Jackson’s mother ends court battle with nothing

With a jury’s refusal to hold a concert promoter responsible for Michael Jackson’s death, the late singer’s mother lost perhaps her last best chance to collect millions in damages and place blame for her son’s untimely demise.

“I’m OK,” was all that the Jackson family matriarch said as she moved slowly out of a courtroom after hearing a stunning verdict denying her claim for as much as $1.5bn and giving her nothing.

Some called it the Jackson family’s last stand in court, a long-shot effort that may have been doomed by the singer’s own history of addiction struggles and headstrong decision-making when it came to his medical care. All of it came out in this trial, and while Jackson’s musical triumphs live on, his image took a serious hit.

His mother’s grief was on display almost daily as she sat in the courtroom gallery with a bulky bodyguard and listened to the story of her son’s troubled life emerge from the shadows that long surrounded it.

Jurors said they believed Dr Conrad Murray, who went to prison for giving Jackson an overdose of the drug propofol, was hired by AEG Live LLC at Jackson’s behest but they found he was competent to do the job for which he was hired — to act as a general practitioner looking after the star on his planned This Is It tour.

“Michael Jackson was a big star,” said juror Kevin Smith. “He wanted this doctor and if anyone said no they were out of the mix.”

Smith said he believed that had AEG Live executives known that Murray was giving Jackson the hospital anesthetic propofol as a sleep aid they would have cancelled his concerts.

In his final argument, AEG lawyer Marvin S Putnam said: “AEG would have never agreed to finance this tour if they knew Mr Jackson was playing Russian roulette in his bedroom every night.”

Murray, convicted in 2011 of involuntary manslaughter, is due to be released from prison later this month.

Jury foreman Gregg Barden suggested the verdict should not be seen as a vindication of AEG Live nor an endorsement of Murray.

“That doesn’t mean we felt he was ethical,” Barden said of Murray after the verdict.

“There really are no winners in this,” the foreman said. “It took the tragic passing of a tremendous father, son and brother for us to even be here. And of course nobody wanted that.

“We reached a verdict that we understand not everybody is going to agree with. But the decision was reached after very careful consideration.”

In the aftermath, Putnam said he wished the case had never come to trial and thought it should have been dismissed by Superior Court Judge Yvette Palazuelos. But he said AEG had never considered settling the case. He called the plaintiff’s original claim of $40.2bn “ridiculous”. That was later amended to $1.5bn.

“AEG didn’t do anything wrong and would not allow themselves to be shaken down,” Putnam said.

He stressed that AEG Live was not just a company defending itself but “real people who have been accused of killing Michael Jackson”. He said the attack on executives was unwarranted, that many of them loved Jackson and were concerned with his welfare. .

Katherine Jackson’s attorneys said they were disappointed by the verdict but would consider further legal options.