LOS ANGELES — A jury heard videotaped testimony Friday from Randy Jackson, who described more than half a dozen interventions his family attempted to try to get Michael Jackson to stop taking prescription medications.
Randy Jackson, the pop superstar's younger brother, said several of his siblings were involved in the efforts, and they occasionally brought interventionist doctors to try to convince their brother to go into rehab. The superstar always refused and kept his family at a distance in the final years of his life, Randy Jackson said.
His videotaped testimony was played for jurors by lawyers for AEG Live LLC, which is being sued by Jackson's mother. She claims the company negligently hired the doctor convicted of giving the "Thriller" singer a lethal overdose of an anesthetic in June 2009.
AEG denies it hired the physician, Conrad Murray, and its attorneys have said Jackson made choices that led to his death. Their case has already featured testimony from several medical professionals who treated the singer, including one who gave him an implant to block the effects of opiate drugs.
Randy Jackson says the interventions took place in various locations including New York, Las Vegas, Jackson's Neverland Ranch and Taiwan and dated back to the mid-1990s.
He said almost every time he tried to intercede it was after a call from a nanny who cared for Michael Jackson's children and told him the singer was over using prescription drugs. He said he never saw his brother take drugs but twice saw him in a condition where he was slurring his speech. He said he later fired the nanny after he encountered her at a pharmacy picking up prescriptions for the singer.
Randy Jackson said he never heard of the drug propofol until after his brother died from an overdose of the anesthetic.
However, he said he did not talk to his brother much in the five years before his death and was unable to get into his rented mansion during the period before he died because security guards blocked his access.
