Emails: Stage manager saw superstar Jackson deteriorating
Posted May 23, 2013 10:20:35 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
LOS ANGELES, Calif. – A stage manager who worked on Michael Jackson’s ill-fated “This Is It” concert warned the promoter days before the star’s death that he was in a physical and mental decline and needed help, according to an email shown to jurors.
The message from John Hougdahl was written five days before Jackson died in June 2009. The stage manager told AEG executive Randy Phillips that he had seen Jackson deteriorate.
Jackson’s mother, Katherine, is suing the entertainment giant’s parent company, AEG Live LLC, for negligence in the hiring of Jackson’s doctor, who was later convicted of killing the pop superstar with an overdose of the anesthetic propofol.
The trial was recessed until Tuesday, when AEG executive Paul Gongaware is scheduled to testify.
