
So how is it different from Karen’s employment and the people she had to report to and listen to?
See what Karen is saying about her obligations and chain of command, and try to find at least some differences with Conrad Murray’s situation:
Q. Did you eventually get a written contract with AEG?
A. Yes, I did.
Q. Prior to having a written contract did you do work for the production?
A. Yes, because it took a while to get the contract and all that stuff together. I actually felt I started when Michael said can you do work for me.
Q. So you started doing work before you had a written agreement signed.
A. Correct.
Q. AEG… Mr. Gongaware authorized you to go ahead and do work.
[AEG objects on foundation, Judge asks Panish to repeat the question]
Q. You started working at some point in time?
A. Yes.
Q. Who had you been talking to about work on the project after you talked to Michael Jackson?
A. Paul Gongaware was the first person and then I started talks with Tim Woolley.
<>Q. Was it your understanding that your worked for AEG?
A. Yes.
Q. Did he give you checks from AEG?
A. No, they were wired to my account.
Q. And did you get paid for the work you did without the contract?
A. Not really… Because I was working and the contract had to be signed. They told me, we will pay you when it (the contract) is done, should be done in a couple of weeks and we will pay you a couple of weeks in your first pay check.
Q. So in other words without the agreement you’d been working and once you got the agreement you got paid and they pay you for the previous work you did.
A. Right.
Q. Even though Michael had asked you to work the tour, who was directing and managing what you did?
A. AEG was.
Q. Who were the AEG personnel that you knew was dealing with this project?
A. Do you mean who I was answering to sir?
Q. Who did you take directions from?
A. I took directions from Frank Dileo, I took directions from Kenny Ortega, I reported to Tim Woolley and once in a while I spoke to Randy.
Q. To who?
A. Randy Phillips.
(Note: All the transcripts were retyped from http://teammichaeljackson.com/archives/8324)
The only difference you will find in the above is that the AEG people were paying to Karen Faye and to Conrad Murray they were not, but this is all the difference there is to it. The responsibilities are the same – listen to AEG’s orders and do as you are told.
As regards payment I wonder why they were so terribly dragging their feet with Murray’s contract and why they did not want to pay him. Probably in order to be able to say afterwards that they had nothing to do with this person and they hear of him for the first time?
Nothing will surprise me any longer in respect of this corporation. Their closets may be full of new skeletons and in this connection a detail mentioned by one LA Times article attracted my attention. It says that not only Frank Dileo is dead, but his computer is missing too. I hear that by now they have found some copies of his emails and I hope that they will throw some light even on the darkest AEG corners.
The article mentions some other details not covered yet:
Makeup artist describes a frail, ailing Jackson
In the family’s wrongful-death suit against AEG, Karen Faye testifies that ‘everybody knew’ the performer wasn’t well.
By Corina Knoll, Los Angeles Times
May 10, 2013, 9:00 p.m.
Michael Jackson’s diminishing figure — so thin that a costume designer claimed he could see the pop star’s heartbeat through his skin — failed to even concern his own manager, according to testimony given Friday.
“Get him a bucket of chicken,” Frank DiLeo replied when told of the singer’s dramatic weight loss, Karen Faye said.
“It was such a cold response,” said Faye. “I mean, it broke my heart.”
Over two days on the witness stand, Jackson’s longtime friend and hair and makeup artist offered dramatic and sometimes emotional testimony in a trial that will determine whether the music legend’s mother and three children are awarded damages in the millions — even billions — for his death.
Faye described a talented yet haunted star who descended into drug use and whose body had wasted to the point that he shook from the cold while huddling in front of a space heater.
The makeup artist, who worked with Jackson for nearly three decades and helped prepare his body for the casket, said she refused to assist technicians retouching footage for the posthumous documentary “This Is It.”
“Everybody was lying after he died, sir, that Michael was well,” Faye said to the Jacksons’ attorney, Brian Panish. “And everybody knew he wasn’t. I felt retouching Michael was just a part of that lie.”
Faye said she grew especially protective of Jackson after child molestation allegations surfaced and he was in need of constant comfort and reassurance.
During that 2005 trial, Faye said she would arrive at 3 a.m. to help Jackson get ready. Although the singer once asked her if she had painkillers, she never brought up his addiction because she felt it was her duty to keep him calm before he went to court.
“I was a place of safety for him, and peace,” Faye said. She added that she didn’t blame him for his use of drugs, referring to the singer’s emotional and psychological pain over the charges as well as his physical pain from injuries.
She said she never saw Jackson use drugs.
Faye said she did request prescriptions for Latisse, which is used to lengthen eyelashes, and the hair growth drug Propecia in her name so that she could give them to Jackson. She also inquired about but never received Botox as a possible remedy to Jackson’s onstage sweating that often caused problems with his hair extensions.
First hired to do Jackson’s hair and makeup for his 1982 “Thriller” album cover, Faye stayed on with the pop star and was often behind the scenes, including when he taped the 1993 statement about his decision to enter rehab.
Faye said she sometimes spoke to Jackson’s siblings about his addiction. It was her understanding, she said, that the family had attempted interventions with Jackson that were unsuccessful.
The makeup artist said she parted ways with Jackson during 1996-97’s HIStory World Tour, due to problems with the tour manager as well as jealousy from Debbie Rowe, the performer’s wife at the time.
After a few years, Faye said, she returned to working with Jackson, and Rowe apologized.
Hired for the “This Is It” tour, Faye said she noted that the singer didn’t appear to have the muscle mass necessary to do a concert but that DiLeo seemed unconcerned.
“[Frank] was saying pretty much ‘I got it under control, don’t worry about it,‘” Faye said.
The plaintiffs have a court order for emails DiLeo wrote during preparation for the comeback concerts but were told by AEG‘s attorneys that the manager’s computer had disappeared, the Jacksons’ lawyer Kevin Boyle said.
He said the emails could include exchanges between DiLeo and AEG executives and that they may be able to recover copies from an attorney who worked with DiLeo before the manager’s 2011 death.
Despite emotional testimony from Faye, who at times clenched a tissue and wiped her eyes, the overall mood in the courtroom was kept light by her frequent quips.
During cross-examination, she sighed at questions and told AEG attorney Marvin Putnam, “I’m 60 years old, sir, and you’re talking about a 30-year span. I’m going to do the best I can. … How old are you, sir?”
After jurors and observers laughed, Faye asked slyly, “Is that hearsay?” referring to multiple hearsay objections from AEG.
“You go, girl,” said one fan in the courtroom who gave the thumbs up sign.
When Putnam brought up Faye’s blog and Twitter account — on which she has insisted that she was paid by AEG and once wrote, “AEG owned Michael” — she stood firm.
“I’ve stated the truth as far as my experience,” she said.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-0511-jackson-aeg-20130511,0,6975430.story
What a brave woman. RESPECT
As regards the blog this is what Karen Faye actually said:
Q. In all of these tweets and blogs you have said a number of unfavorable things about AEG, haven’t you?
A. I’ve stated the truth as far as my experience, sir.
Q. My question was not about truth. Have you or have you not posted a number of unfavorable things about AEG?
A. I have to give you the same answer on that, sir.
Q. I’m not asking you to give me the same answer on that. I’m asking you if you understand the term unfavorable?
A. I guess you – unfavorable. Could you please define the word unfavorable?
Q. Putting things on the internet about AEG in which you paint them in a light one would consider not favorable. A bad light.
A. I paint them in a truthful light based on my experience, sir.
Q. Do you consider that a positive light. Are you lauding AEG on these sites?
A. No, I’m not lauding them. I’m not singing their praises.
You are a truly brave woman, Karen. And telling the truth too.
Thank you very much.
Michael promised us a thriller and it’s a thriller indeed. My only wish is that it were not that sad.
* * *
SUPPLEMENT
Here are the tweets from ABC7 Court News and TeamMichaelJackson covering two days of Karen Faye’s testimony:
|
1 |
Mrs. Jackson and Trent Jackson just arrived. She is wearing a flower dress and a purple jacket along with patent leather mary jane shoes. | ABC7 |
|
2 |
She said hello to all the Jackson supporters in the hall. Court is scheduled to start at 9:30a this morning. | ABC7 |
|
3 |
Karen Faye MJ’s long time Hair and Makeup artist takes the stand. | ABC7 |
|
4 |
Background: Worked with Kevin Costner, smokey Robinson. Worked for MJ since 82. First worked with MJ “Thriller” album-tiger, then ET | TMJ |
|
5 |
Work as make-up artist after Pepsi burn, Hair pieces. Names countries travelled to in MJ’s employee. Was very close like “brother/sister | TMJ |
|
6 |
Worked for MJ on 3 World tours, talking about Queen/lady Diana/presidents. Worked for MJ on many other occasions | TMJ |
|
7 |
When on tour would go into children’s hospitals/orphanages. “MJ open, brilliant laughed a lot ” Karen Faye crying on the stand | TMJ |
|
8 |
Shows photos of Karen Faye and MJ. “LMP was calling MJ begging him not to divorce’ she called begging & begging. Talks about one of image | TMJ |
|
9 |
She says her relationship with MJ grew over the 27 years she worked with him to a brother and sister relationship. | ABC7 |
|
10 |
Her testimony has been very emotional. She is wiping tears away as she sees her favorite pictures of MJ | ABC7 |
|
11 |
One picture shows MJ with tape on his fingers…Karen explains that it was a trick to get the audience to follow his hands. | ABC7 |
|
12 |
She says she knew he couldn’t wear the glove forever. | ABC7 |
|
13 |
Showed various images of MJ asked questions about them. 1. Why did MJ wear tape on his fingers? For attention. Gloves, socks, to keep people thinking | TMJ |
|
15 |
Then continues to talk about crowd MJ attracted to this & other shows. Karen Faye is crying on stand, hard to make out what she’s saying!! | TMJ |
|
16 |
Shows MJ Pepsi burn. “I was like crying, I was so worried about him, I was watching tv, he had 1st 2nd & 3rd degree burns, no operations at that time | TMJ |
|
17 |
She says when MJ was burned shooting the Pepsi commercial he did not know it and just kept singing. His friend Niko had to tackle him. | ABC7 |
|
18 |
He was basically ok after this, his skin healed, we got a hair piece for him. But he wanted hair, so he had operation, talks about operation in depth. | TMJ |
|
19 |
He suffered migraines after that injury. He had several surgeries to try to repair the damage to his scalp. | ABC7 |
|
20 |
Karen makes the Thriller hand gestures when she is questioned about the music video. As it plays she wipes tears from her eyes. | ABC7 |
|
22 |
Karen is shown a commercial shot of MJ for athletic shoes. she can’t remember the brand. The MJ supporters is audience tell her “LA Gear!” | ABC7 |
|
23 |
MJ suffered from migraines after the Pepsi commercial accident | ABC7 |
|
24 |
Did Michael have back pains from that? Only under stress/Karen asked few times by Panish “let me ask the question” | TMJ |
|
25 |
Lets Talks about History tour? “Let me ask the question”vPanish. when the bridge collapsed. Talked about bridge collapse. Clip | TMJ |
|
26 |
Clip shown fan jumps on crane MJ concert, during “earth” son.” Michael was so worried about him, | TMJ |
|
27 |
SuperBowl clip plays. Karen Faye is crying… | TMJ |
|
28 |
Basically many videos of MJ performances played to which questions were asked. | TMJ |
|
29 |
Not much to report. Videos/pics shown, Sarcasm, laughter, mimicking MJ, crying. Humorous at times. Will see what comes out after break | TMJ |
|
30 |
Karen Faye not left for break, siting on stand crying | TMJ |
|
31 |
Pepsi video, was MJ in pain? He was on stage I didn’t see. Did he have sleep probs? When MJ performs adrenalin so high, took 24hrs to adjust, | TMJ |
|
32 |
She said MJ had so much adrenalin while performing 2 hours that it took him a day or two to calm down and rest. | ABC7 |
|
33 |
On the early concert tours there was enough time between concerts for him to get rest but later tours got longer and show got closer | ABC7 |
|
34 |
…Usually shows were spread out so Michael had time to calm down and sleep. Michael always believed a Dr had his best intentions | TMJ |
|
35 |
After shows did MJ have prescription meds? Michael never told me, I don’t know. Did you see Dr’s around him? Yes | TMJ |
|
36 |
Dangerous tour, did anything unusual take place? Do you mean DR’s … yes? Yes he needed pain meds for pain bc of his scalp | TMJ |
|
37 |
Debbie Rowe would come to the trailer carrying a little bag. I was asked to give injections, I thought about it and refusedTMJ | |
|
38 |
Who was tour manager/director? Paul Gongaware, he was in charge of the band group, logistics of moving, hotels, passports | TMJ |
|
39 |
Did you learn whether or not Mr Jackson was being given medication? Yes, strong enough for pain but not effect his performance | TMJ |
|
40 |
Gongaware was close friend with Finklestein. Saw Dr at tour. | TMJ |
|
41 |
He was doing a short film for the Adams Family – and suffering pain because of scalp surgery. Debbie Rowe would come with pain meds | ABC7 |
|
42 |
On one concert tour, Rowe asked Karen to carry pain medication and learn to give an injection. Karen said no. | ABC7 |
|
43 |
A Doctor was added to the tour in Bangkok. He met Karen in the lobby of the hotel with the medication she refused to carry. | ABC7 |
|
44 |
The package had vials and syringes. The Doctor told her she might not have gotten into the country with the package. | ABC7 |
|
45 |
In Singapore she saw MJ stumbling and fell into a tree in his dressing room. She was afraid for him and told the Doctor. | ABC7 |
|
46 |
…Once Michael came to tour stumbling, he fell, I asked Dr to see to him, I feared for MJ’s safety and his life, I told the Dr Forecast | TMJ |
|
47 |
MJ can’t go on stage, Dr backed me up against the wall I lost my breath and fell to the floor. Dr dragged Michael on stage | TMJ |
|
48 |
First child abuse allegation. “Michael was in so much pain, everybody in the crowd thinking he was a pedophile, don’t know HOW he did it” | TMJ |
|
49 |
Tour ended early because everyone knew Michael had a problem. Liz Taylor came and took MJ, I didn’t know where he was | TMJ |
|
50 |
She told the doctor he couldn’t go on in that condition but the Doctor said he could go on. She was afraid for his life. | ABC7 |
|
51 |
MJ on tour when the first allegations of Child Molestation hit the papers. MJ under a lot of stress. The world thinks he is a pedohile | ABC7 |
|
52 |
That tour ended when Elizabeth Taylor came to Mexico to accompany MJ to a rehab facility. | ABC7 |
|
53 |
Eventually in disguise I was taken to a residence in the county side, beautiful country house full of rehab patient. MJ was there | TMJ |
|
54 |
Eventually found out about MJ’s problem. After that every time I saw a Doctor I was worried he was giving MJ something for pain | TMJ |
|
55 |
Karen Faye was on first leg of History tour. Don’t recall Dr being there. Knows dr Ratner saw him at end of first leg | TMJ |
|
56 |
Saw P. Gongaware on first leg of History tour, Gongaware had been promoted. | TMJ |
|
57 |
MJ collapsed on after Munich concert of exhaustion. Then went onto Paris. | TMJ |
|
58 |
Dr wouldn’t allow Karen Faye into MJ room. Said I’ve given MJ something he will be out for 5hrs. Karen Feye got help. Walked MJ around woke him to perform. | TMJ |
|
59 |
2005 criminal trial helped worked with MJ till he left for Bahrain. | TMJ |
|
60 |
At Neverland got MJ ready from 3am to leave at 7am. If he was late he would be arrested. Prayed every day. KF crying.. | TMJ |
|
61 |
MJ had fallen, hurt his back, had to go to hospital, but clerk said he had to be at court, we wanted to dress him but there was no time. | TMJ |
|
62 |
Trial ended but MJ got worse, physical pain, couldn’t eat, lost weight, would throw up< | TMJ |
|
63 |
She was with him during the trial. She would do his hair and makeup for the “red carpet” at the courthouse. | ABC7 |
|
64 |
He wouldn’t eat or drink during the trial for fear he had to go to the bathoom one of the guards would have to escort him. He was too shy. | ABC7 |
|
65 |
She cried during the entire trial testimony…after the trial MJ went to Bahrain. She is back on the stand after lunch. | ABC7 |
|
66 |
When testimony resumed at 1:40p Karen Faye said MJ asked her to be on the “This is It” tour and she said yes | ABC7 |
|
67 |
She said the first time MJ went on stage to perform at the This is It rehearsals, she saw a change in him. | ABC7 |
|
68 |
She said MJ’s skin was very dry, his eyes were dry, he was losing weight, and he kept repeating himself. | ABC7 |
|
69 |
She testified that MJ was showing signs of paranoia. That MJ had to see her when he was on stage always. He would repeat over and over | ABC7 |
|
70 |
She had concerns about MJ and expressed those concerns to Kenny Ortega. | ABC7 |
|
71 |
M.Amir called March 09 then MJ to explain about concerts TII. Concerned about Raymone Bains who was responsible for no contact with MJ 4 years | TMJ |
|
72 |
Was concerned about TII shows being too close together, so called Kenny Ortega who brushed it off. | TMJ |
|
73 |
Hired to work on project by AEG Paul Gongaware. Negotiated salary with Gongaware. Then turned onto Tim Woolley | TMJ |
|
74 |
Don’t know who payed her as it was deposited to bank via KF’s rep. Shows contract between Rep “Zilkrin” and AEG. Signed by Karen Faye | TMJ |
|
75 |
Date of contract is May 5th. But Karen Faye says she started work two weeks prior. Witness on contract is Tanya | TMJ |
|
76 |
Reads paragraph 2.2 I “will render my services to the company(AEG) make-up/hair photo sessions/videos etc” | TMJ |
|
77 |
Asked what was AEG’s role? They were to manage/direct everything. Took directions from Delio, Ortega, sometimes Woolley, Phillips | TMJ |
|
78 |
Randy Phillips was the man at the top. Paul Gongaware was under Phillips. Gongaware was at rehearsals everyday. Phillips sometimes | TMJ |
|
79 |
Ortega had a huge part in the show. “Bugsy” worked a lot on the stage. Worked for AEG, Phillips. Payne worked with dancers, | TMJ |
|
80 |
Bush worked on the show too, designed costumes. Saw, spoke to MJ April/May asked what was discussed with MJ. Objected | TMJ |
|
81 |
Asked what topics where discussed. Primary work & everyday stuff. Asked if Discussed concerns about the production. Objection. SIDEBAR!!!!!! | TMJ |
|
82 |
Karen Faye admonished by sheriff for speaking to Jurors whilst Judge and attorneys out the court room having sidebar | TMJ |
|
83 |
Did you have concerns? Yes. In the beginning? Very happy, upbeat, clear but on the thin side | TMJ |
|
84 |
When you saw mr jackson, was he frustrated? yes | TMJ |
|
85 |
Did you think he would be able to do the shows? I thought he had time to build up body mass in time for the show | TMJ |
|
86 |
Did you have a understanding it was important show? Yes, it was financially, and for his children. And his fans hey were very impo to him | TMJ |
|
87 |
Whose responsibility was it to make sure Michael got up on the stage and perform? Kenny was in charge of production, it was his responsibility | TMJ |
|
88 |
WAS ANYONE INSISTING MICHAEL GET UP ON THAT STAGE??? Randy Phillips, Kenny Ortega | TMJ |
|
89 |
Michael had to rehearse, but when he couldn’t they were making him. Who? Michaels skin was very dry | TMJ |
|
90 |
Was he talking to himself? He was repeating himself all the time, I was concerned….. Michael told me he didn’t want to do 50 shows. | TMJ |
|
91 |
Michael was very happy until he had to get up on the stage. There were instances of paranoia. He kept telling me he wanted to see Me when he was on stage , he repeated that over “MAKE SURE I CAN SEE YOU WHEN I AM ON STAGE” he would worry in case the music was too loud | TMJ |
|
92 |
Did you hear Gongaware scream to Michael Amir when Michael locked himself in the bathroom?? | TMJ |
|
93 |
She overheard Paul Gongaware from AEG yell into the phone to MJ security to get MJ out of the bathroom. | ABC7 |
|
94 |
Faye testified that MJ wanted to do the Tour for his children. they had never seen him perform. He also wanted to do it for his fans. | ABC7 |
|
95 |
She said Director Kenny Ortega and AEG CEO Randy Phillips insisted MJ rehearse. | ABC7 |
|
96 |
When she was asked about MJ’s hair Fayes asked about her job? The attorney said yes. She couldn’t answer…she said it was too personal. | ABC7 |
|
97 |
After a meeting between MJ, Ortega, and Phillips, Faye was told not to follow MJ’s instructions anymore. She should show tough love. | ABC7 |
|
98 |
She became more concerned for MJ’s health in the last few days. She forwarded several emails to producers and included her own concerns | ABC7 |
|
99 |
Faye said Randy Phillips told her that he had read her emails and tried to do everything he could for MJ. That was at the funeral. | ABC7 |
|
100 |
Did you discuss you concerns with anyone? When. Anytime? Yes. Who did you discuss those with? Kenny Ortega. | TMJ |
|
101 |
Did you discuss a physiologist should be bought in to see Michael? Yes I did. Who did you discuss with? Kenny, Kenny told… OBJECTION.. SIDEBAR… | TMJ |
|
102 |
Did you understand MJ had problems sleeping, don’t tell me what anyone told you? Yes If you had concerns who would you talk to? Frank | TMJ |
|
103 |
Panish: We have all these restrictions about what you can say, we don’t want another side bar | TMJ |
|
104 |
how did you tell Dileo? Emails. I told him I was concerned about MJ | TMJ |
|
105 |
Who was your chain of command? Dileo. Who did he report to? OBJECTION.. | TMJ |
|
106 |
Were you ever told who you must listen to? Do you understand. .. Michael was late for rehearsal. Kenny and others went to MJ house | TMJ |
|
107 |
Did you get instructions from AEG about who you must take instructions from?? | TMJ |
|
108 |
We’re you ever told not to listen to Michael Jackson? Yes. Who told you that? Randy Phillips. Were you told to force Michael onto the stage | TMJ |
|
109 |
The meeting. Did Ortega come back after that meeting? Yes | TMJ |
|
110 |
And make him wear his ear piece? Yes sir. Were you torn? Yes sir. | TMJ |
|
111 |
What did Ortega say to you? OBJECTION.. Your honor I would like to come back to this, I don’t want a sidebar now.” Panish.. Laughs | TMJ |
|
112 |
Were you told not to listen to Michael? Yes, I was told not to listen to MJ, he had had “tough love” | TMJ |
|
113 |
6/18 michael was shivering, I put him in a blanket,heater near him. Told Ortega to call a Dr don’t know if he did, I continued to follow instructions | TMJ |
|
114 |
Were you getting communication from fans? Yes. Did that concern you? Yes, I forwarded them to Dileo. | TMJ |
|
115 |
Did Mr Phillips say anything to you about emails? said he had read emails I sent to Dileo, and he said he tried to do everything for michael.. | TMJ |
|
116 |
June 18th did MJ come to rehearsals? Yes. How did he look? Stoic. Were you told not to communicate with fans? Yes. Who told you? Delio | TMJ |
|
117 |
Did Ortega do anything to help Michael? Yes called the Dr. Did he massage his feet? Yes. Why? I don’t know. | TMJ |
|
118 |
Was Michael shaking that day? Later on he was. http://teammichaeljackson.com/jackson-v-aeg-the-trial … Where you in the room? Yes | TMJ |
|
119 |
What where they doing, what are those silver thing? Explains, military style shoulder pads. For costume | TMJ |
|
120 |
How would you describe Michaels In that moment he seemed ok, but after designer left Payne told….. OBJECTION | TMJ |
|
121 |
explain his demeanor? He was frustrated saying why can’t I choose. Why was he unhappy? OBJECTION. SUSTAINED | TMJ |
|
122 |
Did you do anything else in your concern for Michael? Ermmmm…. Sorry im … | TMJ |
|
123 |
Did you send, with emails from fans, your own comments to Mr Dileo? Yes. Panish wants to show email. OBJECTED… overruled | TMJ |
|
124 |
What was your reason for sending those emails, whose to dokie?? Dileo’s assistant?? Shows emails | TMJ |
|
125 |
Email from Karen Faye “Frank unfortunately she’s right, he is so sick he will die, if he does not do these show he has nowhere else..” | TMJ |
|
126 |
Attached was email from fan “Karen I’m going to make this short, I was in LA last week MJ invited us on set, my friend made jacket for him.. | TMJ |
|
127 |
He was on…..He took his jacket off we saw Something horrible… | TMJ |
|
128 |
We know he was skinny, but we saw a skeleton, has he stopped eating, is he anorexic or is it Something else. If none helps he will die” | TMJ |
|
129 |
It’s humanly impossible for him to dance without any danger….”2nd email asking Karen to intervene she sent to Dileo shown | TMJ |
|
130 |
Shows email from Karen Faye to Dileo June 22nd. “…If you see problem with MJ please help…” Last couple days of MJ’s life felt he was getting better | TMJ |
|
131 |
Phillips put a man I did not recognize in Michaels room, Michael was bothered by that, I thought it was very sad… Karen Faye | TMJ |
|
132 |
June 24th there were more people around. He was wrapped in blankets.” Karen Faye. Court out resumes 8.30 tomorrow. | TMJ |
|
133 |
Faye is back on the stand Friday morning at 8:30a. | ABC7 |
|
134 |
Mrs. Jackson is not at the trial today. Makeup artist Karen Faye is back on the stand for continued direct questioning | ABC7 |
|
135 |
OMG…. STEBBINS AEG LAWYER JUST OBJECTED PUTNAM’S AEG LAWYERS QUESTION *palm slaps head* | TMJ |
|
136 |
Putnam trying to confuse Karen Faye, saying she said this or that. He’s laying into her. Trying to make her look bad/stupid | TMJ |
|
137 |
KAREN EFFING ROCKED IT,,,, I’M 60 SIR, PUTNAM REPLIES, SHE ASKS “HOW OLD ARE YOU?”… THEN SHE SAYS “OBJECTION, HEARSAY… SIDEBAR…” LAUGHTER. | TMJ |
|
138 |
MJ was in bathroom, Bush came out from the bathroom said “OMG, I can see his heart beating he is that thin” Did Dileo say anything to you about MJ? He said don’t worry about it. Heard Delio ask Bush about food for MJ, Bush said,, Objection. Where were you when you heard Michael is dead? I was in the hallway, Ortega put his arm around me and told me/ How did you feel? I can’t describe it | TMJ |
|
139 |
It was Kenny Ortega who came to her, hugged her and told her MJ had died. She said she became weak in the knees | ABC7 |
|
140 |
Faye said she prepared MJ’s body for the family to see him after he died. | ABC7 |
|
141 |
She was asked to work on the “This is It” film touching up MJ in the footage. She refused. She thought that would be a lie and couldn’t | ABC7 |
|
142 |
Did you prepare Michael for the funeral? Yes, I prepared him for his family to view. Did you hear about a movie to be made? Yes. | TMJ |
|
143 |
What did they want you to do? Retouch the movie. Did you do it? No sir, Why not? It was a lie, haws not well, everyone was lying | TMJ |
|
144 |
Shows clip, ” the way you make me feel” does that deficit Michael accurately? OBJECTION, OVERRULED. he looked better to me in real life | TMJ |
|
145 |
Cross by Marvin Putnam | TMJ |
|
146 |
Shows image. I can’t hold back the tears…. How do you see this? Karen crying… Skeleton and thin. Shows MJ gold pants comparison to red | TMJ |
|
147 |
What were you concerns about MJ? His physiological and physical/ was that all the time? It peaked towards the end. | TMJ |
|
148 |
Putnam wants to get some accurate info re: schedule, Karen can’t be certain of exact dates, Putnam pushes for exact dates, Panish objects, | TMJ |
|
149 |
Karen can’t give definite date without her notes. Putnam recites Karen history over the years. Asking about managers. Dileo quit his job at at Sony to be MJ’s manager Did not know Dileo the whole period employed by MJ. Dileo was fired. MJ fired staff all the time? Yes. | TMJ |
|
150 |
You were fired? I was not fired. I was released. You were fired. You too left and came back in. Was it odd people came and went? Not really | TMJ |
|
151 |
You worked on Moonwalker? Yes. Dileo was there? yes. Dileo was on Bad tour? Yes sir. There were series of tours that were cancelled? Can’t remember, In Orange County? I can’t remember, we did them. Were they delayed? I can’t remember. So you don’t remember many things. | TMJ |
|
152 |
Karen Faye: No more or less then anyone else, major episodes are very clear. Putnam continues to ask about specific concerts. Karen can’t remember. | TMJ |
|
153 |
Ask about Wembly concerts. Yes remembers but not the schedule. Shows clips, ask Karen again(Putnam is (TRIPPING) how can anyone remember 1 show | TMJ |
|
154 |
shows beat it Wembly ..We did this show many times. Then shows Smooth Criminal. Asking Karen to remember the ‘Version’ yes she remembers | TMJ |
|
155 |
Dangerous tour 1992? Karen’s says she will take his word for it. Was Ortega there? Yes not the entire tour/ he & MJ designed that tour? Yes | TMJ |
|
156 |
MJ went into rehab?yes. .. Dr Forcast. There were 500,000 people in Buchrest? No that was Ireland yes. You said Bucrest had 500,000? No sir | TMJ |
|
157 |
Putnam was trying to make Karen look stupid. Instead Putnam looked like a complete AAAAAAAAAAAAAA hole.. Ok back to work.. | TMJ |
|
158 |
Putnam referring to number of years, tours, trying to confuse KF. She replies ” I’m not good with numbers Sir. So you don’t remember… | TMJ |
|
159 |
It was 1993’m Karen replies ” you have done your homework” Putnam flips from PEpsi ad to first allegations.. Yes Sir, yes sir,,,,,, KF | TMJ |
|
160 |
You said someone asked you to take vials & patches to Bangkok? Yes. Who asked you? Jim Moore $ Debbie Rowe. Who was Moorie? Manager I think | TMJ |
|
161 |
Under Cross Examination Faye said she was released not fired from the HIStory Tour after the first leg. | ABC7 |
|
162 |
MJ travelled with the A group. I travelled with B group. Negotiated with Terock? & Gongaware(history tour) didn’t continue after 1st leg | TMJ |
|
163 |
Because of argument with Torock?? Kept arguing with me. I was not allowed to talk to MJ when doing his makeup & salary was lowered | TMJ |
|
164 |
Why not speak to MJ? Never explained why, was about control, most manager wanted to replace me, MJ told me this | TMJ |
|
165 |
This is what happens in Hollywood, higher up always want to control those lower down. You were fired? Yes | TMJ |
|
166 |
Did you discuss this with MJ? After Tarock was gone, after History tour I told MJ. Did any one in the organization ask you why? | TMJ |
|
167 |
Yes people I worked with were inquiring why. MJ didn’t? He asked Michael Bush. Was Debbie Rowe involved? Yes after she told me she was | TMJ |
|
168 |
She apologized to me for playing a role in letting me go. There was a lot going on I was not privy to, she was pregnant she told… | TMJ |
|
169 |
She was jealous of me being there with Michael, she thought Michael liked me better, so had her friend replace me | TMJ |
|
170 |
So Miss Rowe was jealous of you? It appeared that way sir. History tour 1996? I’m trying to think. After MJ died I put these things behind | TMJ |
|
171 |
She said Debbie Rowe who was then MJ’s wife had a role in her being removed from the tour. Debbie was pregnant and very in love with MJ | ABC7 |
|
172 |
Faye said Rowe was jealous of their closeness. | ABC7 |
|
173 |
When Faye went back to work for MJ after the HIStory tour he made Debbie apologize to Faye for having a role in getting her fired. | ABC7 |
|
174 |
Who was Debbie Rowe? Dr Kleins nurse. Why were you as a makeup speaking to Debbie Rowe? Excuse me. How did it happen you were asked? | TMJ |
|
175 |
Because I was going on tour. Did you ever say to MJ you were concerned about his use of medication? No sir,he knew I was concerned. | TMJ |
|
176 |
Did you ever say to him about you concerns? This was very painful for him. I was a place of safety for him so didn’t bring it up. He thanked me | TMJ |
|
177 |
,,,canceling the show,Did you tell Moorie about your concerns? I was afraid of him. Did you tell MJ you were asked to bring drugs? Can’t recall | TMJ |
|
178 |
Did you see Mr Jackson taking drugs or injections, did you give him injections, pills or anything else? No sir. Were there prescriptions in your name for Michael? Not that I am aware of. Do you know Dr Metzger? Yes, sir, he’s a nice man/ was there ever a time you bought drugs to Michael | TMJ |
|
179 |
Faye did the makeup when MJ made the announcement that he was going to rehab. She said she put false eyelashes on him for the video. | ABC7 |
|
180 |
Faye said she had two prescriptions in her name for MJ – Propecia (grow hair) and Latisse (grow eyelashes) for the This is It tour. | ABC7 |
|
181 |
She also consulted with a doctor about Botox for MJ for sweating. He wore a hairpiece and she was concerned with sweat. | ABC7 |
|
182 |
All those blogs & tweets you did was after MJ died? Yes. So you had a concern you didn’t have during the tour? I think so | TMJ |
|
183 |
You didn’t see Dr Metzger? Towards the end. Dr Klein? Can’t remember. You didn’t see any other Dr? We travelled in different groups/hotels | TMJ |
|
184 |
After History tour you worked with MJ, how? It was Evvy that called me and said MJ wanted me back. She asked how I felt? I said Great | TMJ |
|
185 |
Did MJ know in detail why you were fired? Mr jackson made Rowe apologize to me, so he knew… Next question Karen Faye needs to use the Ladies room | TMJ |
|
186 |
When bridge collapsed MJ brought you back? Be4 that, when was that Karen ask. 1993. P. Gongaware had no part in this tour? I don’t think so sir | TMJ |
|
187 |
You witnessed the bridge collapse? Yes sir. You thought he was dead? I didn’t know what happened, he disappeared, I was so worried | TMJ |
|
188 |
*Showing entire clip bridge collapse* bridge slams down Michael continues to sing,mumps up on stage. Finishes song,,,,…. Love YOU Michael | TMJ |
|
189 |
Did he seem thin there? I wasn’t looking for that, can you show clip again… He was always slender, except after rehab was hefty | TMJ |
|
190 |
Any other time? Well New York he was heavier. Were you concerned about MJ drug use this time, were there Dr’s there? I can’t recall sir | TMJ |
|
191 |
Madison square 2001 you saw a Dr, in his hotel room? Yes sir. Did you know his name, did you see him again? No sir | TMJ |
|
192 |
What did he say to you? He said he gave michael sleeping aid, come back in 5 hrs. Frank Casio working as PA/friends went up to see Michael | TMJ |
|
193 |
Did you know what happened? I kept out of their business sir. Which manager was there? People said they were manager but were not. was confused | TMJ |
|
194 |
Lets talk about what you understood? I was never really sure what responsibility people above the line held. Putnam Repeat, object Sustained | TMJ |
|
195 |
Yesterday you said during criminal charges? Yes we were in Vegas doing short film. Videos? I can’t recall now it was so short | TMJ |
|
196 |
03. Then 2005 was the trial, you helped him get ready for the trial? Correct, were you working for Randy Jackson? Not for, with | TMJ |
|
197 |
You worked on a website with Randy and Tanya? Yes. How did that happen? By a phone call. The website was for MJ trial? Yes | TMJ |
|
198 |
Then she became your manager? No, I saw her repore & felt she would be good to handle booking etc., so I wouldn’t have to deal with | TMJ |
|
199 |
During criminal trial you were concerned about MJ & drug use? The signs were there. What signs? He couldn’t sleep, pain stress, it was hard for him | TMJ |
|
200 |
How long was the trial for? 3 mths. You became increasingly concerned about him? Yes sir. Did you mention it to anyone? | TMJ |
|
201 |
Tanya & Randy, we were in close contact at that time. Did you go to trial? No, not allowed, was on witness list. Were you called? No | TMJ |
|
202 |
Did you discuss with anyone else your concerns? Yes M. Bush. You didn’t confront MJ? No, I could never do that, he was in so much pain | TMJ |
|
203 |
Did MJ ever ask you for pain killers? He did once, I didn’t have any. Did you ever see MJ take drugs? No sir. Did he ever look unde the influence, when he went to the hospital. In PJ/ Were you there? No I saw it on TV. Did he tell you why he was at the hospital? Yes, pain. | TMJ |
|
204 |
Did MJ ever admit to you personally he had a problem with drugs? No sir. Was it in this time period you discussed this with Rebbie? Can’t remember | TMJ |
|
205 |
Faye could not remember when she discussed her fear of MJ’s drug use with his sister Rebbie. Rebbie approached her for information | ABC7 |
|
206 |
Did she approach you or did you approach her? She asked me, I told her everything I knew, not clear when this was. ,,,,,,can’t remember | TMJ |
|
207 |
Did you discuss with anyone else? There were brief mentions with Randy Jackson, there were concerns. Was there any attempts to get MJ to rehab? My understanding there were several attempt to help MJ. Were they successful? I don’t think so. Rebbie was very concerned about MJ. | TMJ |
|
208 |
Why did they come to you? I spent a great deal of time with him. Trial ended in 05 he was acquitted, he left the county? Yes, | TMJ |
|
209 |
Where were you when the verdict was announced? Was in hotel with daughter & Tanya, stayed many times in the hotel during the trial | TMJ |
|
210 |
Never saw Michael after the acquittal. Knew MJ left for Bahrain from the media. Saw MJ next in Carolwood. Adjourned till Monday 10am | TMJ |
|
211 |
,,member about MJ during the dangerous tour? It was after the tour, mostly Rebbie, LaToya. Many conversations with all members over time | TMJ |
|
212 |
Ask again, have you ever had any conversation with any family member about MJ medicine use. Can’t remember exact times, but yes, with Rebbie http://teammichaeljackson.com/archives/8324#.UY3Y8ZRXPPU.twitter | TMJ |
|
213 |
She testified that she believed the family was not successful getting MJ into a rehab facility despite trying. | ABC7 |
|
214 |
The trial resumes Monday at 10a. Associate Prducer Tracy Walker will take the stand.https://twitter.com/ABC7Courts | ABC7 |
* * *
The absolutely heroic TeamMichaelJackson has posted the full transcripts of Karen Faye’s testimony. Some of the trial transcripts are typed by the Team and some are bought (please help them to provide us with more: http://teammichaeljackson.com/archives/8530).
Vindicating Michael 
Debbie became pregnant in December 1995 that why MJ wanted to file for divorce.
LMP try to save her face with her lies. Like she tweeted ” i have always defended MJ’ crap.
LikeLike
I’m more upset with this trial because so many questions are appearing in my head.. these folks that were friends. if he looked a certain way why not go to him comfort him.. if he was icy cold to the touch and sweaty shivering etc. why not call 911. that is not normal at all… seriously. money isnt everything. this trial just raise more questions then answers and Im just a fan i cant imagine what the family feel
LikeLike
AND YOU MUST BE WORKING FOR AEG if you don’t see the guilt of the company which directly contributed to Michael’s death.
You want me to talk about Sony? Okay, tell me what Sony has to do with this AEG business and the last months of Michael’s life and his death, and I will try to look into it too.
As to Branca I’ve noticed his name pronounced several time during this trial and immediately looked into each of those episodes. One was when he reacted to the “Trouble at the front” June 20th email and suggested a doctor to see what was wrong with Michael, but no one answered him. This happened two days after he was hired (June 18th) according to Phillips, so the reaction was quick.
Another episode is when Phillips says Branca called a meeting after Michael’s death to determine the amount of money Michael owed to AEG. Phillips says both Frank Dileo and Tohme were present, and sometime after that both provided declarations saying that Michael had agreed to cover the production costs. Branca evidently did not dispute them as eventually the Estate covered those production costs. Over here I would very much like to hear Branca’s arguments why he did not dispute the declarations.
The third episode is Howard Weizman’s participation in AEG’s dispute with Lloyds. He is the lawyer for the Estate, and the Estate is also a party to the dispute as they are the second beneficiary under the insurance policy.
All these episodes I would like to look into as soon as we have more information about it. The one I am especially interested in is why Branca did not dispute those AEG papers.
Is there anything else to look into in your opinion? Tell me what it is and we will put it on the list.
LikeLike
“Anyway…about that pepsi accident. Michael Jackson’s scalp was actually all healed up by the next year. For instance, Arnold Klien said on the Larry King interview that Michael had to wear a lot of hats to cover the balloon he says he put under his scalp. But that’s another lie because during 1986 well into the early 90s, Michael Jackson was seen without a hat! Also in Gloria Rhoads Berlin’s book, she saw his head because he took off his hat and showed her it was all healed.” – Redbird
It was all healed already in 1984, only there was a bald spot. And Hoefflin suggested stretching the skin to cut out the bald spot. This started a series of operations. One of them was on the eve of Michael’s Dangerous tour. Gongaware also testified to it and said that Michael was in much pain during the tour. This fully confirmed Karen Faye’s words.
Sorry for the pictures, but this is how the burn looked in 1984.
Did it heal? It seems that it did:
Or the burn could look like this (these pictures show some progress in healing, but are dated the same January 27, 1984):
You may not like Karen Faye but she was slandered a good deal for the past four years, and I can even guess by whom all those campaigns against her were initiated.
No, not by Sony. By the way I am not working for Sony or Branca.
LikeLike
WHY DON’T YOU TALK ABOUT SONY WHO ABUSED MICHAEL FOR YEARS! AEG WASN’T IN HIS LIFE FOR ALL THOSE YEARS, WHO WAS??? YOU MUST BE WORKING FOR BRANCA TOO, GETTING PAID!!
LikeLike
Hmm, interesting testimony by Karen Faye, considering she’s lied in the past. For example, during the 2005 molestation trial, she started a website to get fans to pay to meet Michael. The thing is nobody met Michael, because she ran away with the money and also blamed Michael’s brother Randy as well. She’s a liar and can not be trusted, her and her crazy TINI-Sony hired thugs. Paid to stalk Michael Jackson for years!
Anyway…about that pepsi accident. Michael Jackson’s scalp was actually all healed up by the next year. For instance, Arnold Klien said on the Larry King interview that Michael had to wear a lot of hats to cover the balloon he says he put under his scalp. But that’s another lie because during 1986 well into the early 90s, Michael Jackson was seen without a hat!
Also in Gloria Rhoads Berlin’s book, she saw his head because he took off his hat and showed her it was all healed.
Michael has been abused for years by these people, and he was never addicted to pain medication. They took him to London to drug him to keep him under their control
LikeLike
SMH. The freak comment, what do the AEG defenders have to say now?
LikeLike
Hi Helena,
I am a bit cofused over what to think of Debbie Rowe. In her one interview that I saw on You Tube, she had praised Michael so much. She was definitely in love with him to have agreed to bear the kids. She always come out in support of Michael all the time. However it does look odd that she sued Michael in 2006. Also, does one really leave one’s husband only because one cannot cope with publicity? Can you please throw some light on this? I feel that summoning Lisa Marie for the AEG trial would only dishonour Michael. She is outright despicable and loathsome, to say the least. Her ridicule of Michael in the Diane Sawyer interview is unbearable. Only if she would be sujected to such mockery by one of her exs!
LikeLike
I see it in an absolutely the same way, and this is why am repeating your comment in full here. As regards those who say that Michael “was an adult” and was “thus responsible for his decisions” I always want to ask these people a question – and are the AEG people adults and responsible for their decisions?
It is only some small kids who can be excused for all the lies, deceit, callousness and disrespect that AEG allowed themselves towards Jackson and cannot be held responsible for things which adults would look at as criminal behavior – but adult people like AEG are supposed to answer for what they do.
And if AEG are indeed to bear responsibility for their own decisions this trial is exactly the place to determine the scope of it, as well as the sanctions for their irresponsible and “carefree” behavior towards Jackson.
LikeLike
“Looking at all this, how can one still believe AEG is not responsible for Michael’s death and the Jacksons shouldn’t have sued them? I guess Karen is not a credible witness to many people, but why should she lie under oath?” – Amore Motus
I think that Karen Faye “is not a credible witness” only to those who were fully brainwashed by the AEG people among Michael’s fans. Can anyone in their right mind really believe that AEG will leave Karen alone after all that she was writing about them? Certainly not!
Fortunately I’ve never followed any of those “hate campaigns” against former Michael’s colleagues and can judge Karen’s words objectively. Everything she said in her testimony is the truth – from the concerts being too close to each other to stretching Michael’s scalp, which is something no one has yet talked about but we learned about ourselves.
Lies are usually told to make the liars’ life easier, however her statements about the “insurance doctor from Lloyds” (who took her by her throat) will hardly make Karen’s life easier now. Never in my life have I seen a person who will tell lies to his detriment. Lies are always told to benefit the liar. The truth can be told to one’s detriment because some people will definitely not like it, but lies are never told that way.
Karen would be risking a lot if her information about the “insurance doctor” were not true and could not be confirmed from other sources. So what she is saying IS the truth. It is those who call her a liar whose motives should be really questioned.
LikeLike
“Michael Jackson referred to as ‘freak’ in AEG email” http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-michael-jackson-aeg-20130523,0,3656287.story
This should shut up everyone who was against this trial and defended AEG!” – susannerb
Susanne, right. I do hope that it shuts up these people but also doubt it. From my experience of associating with some AEG agents who masquerade themselves as Michael’s fans they will cut your throat for AEG than accept a morsel of AEG’s guilt.
But the article is great. The first time I see both correspondents for the LA Times not beating about the bush but saying that this is really ugly stuff:
And Els Kooi left a great comment on it:
5:14 AM May 23, 2013
“THIS DISRESPECT IS BASICALLY A LICENCE TO KILL”. Absolutely true! So this is how AEG felt about Michael even before signing a contract with him! No wonder that the contract was not a tool of peace but was a weapon to kill.
LikeLike
“Michael Jackson referred to as ‘freak’ in AEG email”
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-michael-jackson-aeg-20130523,0,3656287.story
This should shut up everyone who was against this trial and defended AEG!
LikeLike
Thank you for this great article!! My heart breaks when I read Karen’s testimony. Looking at all this, how can one still believe AEG is not responsible for Michael’s death and the Jacksons shouldn’t have sued them? I guess Karen is not a credible witness to many people, but why should she lie under oath?
AEG not only knew that Michael had severe problems and did nothing, but they were actually the reason he had these problems. What came out of the tough love meeting? Usually I would assume that if you become aware of problems like this (several people saying that if he does not get help he could die!) you would take the matter very seriously. BUt what did they do? They had a meeting to show him tough love and pushed him even more. People always argue that Michael was an adult and thus responsible for his own decision and AEG could not have done anything. Well, they told people not to listen to him, shielded him from his fans and positioned strangers into his dressing room… that does not sound like treating him as an adult to me? Judging from everything that we heard so far, AEG should have used their tough love meeting to discuss how to help Michael. To ensure him that they stand behind him 100% and that they would do anything for him to be able to perform. Give him some time to recoup, reschedule the concerts to allow some more room between shows, provide him with a psychiatrist or mentor and LET HIM CHOOSE how to prepare for HIS shows. That would also be the latest point for anyone with a common sense to realize that Murray is part of Michael’s problems. Seriously, you are trying to tell me that you have an artist with known dependency issues in the past, that is looking worse every day, that has problems performing, that has requested a doctor available to him 24/7 and you do not suspect that the doctor is giving him something?? Come on…
LikeLike
You know how Randy Philips said to Karen Faye he “had to drag Michael to make the This Is It announcement because he was drunk”
When I initially watched MJ make the This Is It announcement i saw no signs of him being drunk and i don’t see any sign of MJ being drunk now even watching it now like there is no slurring of words etc..
LikeLike
Funny how there was only a lukewarm reporting on the trial with a couple of TV Networks to begin with, but as soon as comments expressing suspicious of a Robson/AEG connection all reporting ceased. (TMZ and slander disguised as entertainment news does not count)
I have asked if persons like Alan Duke who wanted to report using cameras in the courtroom were overruled by the people at the top? This trial should be on film for all time.
The generated hysteria citing fear of revelations which would be embarrassing to Michael that pushed Fans to come against recording seems to be unnecessary. (at least on Michael’s part)
There are questions I’ve filed away concerning contracts, job titles, payouts/royalties money and who paid concerning the TII video. These are question I will be asking later.
Yesterday I posted on FB the level of nastiness of reporting is nowhere near as bad as it was in 04-05, but I doubted it has anything to do with a belated sense of shame over their previous conduct. (although the Jackson’s will not care about levels, they once again have to live a world of whispers, suddenly stopped conversations, the hounding, taunts and heaven know what else. They and people like Mack & Brett).
LikeLike
Michael was indeed destroyed as result of deceit and psychological abuse that naturally affected both his physical and mental wellbeing.-I very much hope they will find that computer and get the telling e-mails.
LikeLike
He found out he “couldn’t choose” and that he became a slave of the industry as he always warned about. And it made him sick.
Kind of puts selling you soul to the devil in a new light, which I’ve always heard iy takes to get big in show business. Michael was smart and careful all those years. He didn’t put himself in this position. Those were the devils all around him that did this to him.
This day of testimony is so heart breaking, I had a hard time getting through it. Sounds like that last month was the final destruction of his health and sanity. The more I find out about his life the more I realize how sad it was and how lonely he must have been not being able to trust anybody. It seems there’s no end to the horrors, and you have to wonder what AEG has up their sleeve next.
LikeLike
“Does the song Morphine suggest otherwise? Even in Why You Wanna Trip On Me he sings about “doctors who aren’t so sure” – anita
No, it doesn’t. All it means that when one doctor let him down he thought that the next one would be better. That is why he was asking people about what they thought about this or that doctor. He wanted to find the one he could trust and who would really have his interests at heart.
All of us are exactly the same. Even if we came across one crook of a doctor we still believe in the profession.
LikeLike
‘”Michael always believed that a doctor had his best interest at heart,” Faye said. “He believed if he got something through a doctor that it was safe and OK for him to use it.”‘
Does the song Morphine suggest otherwise? Even in Why You Wanna Trip On Me he sings about “doctors who aren’t so sure”
LikeLike
“Michael COULD have done it, it was possible under different circumstances. And all say that Michael was fine in April and May and that his health started to deteriorate in the first week of June only. And that’s when he found out about all what happened behind him and when he felt himself in a trap. He found out he “couldn’t choose” and that he became a slave of the industry as he always warned about. And it made him sick.” – Susanne
Absolutely. Up until May 20 (when the first 5 shows were moved) Michael thought that the dates were subject to change as they were telling him all along. But at the end of May he realized that they were not going to change anything at all except postponing the shows just a bit. And the schedule would remain as we see it now – out of 50 concerts 34 shows were with one day break only (now this table has been added to the post).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/This_Is_It_(Michael_Jackson_concerts)
Four more shows had a two day break between them, so out of 50 dates 38 presented a big problem. Of course Michael was worried but hoped they would change the schedule.
And we know that they DID promise Michael to change the dates from the way the dates were announced in March:
THEY SIMPLY DECEIVED HIM!
LikeLike
“It was NOT adjusted to Michael and his interests.”
Exactly that’s the point, Helena. Michael COULD have done it, it was possible under different circumstances. And all say that Michael was fine in April and May and that his health started to deteriorate in the first week of June only. And that’s when he found out about all what happened behind him and when he felt himself in a trap. He found out he “couldn’t choose” and that he became a slave of the industry as he always warned about. And it made him sick.
LikeLike
“Ortega did a great snow job on us, trying to convince us that Michael was in great form and so excited to do the concerts.” -ladypurr9
But saying that would be telling half-truth again, because Michael was excited to do the concerts and he could have done them, only under different circumstances – if AEG and Tohme had set the dates correctly (twice a week) and had not increased them to 50 (to which Michael never agreed).
In short if AEG and Tohme had treated him as a human Michael would have made it. He received such a tremendous boost to his spirits when all his tickets were sold within minutes, and a million people were still waiting for more, that this alone was enough for him to do the concerts successfully. Plus his children whom he could not let down. Because of that Michael was absolutely determined to make those concerts.
But his problems started due to the tremendous, inhuman burden the organizers put on him even before the concerts. 50 concerts instead of the agreed 10, out of which 34 concerts were set with one day break between them only.
It was this burden that did not allow him to sleep. Try to sleep well if you know that beginning with tomorrow you are to run 50 marathons or otherwise you lose everything and find yourself in the gutter and you will know what real stress is, not giving you a wink of sleep.
If he had known that it would be an easier schedule he would have been much more relaxed and would have slept – at least at the stage of rehearsals. Why did the problem of sleep arise BEFORE the concerts? Because it was the thought of what AEG and Tohme had done to him that did not allow him to sleep.
The BIGGEST crime of AEG and Tohme is that they DROVE HIM INTO A HUGE STRESS. Absolutely unnecessary stress because nothing was forcing AEG and Tohme to organize it the way they did it. There was no rush and no necessity. They could have spread those concerts over a much longer period of time.
If they wanted to grab a lot of money (and pay a lot to Michael too) there were many other possibilities. They could have raised the price of the tickets (Barbara Streisand’s tickets cost at the same O2 arena up to $500) and if they had at least doubled the price of Michael’s tickets there was no need to give 50 concerts – he could have done just 25!
For those who could not afford a live concert there could have been a live performance on the Internet on a pay-per-view basis. Every concert could have been recorded and shown in the cinema. DVDs could have been sold. All of it would have given them and Michael tons of money.
But AEG and Tohme were not even thinking in this direction. They treated Michael as waste material from the very start of it and wanted to guarantee themselves this ton of money even without him making those concerts or him making only a few of them.
From the very start of it their idea of the project was totally different and it was NOT focusing on the success of those shows. Their idea was to sell as many concerts as possible and do it quickly (and at exhorbitant prices too – through secondary ticket offices where prices were up to $10,000), let Michael do at least a couple of concerts and then grab all his assets if/when he fell under the strain.
THIS IS WHY they set so terrible conditions for him from the start of it. Their scenario was different.
It was NOT adjusted to Michael and his interests.
I was adjusted to AEG, Tohme and Barrack and their interests, and from the very start of it too.
They KNEW that he was frail and wanted to squeeze the most out of him while he was standing on his feet.
And you can see their plans perfectly laid out IN THEIR CONTRACT which had all the necessary reservations for cancellation of the shows. You can even say that the contract was revolving around the idea of the concerts cancellation and not around real making of them.
LikeLike
Well, even if its true about Karen, at least Michael had Debbie who cared more about him than Lisa-Marie and Karen put together…I don’t know who Lisa-Marie was thought she was fooling but she showed her true colors when Oprah asked “How did you feel (I don’t remember the actual question) and Lisa-Marie said “indifferent…” That little witch couldn’t even refrain from calling Michael a manipulator…She needs to get over herself…:(
LikeLike
M.K.
Karen faye is close friends with LMP and the two are in cohoots together. They are both back stabbing liars. MJ moved on and the only reason she chased MJ for months not years was to hurt Debbie and because her first husband who she wanted back did NOT want her.
It is time for people to stop petting LMP and see her for the lying fake and user she really is.
LikeLike
This woman has lied and caused so much trouble until it is sickening. I don’t believe a word that comes out of her mouth. AEG hired her and whether she speaks against them or not MJ fired her. she was bought on by them. Anything for attention she needs to go into a ditch and take LMP with her.
LikeLike
I knew this issue, this trial would expose some heart-ripping facts and it is almost too much to bear. When I saw that first opening clip of Michael on stage in This Is It, singing Wanna be startin’ something”, I felt something was not right with his appearance. He looked so very thin in those red jeans. I dismissed it at the time. I was, like so many, mesmerized by his performance. Looking back, I see the awful truth. TII was a clever composite of clips to make it look as if Michael was in good shape and ready to light up the world’s stage again. It’s all so very, very sad. So many participants in his gradual (and deliberate!) death practiced lies, hoping the world wouldn’t catch on. All I know is that once I began the research into his life, and especially the mystery surrounding his tragic passing, I always suspected AEG. Ortega did a great snow job on us, trying to convince us that Michael was in great form and so excited to do the concerts. Phillips is another story altogether. I felt like he was lying in the interviews during the opening of TII. I was FIRMLY convinced he was deceitful when he took the stand at Murray’s trial. The bad vibes are so strong they’d frighten a voodoo doctor.
I can’t dwell on the matter of how pressured and fearful Michael must have felt. Everything was on the line. I really wish he would have remained in Ireland and continued to write and record music there. He’d still be here with us.
I appreciate your diligence in bringing so much of the testimony to this blog. My heart goes out to Alif Sankey and Karen Faye. God bless them.
LikeLike
Thank you for the excellent article…especially the section about Lisa-Marie Presley and her betrayal. All I feel toward that woman is animosity…I can’t even stand to look at pictures of her with M.J. because I KNOW the outcome of their relationship (and that SHE was responsible for ending it). Michael deserved BETTER than L.M.P…which makes me glad for people like Karen Faye and Debbie Rowe…two women who–unlike L.M.P.–loved M.J. and weren’t just with him for what THEY could get out of it.
LikeLike
Guys, to catch up a bit with the past few days of the trial here are the tweets from ABC7 Court News:
1 The trial resumes Monday at 10a. Associate Producer Tracy Walker will take the stand.
2 Hello from the courthouse in downtown LA. Day 9 of Jackson Family vs AEG trial in full swing. They took witness out of order due to schedule
3 Defendants’ first witness (out of order) was Stacy Walker, the Associate Choreographer for “This Is It” tour.
4 Defendants’ atty Jessica Bina did direct examination of Walker. She’s choreographer, director. Worked w/ MJ, Gaga, B. Spears, Usher, others
5 Back in session. Will tweet all the details of Stacy Walker’s testimony shortly.
6 Stacy Walker said she 1st worked w/ MJ in 96 on a 40-minute movie, “Ghost.” “He never made a music video, only made movies,” Walker said.
7 On the “History” tour, Walker worked about 6 months. She was one of the two girls dancer in The Way You Make Me Feel. “I feel it’s my song”
8 History tour: dancers rehearsed by themselves in LA. Then went to France, rehearsed in a studio at Disneyland. MJ showed up one or two times
9 Walker didn’t remember if MJ had doctor on staff while on History tour. She never saw any signs of drug abuse, saw MJ on stage, amazing!
10 Walker told the jury Travis Payne was the main choreographer for “This Is It.” She thinks she was an independent contractor hired by AEG
11 Walker said the casting of dancers began in April 2009. She was the associated choreographer, got direction from Payne/Ortega and Michael
12 Walker said for the “This is It” tour a lot of choreography was done many years ago. The only new was “Drill” and everyone worked together
13 Drill was like a soldier marching dancing, Walker said. “MJ said we can’t use guns, since it was not good for the kids,” Walker recalled.
14 Walker said during rehearsals for “This Is It” in April/May 09, MJ was there occasionally, but they were teaching dancers the choreography
15 During rehearsals at the Forum, MJ was supposed to be there more often, Walker said. Payne worked w/ MJ, she was in charge of dancers.
16 Walker: “I can remember being frustrated at times, he (MJ) wasn’t coming when we were hoping he would.”
17 I wasn’t shocked he wasn’t coming, I was irritated, but I wasn’t shocked, Walker said, noting that maybe MJ wanted to stay with his kids
18 Walker said she never saw MJ sick. She said he seemed normal to her, he was much thinner, but she never felt he was acting intoxicated.
19 He looked much thinner to me than in 97, she said, but she doesn’t remember noticing a dramatic difference between April and June of 09.
20 Walker: I remember 1 night he excused himself to his room, wasn’t feeling well. He didn’t say anything, it was a general understanding
21 Walker remembered MJ wearing jackets/layers but didn’t think of him being insanely cold. “Different artists like different temperature.”
22 Walker: He wore a lot of jackets, I assumed he was cold but he never said anything. I never saw him shivering. He just wore a lot of jackets
23 Jessica Bina: Did you ever see MJ drink any alcohol?
24 Walker: No
25 My only concern was that he was really thin and I wish he ate more, Walker recalled.
26 Walker got emotional when she said she wasn’t looking for things that could be wrong w/ MJ at the time. “I wish I was,” she said.
27 When she talked about MJ’s last two rehearsals, Walker cried saying he was great. “He was great, I finally saw what I wanted to see.”
28 He was great, very bratty and sassy as he was. He was just a funny guy at times, Walker said.
29 Walker said she called her mom after the rehearsal and asked her to buy a ticket for the opening and she did. “It was great.”
30 Bina: Any doubts he could perform the tour?
31 Walker: Not after those two nights (June 23 and 24)
32 On Jun 25, Walker was rehearsing Michael’s disappearing act. She said Payne called saying he heard on the radio MJ was in the hospital
33 Walker: “I remember telling them don’t worry, everything will be fine. I didn’t believe, I thought that everything was going to be ok.”
34 Bina: when you heard MJ passed away, were you surprised?
35 Walker: Yes, it was shocking, 12 hours ago he did “Beat It” and “Thriller”
36 When asked if Walker was familiar with the name Dr. Conrad Murray, she said yes, but she never met him or knew who he was prior to June 25.
37 Travis Payne had a loving, trusting relationship with MJ, Walker testified. Payne would go over to MJ’s house around 1p PT to work
38 Walker said she felt MJ was more open this time around. In “Ghost” she said they didn’t talk at all, but that he was so nice to everybody
39 Walker said she remembers telling MJ about McDonald’s — he had never been and she told him he had to go.
40 Regarding the “This Is It” tour, Walker doesn’t know if MJ was excited. “He always seemed happy, he liked to watch the dancers dance”
41 Walker said MJ was the nicest person ever, they were not friends. “Guarded is a strong word, he let people see Michael Jackson, not Michael”
42 I just never in a million years thought he’d leave us, Walker said crying. “I was frustrated but never thought that would happen”
43 Walker didn’t remember MJ having cold/stomach flu. “I’ve seen people that were drunk or high and he didn’t appear to be that way”
44 Planitffs attorney Kevin Boyle did the cross examination. Boyle asked Walker if her job was to focus on dancers and not MJ. She said yes.
45 Boyle: And it wasn’t your job to look if MJ was sick?
46 Walker: It was not
47 She also agreed that it wasn’t her job 2 supervise Dr. Murray or observe MJ’s health. Walker didn’t have info if Dr. Murray gave MJ Propofol
48 Walker: I was relieved because he was there, he was going full out. Last 2 rehearsals it was the first time we saw everything come together
49 Boyle plays clip of film “Ghost”. Walker said MJ was pretty impressive, played 5 different roles. “Probably one of the hardest jobs I had.”
50 He was a huge risk taker, was very innovative as a dancer and choreographer, Walker opined, saying he was an excellent dancer, confident
51 Walker said MJ and her were not friends, they had a work relationship. Walker never went to his house, had dinner or social interaction.
52 MJ never told Walker about his health, never discussed Propofol use since they didn’t talk about that stuff.
53 Boyle: Did you ever see MJ covered in blankets watching rehearsal with heaters?
54 Walker: I never saw heaters or blankets
55 Walker heard MJ had problems with prescription drugs from the press. She also heard about the sleeping problems.
56 Walker said she knew Ortega kept on Michael about eating and thinks they had a massage therapist come in for him.
57 I’ve seen other artists bring chefs, masseuses, trainers sometimes, Walker said. The idea of bringing a doctor on tour didn’t surprise her
58 Walker: MJ didn’t want to change the choreography, it wasn’t broken, so why change it? She thought it was going to be a great show.
59 Dr. Christopher Rogers resumed testimony after lunch break. He did MJ’s autopsy. Katherine and Rebbie Jackson were not in the courtroom.
60 Death was not due to trauma and was not caused by natural disease. “He died of acute Propofol toxicity,” Dr. Rogers said.
61 Koskoff: did you find any factors that could impact MJ’s long-term survival?
62 Dr. Rogers: From the autopsy, no I did not.
63 Dr. Rogers said MJ’s doctor, Dr. Murray, made a statement to the police saying MJ wasn’t breathing but he felt a faint pulse.
64 Dr. Rogers said he was uncertain who MJ’s primary physician was, he understood he was seeing several doctors.
65 Def atty: Did any other doctor, other than Dr. Murray, contributed to MJ’s death?
66 Dr. Rogers: Yes, other doctors contributed to his death
67 At the autopsy, Dr. Rogers said MJ weighed 136 lbs, was 5’9. His body mass index was 20.1, which is within the range of normal weight.
68 He looked thin in comparison to most people, Dr. Rogers said. MJ didnt look one who died from starvation or anorexia.
69 Cahan: Did you rule out starvation as possible Mr. Jackson’s cause of death?
70 Dr. Rogers: Yes
71 Cahan: Was his general health excellent?
72 Dr. Rogers: As far as the autopsy goes, yes
73 Autopsy report: MJ had lung damage, which wasn’t cause of death but made this individual especially susceptible to adverse health effects.
74 Dr. Rogers said MJ had a bit of degeneration of the lower thoracic spine, degenerative osteoarthritis of lower lumbar. Not sure how painful
75 Dr. Rogers said he had some concerns about drug abuse due to the investigator’s report listing all the medications found at the house.
76 Dr. Rogers said he didn’t find any opiates, opioids, Demerol in MJ’s body. He had 1 other case of Propofol overdose, person in medical field
77 I don’t know what his normal weight would be, Dr. Rogers expressed. He said MJ didn’t have a great deal of fat, but there was some
78 Next defendant’s witness was Travis Payne — heard out of order due his schedule. Defendants atty Jessica Bina did direct examination
79 Payne worked with Paula Abdul, Brandy, Diana Ross, Mick Jagger, Marilyn Manson, MJ, among others.
80 Payne worked with MJ first time in 1992 as a dancer in the short film “Remember the Times.”
81 The next time Payne worked with MJ was in “Dangerous” tour as dancer and choreographer. Katherine and Rebbie Jackson return to the courtroom
82 During “Dangerous” relationship with MJ grew. Payne said all he knew pain was an on going issue for MJ since the Pepsi commercial accident
83 In the Dangerous” tour I was ecstatic! I was working with my idol,” Payne described.
84 Payne worked with MJ in “Ghost” in 1995/96, then “History” tour, other tv shows and commercials and culminated with “This Is It.”
85 Rehearsals for “History” tour was very extensive, Payne said. He was involved w/ selecting dancers, ideas for costumes and whatever needed
86 Payne said MJ rehearsed with the dancers and separately. Dancers would get up to speed in the beginning, MJ was good at giving space to learn
87 Payne worked with MJ in the “One Night Only” show, one time performance by MJ and dancers in New York. The show never happened.
88 Payne: Michael had an incident, appeared to faint, we were asked to leave the theater and were told later the show was not going to happen
89 Payne said he knew there were physicians tending to MJ, only ones Payne personally met were Dr. Klein and Debbie Rowe.
90 Payne said he never saw MJ take drugs, medication or alcohol. “Nothing.”
91 Payne said he worked with Kenny Ortega for many years. Payne and Ortega were in Vegas when MJ called Ortega asking to work in new project
92 Payne didn’t personally meet with MJ until after the press conference announcement. He said he was excited to work with him again.
93 Payne said he knew MJ was excited about the tour and his children, to share this experience with them. Payne met w/ MJ in late March/2009.
94 He looked fine to me healthwise, I thought he was thinner from what I have seen him in the past, but nothing alarming, Payne recalled.
95 Payne said he found out that his role would not include dancing, he would choreograph and would be the associate director in “This Is It”
96 This is It was a partnership with AEG. Payne said this new way of doing business would revolutionize the way tours were done.
97 Payne: Everything started with Mr. Jackson, always. As his support team, we would contribute with ideas. MJ had the final word.
98 They auditioned 5,000 dancers, MJ chose the final ones. Payne said MJ chose the band director also.
99 Bina shows an email Payne wrote. It said MJ was very persistent about having a torch, a concept that meant a lot to Michael.
100 Payne said they started rehearsing after the press conference, and stopped the day before MJ died. He spoke with MJ everyday.
101 MJ told Payne he expected him to be in every show. He wanted Payne to take notes to make sure show was as perfect as possible.
102 Customarily, we would see each other every day, Payne said. Rehearsal with MJ was scheduled five days a week.
103 Payne said he had meals with MJ. He said MJ’s appetite depended on the day.
104 Payne said MJ’s dancing seemed fine to him. He said they were working on things created decades before to make them age appropriate, dynamic
105 Drill was the last thing they worked together, Payne said. Michael had a great love for military precision.
106 He seemed very tired, we all were, Payne said.
107 Payne testified that production wanted MJ to be more in attendance with all the cast, rather than just MJ rehearsing by himself at his house
108 Payne: because there was inconsistency with MJ appearing at the rehearsal, production was concerned they would not meet their goals.
109 MJ told me he wanted to sing all the songs live, Payne said. “He had not done that in the past.” Some songs were vocalist tracked to assist
110 By June 25, Payne said MJ had not developed the goal of singing and dancing at the same time. Payne resumes testimony tomorrow morning.
111 After jurors left, Judge Palazuelos said she sustained plaintiffs objection and will not allow defense to use Dr. Murray’s interview w/ LAPD
112 In it, Dr. Murray said he was hired by MJ to be paid by AEG. Plaintiffs said it’s hearsay and judge agreed.
113 And that wrapped Day 10 of the trial. Payne is expected to last most of the day tomorrow on the stand. See you all then!
114 Day 11 of Jackson Family vs AEG trial is underway at a downtown LA courthouse. Katherine Jackson and Rebbie are present in the courtroom.
115 Travis Payne back on the stand. He’s wearing gold wings on the side of his jacket sleeves with the initial “MJ” on them.
116 Payne said AEG didn’t want to pay what he regarded as his standard operating cost. Jackson said to pay him what him and his agent requested
117 Payne said he was concerned about MJ missing rehearsals. He didn’t know why he wasn’t showing up, but MJ was also working on album and book
118 Payne said Mr. Jackson explained to him he had trouble sleeping. He’s not sure how much weight MJ had lost.
119 Payne told the jury he advised MJ he was looking thin and MJ said he was getting down to his fighting weight. “I had no reason to doubt him”
120 Payne said there was one day when MJ was cold. He thought the frustration had MJ on edge, but he took it that he was fighting a cold.
121 There were times he was tired and had to be not convinced but supported, Payne recalls.
122 Payne said that in April, May, June, MJ missed 5 rehearsals with the whole group. He said one time Ortega sent MJ home.
123 Bina shows an email from Ortega to Gongaware on Jun 14: “We’re you aware that MJ’s doctor didn’t permit him to attend rehearsal yesterday?”
124 Email continues: “Are Randy and Frank aware of this? Please have them stay on top of his health situation.”
125 Email continues: “Without invading MJ’s privacy, it might be good idea to talk to his doctor to make sure everything MJ requires is in place
126 Email continues: “Who is responsible for MJ getting proper nourishment/vitamins/therapy everyday?”
127 Email continues: “Personally, I feel he should have a top Nutritionist and Physical Therapist working with him on a regular basis.”
128 Email continues: “The demand in this guy are mentally and physically extraordinary! The show requirements exhaust our 20 year olds.”
129 Email continues: “Please don’t underestimate the need to stay on top of this.”
130 Another part of the same email chain, from Gongaware: “Frank and I have discussed it already and have requested…
131 Gongaware email: “… a face-to-face meeting w/ the doctor… We want to remind him that it’s AEG not MJ who’s paying his salary”
132 Gongaware email: “We want him to understand what is expected of him. He has been dodging Frank so far.”
133 Payne said his understanding was that AEG was paying Dr. Murray’s salary not Michael. The doctor was there to oversee many things, Payne said
134 Payne explained he didn’t have much of reason to question Dr. Murray since he thought that a doctor selected to work with MJ was top notch.
135 Payne said he met Dr. Murray at the Carolwood house. “I was going up the steps, Dr. Murray going downstairs, Michael introduced us.”
136 Payne was coming up from the basement to the middle floor. Studio was at the basement. Payne said he never went to the top floor of the house
137 On June 19, Payne said he believed he was looking at someone who had blankets and heater. No one else was cold. He had flu-like symptoms.
138 On June 23/24, as to how MJ performed, Payne though it was in process, not at show standards, but MJ was rehearsing.
139 He was having his process, I didn’t expect him to be like he would in front of a crowd, Payne explained.
140 Payne said the performance would float, some days were good, some days were not good. The last two days were good.
141 I thought he was in his way to the goals he set himself, Payne told the jury. He didn’t have any question that MJ would be able to perform
142 Payne described the day MJ died: He was headed to rehearsal at MJ’s home, got a call from his mother who said she saw reports on the news
143 Payne heard news on the radio, called Staples Center spoke to Stacy Walker, she said they were rehearsing. He was told to go to Staples
144 We were optimistic of his arrival, Payne said explaining they were expecting MJ to rehearse at the Staples Center.
145 Payne said Ortega got a series of calls. He remembers Kenny say ‘tell me something that will make me know it’s you and that this is true’
146 I remember him (Kenny Ortega) collapsing in his seat and crying, Payne testified.
147 Payne said he never saw MJ drink alcohol or take medication. “Sometimes, in rehearsal, Michael would appear just a little loopy,” though
148 He recalled Michael being under the influence of something; said it happened mostly when MJ would come to rehearsals after seeing Dr. Klein
149 Payne also said he appeared groggy in the morning sometimes, which he attributed to lack of sleep.
150 Payne mentioned one day in particular at a meeting with Andre Crouch and singers, MJ seemed a little out of it.
151 Payne said that his understanding was that Michael was undergoing cosmetic procedures so he could feel great and do a good job.
152 Payne didn’t deem MJ being loopy as a problem with drug addiction. He said that from what he observed he was not concerned at all.
153 Bina played clip of “This Is It” from Jun 4 showing the green screen and making of “Drill” and Michael talking about the cool moves, dancing
154 Payne said the idea was to show the rehearsals and how things came together. The footage himself wasn’t altered, but there was editing
155 Payne said they picked the best of the rehearsal to include in the documentary. He wanted to reshoot some scenes but was not allowed.
156 Attorney Brian Panish cross examined Payne. He asked if MJ ever performed the entire show from beginning to end. Payne said no.
157 Payne purchased copy of his deposition and watched it prior to coming to testify. He talked to Stacy Walker yest but not about her testimony
158 Payne’s impression was that MJ loved being a father. He said he saw the beauty of their relationships, loyalty one another.
159 When we rehearsed, we had meals togethers, Payne recalled, talking about MJ and all three children.
160 Payne thought the relationship between MJ and Prince was awesome, Michael was a proud father, great to see how they interacted.
161 Prince wanted to be a director, Michael would point out things to him during rehearsal should that be his career, Payne remembered.
162 As to Paris Jackson, Payne said be saw a very protective young lady, smart, astute, with knowledge of the production, very hands on.
163 Payne said Paris seemed beyond her age, she was the female of the house, had lots of responsibilities, loved it, protective of the family.
164 Paris was coming to find out MJ’s global success, Payne said, adding that she would bless the food they ate.
165 Panish: Was Paris a Daddy’s girl?
166 Payne: Yes, I believe so
167 Payne said Paris was the most vocal of the children, always concerned about things in the house, asked what they wanted to eat, handled a lot
168 Blanket was the most quiet of the 3, Payne said, but was always very close by, in the rehearsal room. Michael guided and mentored him.
169 Payne said he would be proud if MJ was his father and agreed the children suffered a tremendous loss.
170 Payne always carries a video camera with him and shot videos of rehearsal. AEG took the footage that Payne shot and never returned to him.
171 Email from Randy to Paul: “Make sure you take out the shots of MJ in that red jacket… He looks way too thin and skeletal.”
172 Payne said he was not aware of the email. He said MJ looked thin, but not skeletal. He doesn’t know if Paul/Randy took any the footage out
173 As to MJ’s relationship with Katherine, Payne said there’s no secret MJ loved his mother very much. It is kind of common knowledge
174 Karen Faye is a make up artist. She designed the make up, was always there when Michael was there, Payne testified.
175 Payne said Faye and MJ had a long term working relationship. They spent a lot of personal time together.
176 Faye was concerned and frustrated how Michael looked. She went to Payne kind of in an aggressive way. Payne told her to report to Ortega.
177 Panish: Who could fire you. AEG?
178 Payne: I’m sure
179 Payne was hired and paid by AEG. His contract was with AEG.
180 Payne said he wanted MJ to have a physical therapist, nutritionist, massage, have his family around. He said this was a different scenario
181 This was the first time MJ was working with AEG, Payne testified, saying he had always been hired by MJJ production before.
182 Payne said this was the first time MJ was not the sole producer of the show.
183 Panish asked if Payne remembers receiving a text message from Karen Faye asking him why he was lying to the media after MJ died.
184 I do not remember receiving text message from Karen Faye asking why I was lying to the media, Payne explained.
185 Panish: Were you upset when MJ died?
186 Payne: Yes
187 Panish shows a picture of Payne at the red carpet premiere of “TII” documentary. He agreed he was happy about the premiere.
188 Payne said he wasn’t privy to details of what was expected of Dr. Murray. AEG was producer/promoter, but MJ was the star, had to be happy
189 Payne got frustrated with Plaintiffs attorney: “I don’t have a dog in this fight,” he said, adding that he felt Panish was being aggressive
190 Panish asked Payne if defendants’ attorney approached him during lunch to show him some documents. He said yes, saw parts of his depo.
191 Panish confronted Payne saying that yesterday he said he was with MJ at a dance studio on May 19, that they were up on their feet, danced.
192 Panish: Sir, MJ was not with you May 19, 2009, was he?
193 Payne: No
194 Panish: He was at the doctor
195 Payne: If you’re saying, I’m not disputing
196 Payne said that on May 19, MJ was having a cyst removed at Dr. Klein’s office, so he could not have been rehearsing with Payne.
197 Payne said he didn’t know. Panish said MJ was at another doctor’s office
198 Panish then said on Jun 22 MJ wasn’t there either, “wasn’t he?”
199 We’re human, sometimes we make mistakes, Payne explained, saying he’s not disputing that MJ was or wasn’t there on those dates.
200 Payne said there was always something for MJ to do. “He needed to come to rehearsal, it was part of the job.”
201 Payne said MJ had hard time picking up some of the material. Email from Ortega to Gongaware: “He has been slow at grabbing hold of the work”
202 Prior to June, I notice Mr. Jackson was thinner than I recognized him, Payne said, noting he never saw sudden weight change in MJ.
203 Payne started working without a signed contract. This was the first time he was hired by a company other than MJJ. He was being paid by AEG.
204 Panish showed Payne’s written contract. It is between Payne and AEG, beginning April 1, 2009. The contract said only AEG could cancel it.
205 Second time Payne saw Dr. Murray was the night before MJ died at Staples Center. “I wanted Michael to go home and go to sleep” Payne recalls
206 Payne said he felt that Dr. Murray didn’t look like a doctor to him and didn’t feel he was an official doctor who should be working for MJ
207 Payne knew MJ had sleeping problems and that Dr. Murray was treating him for that. Ortega also knew; Payne thought Gongaware was aware too
208 Payne said they received 5,000 applications for dancers, about 2,000 showed up 4 the audition. He didn’t know how many doctors AEG screened
209 In the moment I had no inkling of what was revealed after Mr. Jackson passed, Payne said.
210 Payne saw MJ tired and fatigued. He agreed that those symptoms could be signs of drug addiction.
211 Payne was aware that MJ was losing weight during rehearsals and he had not seeing him lose weight like that before.
212 He was not in great physical shape and was sore, Payne said.
213 Payne felt that the reason MJ was groggy was because he was getting some sort of sleeping medication. “He just seemed assisted”
214 Payne said some people were concerned about the goals not being met, including Randy Phillips and Paul Gongaware.
215 Payne said that he thought MJ was under some type of sedative after the came back from Dr. Klein’s office; he would have cosmetic work done
216 Payne learned what Demerol was after MJ died. He also remembers a mention of Demerol in the song “Morphine”.
217 He was losing weight, he was sore, working up his stamina. Lack of sleep and proper nourishment were starting to show, Payne explained.
218 Panish asked if MJ knew the lyrics of his songs. “I think he did, he knew most of them, but he wanted to have a TelePrompTer for safety”
219 Michael asked for the TelePrompTer, he didn’t want to make any mistake, to refresh his memory. Also to use for sequence of songs, Payne said
220 Payne agreed that it was very unusual for MJ to have TelePrompTer with the lyrics of his own songs. He never used it before.
221 Payne said a body double was requested for MJ. Misha Gabriel was MJ’s body double, but shorter than him.
222 Some of the scenes in the documentary are with the body double, Payne testified.
223 Payne remembers at the Culver Studios in Smooth Criminal there was a stunt and Misha was asked to jump thru glass plate.
224 Payne said most it the time, MJ was present at rehearsals. “It wasn’t s big deal,” he expressed.
225 Panish showed an email from the band leader. “MJ is not in shape enough yet to sing this stuff live and dance at the same time.”
226 Email cont’d: “Once he’s healthy enough and has more strength I have full confidence he can sing the majority of the show live.”
227 Email cont’d: “His voice sounds amazing right now, he just needs to bring it back up.”
228 Payne was aware that AEG was considering in mid June pulling the plug on the show. He said MJ looked exhausted and paranoid on Jun 19
229 Payne went to MJ’s house on June 20. He was cold and had to light the fireplace and rub his hand and feet to warm himself up.
230 Panish showed a picture of MJ on June 24 rehearsing Thriller. Payne said MJ improved but was not at his best yet.
231 Payne knows of one incident, June 19 at the Forum, where MJ had to be wrapped around in a blanket and be in front of a heater.
232 Panish: Around June 20, was Ortega in the mindset that MJ was not ready for this?
233 Payne: Yes
234 Payne said MJ was not ready, it was not the MJ he knew. He died four days later. But he didn’t see anything that alarmed him on June 23/24
235 Panish: Did you see that MJ was getting pressured to get everything done in the last days?
236 Payne: Yes
237 Payne said he could sense something was wrong, but didn’t know what it was.
238 Payne said he had not seen MJ in the condition he saw him on June 19. Last two days were better.
239 Payne cried when he said he never doubted MJ and that part of his responsibility was to help getting him there, ready for the tour.
240 Bina in re-direct asked: Do you think you could get him there?
241 Payne: Absolutely!
242 Payne said MJ was present a significant amount of the days he was scheduled to work.
243 As to Gongaware email regarding what was expected of Dr. Murray, Payne said the inconsistencies with MJ missing rehearsals warrant a talk
244 Payne said he thought Dr. Murray was there to care for his patient, making sure right nutritionist was there, to get him ready for the show.
245 Payne never discussed with MJ about his doctors or personal affairs. Payne and Faye were professionals with each other, but not friends.
246 Production felt he wasn’t coming to rehearsals enough, and that was frustrating to some of the staff, Payne testified.
247 I had a concern we needed to create a show Michael would enjoy doing it, Payne explained.
248 Payne said Jermaine was at the premiere. Bina shows pic of Payne and Jermaine shaking hands; pic of Jermaine, Kenny, Tito, Jackie, Marlon
249 Payne cried saying he had been through so much and the rough part was behind them. He was pleased to show the fans what the show was to be
250 Payne says neither Katherine Jackson nor Michael’s children were present at the premiere of “This Is It.”
251 In re-cross, Panish notes that none of MJ’s brothers are part of this lawsuit.
252 Payne said he saw MJ cold once at his house, MJ asked him to feel his hands, another at Staples — MJ was wrapped in a blanket, w/ heaters
253 Payne’s understanding was that Dr. Murray was to provide what the artist needed, as far as nourishment, rest.
254 As to Gongaware’s email, Payne said he took to understand that Mr. Jackson needed to have proper nourishment, care, masseuse.
255 Payne believed the doctor needed to assure comfort of the star so they could have productive rehearsals.
256 With that Payne ended his testimony as was excused. Trial resumes only on Thursday afternoon. Court is dark tomorrow, a juror has a funeral
257 Judge Yvette Palazuelos has doctor appointment on Thursday morning. Jury returning in the afternoon, lawyers late morning to discuss motions
258 That wraps Day 11 of the trial. Have a great night (or morning) everyone.
259 Hello everybody. Just a reminder there’s no trial today in Katherine Jackson et al vs AEG. Session resumes tomorrow in the afternoon.
260 Hello from the courthouse in downtown LA. Judge Yvette Palazuelos held a hearing this morning without the presence of the jurors.
261 The hearing was regarding production of emails contained in Michael Jackson’s former manager, Frank DiLeo, computer. DiLeo died in 2011.
262 Katherine Jackson’s attorneys want to review the emails. They believe there may be discussions between DiLeo and AEG about MJ/his health
263 Judge Palazuelos called David Regoli, the attorney representing Mrs. DiLeo. Regoli said he made a copy of DiLeo’s emails.
264 Regoli says he sent the computer back to Mrs. DiLeo in September, at that time she terminated his representation.
265 Regoli said he did have DiLeo’s computer and while going through his the emails for another purpose, he made a working copy of them.
266 Regoli told the court he saved the entire file, with all of the emails, the whole inbox from DiLeo’s computer. It’s about 2GB of material.
267 Regoli said Mrs. DiLeo asked him to review the subpoena by Katherine Jackson’s attorney, go thru the emails and produce anything relevant
268 Regoli said he was told family gave the computer away after they got it back. Regoli thinks it went to her daughter’s friend who needed it
269 Regoli says the emails may contain personal things so he promised to go thru the emails and turn over all the emails related to this case
270 Panish suggested to get a technical person agreeable to both sides to go over the computer with Regoli, who would be the gatekeeper
271 Regoli said he will give a status of the work completed to both counsels by next Tuesday. He also said AEG’s attys don’t rep Mrs. DiLeo.
272 Jackson’s attorneys want to make sure AEG turned over all the email conversations AEG had with everyone about MJ.
273 If it’s proven they didn’t, it could be a problem for AEG’s attorney. Everyone is on standby.
274 AEG said they also want copies of the emails and never objected to the material being produced.
275 Judge then discussed her tentative ruling to not allow Dr. Murray’s statement made to the police to be used. She said it’s hearsay.
276 AEG attorneys were not able to convince judge that the statement would be useful for the jury. Judge said statement is ambiguous.
277 The statement is Dr. Murray saying he’s employed by MJ but paid by AEG. Judge said the employment is one of the issues for the jury to decide
278 Afternoon session about to start with jurors back in the courtroom.
279 Julie Hollander, AEG’s VP of Controller and Event Operation, is currently on the stand. Jackson’s attorneys called her as adverse witness.
280 First part of her testimony was explaining who hired her (Timm Wooley) and what a CEO/CFO does. She works for AEG Live, under AEG.
281 Hollander said that in 2009 Wooley was more than just a tour accountant. She stopped reporting to Wooley in 2002, when he left the company.
282 Wooley came back to work in the “This Is It” tour. Hollander is not aware of Wooley still working for AEG. Last year he did a project
283 Hollander says she reports directly to the CFO. She is in charge of financial report and accounting for the events produced by AEG Live
284 Hollander reviewed dozens of emails, exhibits and her deposition. She doesn’t know how many emails she saw, but estimated between 20-40.
285 Hollander said she was responsible for overseeing ‘the books’ (accounting term) for anything related to the project “This Is It.”
286 I’m responsible for making sure the books are maintained for the tours, Hollander described. The book is an electronic accounting system.
287 Hollander was responsible for the financial/accounting for “This Is It” tour. She estimated she worked on about 20 tours –several concerts.
288 Hollander said she didn’t prepare the budgets for TII tour. Wooley did. She reported the budget primarily to Paul Gongaware
289 developing the shows, taking show on the road, getting gear to London
290 Hollander said budget was the costs expected to incur in the tour with
291 Other budgeted costs: traveling for people involved, housing for some people involved and insurance.
292 Hollander said the company had a policy manual saying payment would be predicated upon the execution of the contract.
293 We had situations where contracts were signed later, Hollander said. “Due to abrupt end of the tour the contracts were being negotiated.”
294 Hollander: “My role was to execute payments pursuing to executed contracts.”
295 Hollander: “My understating was that Dr. Murray was part of the budget, is listed on the budget for the tour at the request of the artist.”
296 She agreed she saw Dr. Murray’s contract, but says it was un-executed, since it was not signed by all parties.
297 Panish: you don’t know whether Dr. Murray was performing services for MJ?
298 Hollander: I don’t know, I can’t say for sure, not me, personally
299 Timm Wooley advised me that Dr. Murray was being engaged at the request of the artist, Hollander testified, saying contract with AEG Live
300 Hollander said she used the term draft because the contract was not fully executed. Fully executed means all partied signed the contract.
301 Hollander said that if all the terms of the contract were met and remained consistent, Dr. Murray would be paid retroactively from May 1, 09
302 Hollander: There was $300,000 listed on the budget for Dr. Murray, yes. That budget was approved by Mr. Gongaware.
303 Panish: For London there was more than 1 million dollars in the budget to pay Dr. Murray, right?
304 Hollander: I don’t recall a figure of $1MM
305 Brian Panish shows Hollander a large binder with 80 documents she reviewed to refresh her recollection.
306 Panish: AEG advanced money to MJ, is that right?
307 Hollander: Yes, it was an advance, recoupable in some capacity
308 Panish showed email from 5/18/09 from Hollander to Wooley: “Were in process of quickly putting together urgent re-forecast for Mr Anschutz”
309 Panish: Do you know if AEG ever performed a background check on Dr. Murray?
310 Hollander: I’m not aware of anything in that regard
311 Hollander said she did not know who negotiated the compensation for Dr. Murray. He was the only doctor budgeted for the tour.
312 Memo: MJ wishes to have permanent physician available on call thru pre-tour/operational period. There are 2 months at $150K newly budgeted
313 Hollander: I talked to Mr. Wooley about the inclusion of Dr. Murray in the budget. I talked to Mr. Trell as to the conditions he’d be paid
314 Panish showed the jury the budget from 5/16/09 for 27 shows:
315 Management Medical –300,000; 450,000; 750,000
316 Total: $1.5MM to pay Dr. Murray
317 On April 30, 2009, Panish showed a document with $300,000 budgeted for management medical.
318 That ended session for today, Day 12 of trial. Plaintiffs will take witness out of order tomorrow. They will call Dr. Emery Brown first.
319 Dr. Brown is Propofol expert from Harvard. Since he’s coming from out of town, they are accommodating his schedule. Hollander resumes after
320 We’re wrapping coverage for today. Hope to see everybody again tomorrow! See ya!
321 Hello from the courthouse in downtown LA. Day 13 of trial in Jackson Family vs AEG under way. Katherine Jackson and Rebbie in the courtroom
322 Plan was to call Dr. David Brown to testify, a Propofol specialist, but plaintiffs’ attorney, Brian Panish, changed his mind.
323 Panish told @ABC7 he thought Dr. Brown’s testimony wasn’t going to add anything new to the jury.
324 Panish told the judge he planned on calling AEG’s Shawn Trell today, but AEG said he wasn’t available. As result, jury had 4hrs lunch break
325 Judge Yvette Palazuelos told jury they have a wrinkle. They’d play video deposition of a witness, but next scheduled witness fell thru
326 Judge says she appreciated the efficiency of the attorney, but things happen from time to time in a trial.
327 Plaintiff played a video deposition of Marty Hom, defense expert witness. He’s been in the music industry 25-30 years.
328 The artist is usually who hires and pays him, Hom said. He gets a check from the artist. Hom doesn’t know if MJ was paying Gongaware.
329 Hom said his role changes from one tour to the next. He has to adapt quickly to the artist’s need, since they are just very different.
330 Live Nation and AEG Live are the biggest companies in the business, Hom said. He’s been friends with Randy Phillips for probably 10 years.
331 Hom said he worked with Phillips and AEG Live once in the Bette Midler Tour in Las Vegas. Hom has no social relationship with Phillips.
332 The music business in general is very small, Hom said, and Randy Philips used to manage a former client of his, Lionel Richie.
333 Hom said he’s never worked w/ Paul Gongaware. He knows him for many years, ran into each other all the time. He considers Gongaware a friend
334 Jacksons attorney Kevin Boyle asked if Hom’s friendship with Phillips and Gongaware, defendants in the case, would sway his testimony.
335 Hom said he worked w/ Janet Jackson and met Mrs. Jackson as well. “I probably know everyone in the business, this is a very small business”
336 Hom said defendant’s attorney called him asking if he’d be interested in being an expert witness in this case. Hom thought about it, agreed
337 Hom told the atty he didn’t know what an expert witness makes. He was told they make between $400 – $500 an hour. They settled on $500/hour.
338 Hom: They just wanted me to testify in general scope on what I do for living. I think they were looking for someone who knew the tour biz
339 Hom said he’s seen artists travel w/ physical therapists, masseuses, cooks, but he’s not been on tour where artist takes doctor on the road
340 Hom said he hired doctors in individual cities when artist was ill, wanted B12 shots, crew was sick. Hom said the tour paid the doctor.
341 The doctor should look for the best interest of the artist, Hom opined, “I’d never put artist on stage if it wasn’t for his best interest”
342 Boyle asked if Hom knew Kenny Ortega. Hom said yes. Boyle asked if Ortega would ever falsely sound alarm about artist health. Hom said no
343 Hom said he never injected himself in doctor-patient relationship. He said he didn’t believe it was appropriate for concert promoters to do it
344 Hom: Is it appropriate? I don’t know, but it’s a question I have to ask for best interest of the show. I think it’s a legitimate question.
345 Hom said he didn’t see a problem asking the doctor questions. It’s up to the physician to set the limits, he opined.
346 Hom said he needs to know if artist can perform and/or for how long he needs to be on leave. That’s why he’d ask doctor status of the artist
347 Timm Wooley contacted Hom earlier this year to ask if he would be willing to be the tour manager for the Rolling Stones show.
348 Hom said he was pretty busy this year, but since it’s the Rolling Stones, be would like to throw his resume in the pot.
349 Hom said AEG ended up hiring someone else to be Rolling Stones’ tour manager.
350 Hom said that Dr. Murray asking for $5 million raised a red flag. “It’s outrageous.”
351 Hom said he’s never seen a draft agreement between promoter/producer and a doctor. He’s been in the business for 30 years.
352 Hom said he wasn’t aware of promoter/producing ever paying artist personal manager. Plaintiff says they have evidence AEG paid MJ’s manager
353 Boyle: Would you ever hire a doctor to give an opiate-dependent artist Demerol?
354 Hom: No
355 Boyle: Would you hire a doctor to be feeding the chemical dependency of the artist?
356 Hom: I would not
357 Hom said he had no opinion whether the defendants hired Dr. Murray. Hom never talked with Phillips, Gongaware or Wooley about MJ.
358 Hom said he’d like to work with AEG Live in the future, not for them. He said the promoters don’t have any saying on who hires him.
359 Hom said he would ask the doctor questions to determine what kind of condition the artist/dancer would be and his capability to do the tour
360 Hom said he knew the Rolling Stones have physician on tour, Blink-182 also had doctors on tour, but he didn’t know what their agreements are
361 Hom said he works for an artist, he’s hired and paid by the artist, promoters have no say on his contract.
362 That concluded Hom’s video deposition shown to jury. Judge recessed trial for 4hrs. AEG’s controller Julie Hollander resumes testimony next
363 Jury entered the courtroom at 2:41pm PT. Neither Katherine not Rebbie Jackson were present for the afternoon session.
364 Brian Panish continued examination of AEG’s controller Julie Hollander. She said she had lunch with AEG attorneys today.
365 Panish showed Hollander a document from April 30, 2009. It shows management medical for $300,000.
366 Hollander said her job was to facilitate payments and sometimes she approved payment as well.
367 Panish asked Hollander if people worked for AEG without fully executed contracts. She said yes, they may start work in general terms.
368 Standard company police is that no payments are made without fully executed contract, Hollander said. The contract could get executed later.
369 Panish said people did the work before MJ died, but got paid after the died. Hollander said she didn’t recall specifics.
370 Hollander said there were people who had contracts renegotiated after MJ’s death.
371 Hollander said AEG renegotiated contracts after MJ died to mitigate the burden on MJ’s Estate.
372 People commence work before their contract is executed, yes Hollander said.
373 Panish shows email from 7/10/09 asking Hollander to sign a tour contract so vendor could get paid. Hollander signed it after MJ had died.
374 Panish shows email from 8/4/09 showing another vendor who negotiated contract after MJ died and got paid for prior services.
375 Email from 6/30/09 from Randy Phillips to Holland: “This is from Karen Faye who did MJ’s hair and make up….”
376 Email cont’d: “She bought three wigs for use in the tour and one of them is going to be used for his final rest.”
377 The amount for the wigs was $11,500, which Hollander said it’s a nominal amount, thus there’s no need for contract.
378 From time to time, Mr. Gongaware asked Hollander to expedite payment, she testified. He’s an impatient person, vendors are important to him
379 As to Tohme Tohme, Hollander knows who he is, but is aware that at some point he was released from duties as MJ’s manager.
380 Hollander says she knew Tohme was terminated before MJ died, therefore had no legal power to sign on his behalf.
381 Panish said $36 million was spent in MJ’s project. He asked if Hollander knew AEG filed claim against Lloyds of London to collect insurance
382 Hollander said she knew it through the press. She doesn’t have recollection of specifically providing information for an insurance claim.
383 Panish shows Pre-Tour Cost Projection from 5/20/09 where AEG was to pay Dr. Murray $300,000. It was pursuant to the contract, Panish said.
384 Budget prepared by Wooley, approved by Gongaware showed “Management Medical” and amounts to be paid to Dr. Murray are listed “Per Contract”
385 On 6/18/09, Hollander received email from Brigitte Segal, who worked on the tour for the estimated cost for some living arrangements in London
386 I’ve prepared what I think it’s an equitable division if expenses between MJ and The Tour.
387 Wooley wrote on June 18, 2009:
388 AEG pays for entertainment arcade & bowling alley because of precondition in terms of what MJ needed at the house as and part of the bargain
389 AEG pays for 3 of the local houses: Bush, Faye and Murray (wardrobe dresser, make-up/hair & personal physician).
390 Pays for additional furniture, staffing, security, nanny, food.
391 MJ:
392 I agree with Timm’s allocation and the charges. Approved
393 Gongaware response on June 19, 2009:
394 Hollander said AEG had to pay those costs pursuant to the terms of the contract for the tour, as advance payment.
395 Panish shows a pre-production budget vs what was paid. Dr. Murray still appears budgeted on 7/1/09 for $300,000.
396 Hollander said she did not see a contract with Dr. Murray signed by AEG.
397 Panish: If the $300,000 was supposed to be advance for MJ to be repaid, it would be under category “Artist’s Advances”. Hollander agreed.
398 Panish: Dr. Murray was supposed to be paid $150,000 per month, correct?
399 Hollander: Yes, according to the un-executed contract
400 Hollander said that “This Is It” tour was the first time she saw the situation where AEG Live hired a physician for the tour.
401 It was also the first time she saw AEG Live pay for an artist’s personal physician, Hollander said.
402 Hollander explained what advance meant, it was like cash advance and, depending on the contract, it would be paid back by the artist.
403 Hollander testified that MJ was responsible for 100% of the production costs should the concert not go forward.
404 But if the tour went forward, MJ was responsible for repayment of 95% of the costs and AEG would pay 5%.
405 Hollander said that if something is on the budget, it means it was planned to be paid. But things changed very often.
406 In the “This Is It” tour, Hollander said she had contracts with staging, lighting, choreographers, sound equipment, etc.
407 She testified that only the contract that had been drafted for Dr. Murray required Michael Jackson’s signature.
408 My understanding was that Mr. Jackson had asked to include Dr. Murray in the tour personnel, Hollander explained.
409 Mr. Murray was requested by the artist, and that was my understanding, explained Hollander.
410 I was instructed that no payments were to be made until MJ signed the contract, Hollander said, due to the personal nature of the services
411 Hollander: Tour manager maintains the budget, negotiates some of the vendor’s contract, may be involved in mitigating tax exposure.
412 My role (in TII tour) was to make sure the items created were in line with the budget made, Hollander described.
413 Hollander said she never saw a version of Dr. Murray’s contract signed by AEG or MJ. AEG never paid Dr. Murray, Hollander said.
414 Court recessed until Monday. Hollander resumes testimony in the morning, then AEG’s general counsel Shawn Trell takes the stand.
415 That wraps up Day 13 of Jackson Family vs AEG trial. Hope you have a great weekend! See you all Monday!
LikeLike