Prince Jackson Speaks...
By Alan Duke
Michael Jackson often cried after talking to AEG Live executives
as he prepared for his comeback concerts, his oldest son testified Wednesday.
"After he got off the phone,
he would cry," Prince Jackson testified. "He would say 'They're going
to kill me, they're going to kill me.'"
His father told him he was
talking about AEG Live CEO Randy Phillips and his ex-manager, Dr. Tohme Tohme,
Prince said.
Prince, 16, began his testimony
Wednesday morning in his family's wrongful death lawsuit against Jackson's last
concert promoter, AEG Live.
His first 30 minutes on the stand
were filled with videos and photographs of Jackson with his children, but then
the questioning by Jackson lawyer Brian Panish focused on the last weeks of his
father's life.
Prince testified that Phillips
visited Jackson's rented Los Angeles mansion and spoke aggressively to Dr.
Conrad Murray the night before his father's death.
"He was grabbing his
elbow," Prince said. "It looked aggressive to me. He was grabbing by
the back of his elbow and they were really close and he was making hand
motions."
He couldn't hear what Phillips
was saying to Murray, he said.
Michael Jackson was not there
because he was at his last rehearsal, Prince said. He called his father from
the security guard shack telephone to let him know Phillips was there. His
father asked him to offer Phillips food and drink.
Prince said that was his last
conversation with his father.
"Sorry
kids, your dad's dead"
Prince recounted the day his
father died four years ago. He saw his father "hanging halfway off the
bed, his eyes were rolled back," when he ran into the bedroom where Dr.
Murray was doing CPR in a futile effort to revive him, he said.
Paris followed him up the stairs,
"but we kept pulling her down the stair," he said.
"She was screaming the whole
time saying she wants her daddy," he said.
At the hospital later, Dr. Murray
told them "Sorry kids, your dad's dead," Prince testified.
Prince was 12 when the pop icon
died, but he said his father confided in him about whom he trusted and didn't
trust and what he feared as he prepared for his comeback concerts.
Michael Jackson's three children
-- Prince, Paris and
Blanket -- and their grandmother Katherine Jackson are plaintiffs in the
lawsuit, which contends AEG Live is liable in Jackson's death because the
company hired, retained or supervised Murray, the doctor convicted of
involuntary manslaughter.
Murray told investigators he gave
Jackson nightly infusions of the surgical anesthetic propofol to treat his
insomnia. The coroner ruled the singer died of an overdose of the drug.
AEG Live executives allegedly
created a medical conflict of interest that pressured Murray to pursue the
dangerous treatments so Jackson would be rested for rehearsals, while ignoring
warning signs that his health was failing, Jackson family lawyers argue.
AEG Live lawyers contend that it
was Jackson who chose and controlled the doctor and that company executives had
no way of knowing what treatments Murray was delivering.
AEG Live lead lawyer Marvin
Putnam's cross-examination of Prince lasted just 25 minutes. It centered on
trying to discredit his testimony about Phillips' visit to his home and about
cash payments that Prince said his father gave Murray at times.
Prince stood by his story about
the Phillips and Murray encounter, although he conceded it could have been two
nights before his father's death and not the last night.
The toll
of losing their father
Prince's testimony gave Jackson
lawyers a chance to show jurors the emotional toll suffered by Jackson's
children, which they would have to put a dollar figure on if they conclude AEG
Live is liable in their father's death.
"I can't sleep at
night," Prince said. "I have a hard time sleeping." The death
left him "emotionally distant from a lot of people" for a while, he
said.
He's missed sharing with his
father "the first day of going to school, having the first girlfriend,
being able to drive," Prince testified.
While Paris Jackson's suicide
attempt and hospitalization was not brought up in court -- and it is unclear if
jurors learned about it in the news -- Prince did speak about his sister.
"I think out of all of my
siblings she was probably hit the hardest because she was my dad's
princess," he said.
Prince said the questioning of
Paris by AEG Live lawyers over two days in March was painful for her. "She
had some problems before, after and, I assume, during," he said.
"She definitely is dealing
with it in her own way," her brother said.
Paris, who was 11 when her father
died, is not available to testify in person in court because she is
hospitalized for psychiatric treatment.
While he and his sister no longer
want to celebrate birthdays because "it's not the same without" their
father, Blanket, now 11, does, Prince said.
"Right now, I don't know if
Blanket realizes what he lost," he said. "He was so young. He is
still growing up just like I am and he doesn't have a father to guide
him."
AEG Live attempted to compel
Blanket, the youngest child, to testify, but the judge rejected its request
after a psychologist said it would harm the boy.
Changing
the world?
Jurors watched a home video of
Michael Jackson questioning his three children about how they planned "to
change the world" when they grow up.
Prince testified that the video
was made at Christmas.
"What's Christmas
mean?" Jackson is heard asking his children.
"Love," Blanket
responded.
"Who's Blanket going to be
to change this world?" Jackson asked.
"I don't know,"
Blanket, who appeared to be about 5 at the time, answered.
"What does Paris want to do?
Be honest search your heart," Jackson said.
"Help the poor," she
answered. Paris also said she would like to be a gymnast.
Prince told his father he aspired
to be a movie director and architect because he liked "making things."
Private
details revealed
Prince, who said his grade point
average is 3.68 at the private school in Sherman Oaks, California, at the end
of his sophomore year. He is a member of the National Honors Society and
received artistic awards at school, he said.
