Michael Jackson’s three children and mother, Katherine, are suing concert promoter AEG Live for allegedly strong-arming the singer into poor medical care and imposing a grueling rehearsal schedule that led to his death. By Jackson’s final rehearsal in June 2009 for a big comeback concert series, the entertainer was shivering and disoriented in the warm Staples Center, the lawsuit alleges, and would soon be dead from an acute level of the powerful anesthesia Propofol.
AEG had legal duties to Michael Jackson to treat him safely and to not put him in harm’s way,” says the lawsuit. “But AEG, despite its knowledge of Michael Jackson’s physical condition, breached those duties by putting its desire for massive profits from the tour over the health and safety of Michael Jackson.”
The lawsuit adds: “Due AEG’s actions and inactions, three loving children lost their father, a loving mother and father lost their son, the Jackson siblings lost their brother, and the world lost its most celebrated entertainer.”
The Jackson family alleges AEG Live breached their agreement to provide physical care for the King of Pop and that the concert promoters were negligent in hiring Dr. Conrad Murray as Jackson’s physician. The lawsuit was filed Wednesday in Los Angeles Superior Court.
Murray allegedly gave the singer lethal levels of an anesthetic while treating Jackson, whose death was ruled a homicide, for insomnia. He has since been charged with involuntary manslaughter.
Director Kenny Ortega, who produced Jackson’s “This Is It” tour, is also named as a defendant in the suit.
AEG had no comment and said company officials had not yet seen the complaint.
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