Michael Jackson would be 55 today (8/29) if he were still among us. Michael’s mom Katherine Jackson and his two eldest children Prince (16) and Paris (15), are currently in the midst of a lawsuit against concert promoters AEG Live, charging them with “Wrongful Death.” AEG’s position is, Jackson was already using drugs that took his life when they began their contractual agreement. On August 14, Jackson’s ex-wife Debbie Rowe took the stand in the pending case. Rowe was called as a defense witness for AEG, and testified as her former mother-in-law Katherine sat in the front row.
She took the stand for concert promoter AEG Live, who claims Jackson’s use of propofol long preceded his contract with them, according to the New York Daily News.
Jackson died in June 2009 from a propofol overdose provided by Dr. Conrad Murray, his personal physician that’s now serving four years for involuntary manslaughter. The pending lawsuit filed by Katherine and by Rowe’s two kids with Michael — Prince and Paris — is charging AEG negligently hired and supervised Murray. AEG claims Jackson hired Murray and secretly begged for nightly propofol infusions to treat his insomnia. During her testimony, Rowe said that Dermatologists Dr. Arnold Klein and plastic surgeon Dr. Steven Hoefflin tried to curry favor with Jackson, as they dispensed dangerous drugs to him. “These idiots were going back and forth the whole time, not caring about him,” she said. Debbie said she witnessed propofol infusions given to Michael in Hoefflin’s office. She claimed that Hoefflin twice had Jackson knocked out with the drug but didn’t perform the procedures that Jackson requested.
In further testimony on August 15th, according to the Washington Post, Rowe expressed: “I wanted him to be a father,” she said. “I wanted him to have everything he didn’t have growing up. I wanted him to experience it with his own child, with his own children.” Debbie talked about Jackson being distraught after his marriage with Lisa Marie Presley failed, and wanting to have his baby. She broke down when describing her recent relationship with her daughter Paris. She said she had been in daily touch with the teen until she had to be hospitalized on June 5, when paramedics were summoned to the Jackson family home in Calabasas. Paris, 15, took Motrin pills and cut her arm with a kitchen knife, according to emergency dispatchers. Debbie was asked how Jackson’s death had affected his only daughter. “She is devastated,” Rowe said. “She tried to kill herself – She is devastated. She has no life. She doesn’t feel she has a life anymore.” Jackson family representatives have not provided an update or publicly classified her hospitalization as a suicide attempt. Jurors have heard from her older brother, Prince, but have only seen Paris through a couple clips of her deposition and have heard references to her struggling with her father’s death. Katherine Jackson claims in her lawsuit that AEG Live failed to properly investigate the doctor later convicted of giving her son an overdose of the anesthetic propofol while he prepared for a series of comeback shows in 2009. As the trial is still pending, the outcome is uncertain.
I thought fellow friends, fans and enthusiasts might appreciate taking a look at some of his more notable interviews. The Martin Bashir segments are a must. [UPDATE MAY 2014] When I first posted this blog, all the videos mentioned were available. As of this update, I have left information so you can track the clip down, if it’s no longer able to be seen here:
MJ W/ ET – 1983
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19KLpqA6FKE
Rare Speeches/ Appearances
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlNQ_VLzuR8
W/ OPRAH
THIS IS IT! PRESS CONFERENCE 2009
Katherine Jackson on “60 Minutes”
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