Jacksons vs AEG - Day 24 – June 5 2013 – Summary
No Jackson family is in court
Randy Phillips Testimony
Jackson direct
Brian Panish resumed questioning. He showed several instances where Randy Phillips said one thing in deposition, another while on the stand. Panish asked Phillips which answer was right. He answered: "Do you want the truth or do you want what I testified?"(ABC7)
Panish asked Phillips if he knows the corporate structure of AEG Live. He said it was under AEG, but he doesn't know who exactly owns AEG. Panish showed a board meeting agenda on 5/26/09, in which they were to talk about MJ's tour. (ABC7)
Panish played the interview Phillips gave Sky News saying AEG hired Dr. Murray. Phillips said he meant AEG hired the doc on behalf of MJ. Phillips said AEG's media person set up several interviews for him after MJ's death. Phillips said each interview was different, but the intention was to say AEG hired Dr. Murray on behalf of MJ. "It's called the truth." (ABC7)
Randy Phillips was asked about meetings with Conrad Murray at Michael Jackson's house. He confirmed Jackson's weight was discussed during at least one of the meetings. He was a bit unclear on dates, so Jackson's weight may have been discussed at two meetings. Plaintiff's attorney Brian Panish tried to use a police report of an interview with Phillips and detectives to refresh his recollection. (AP)
Randy Phillips (AEG Live CEO) said there were numerous inaccuracies in the report. Panish started to ask him to go through it methodically. "We don't need to do it line-by-line," Judge Yvette Palazuelos. Phillips then keyed in on two areas he said were inaccurate. (AP)
Phillips said LAPD's detective made a mistake in the written police statement attributed to him. Phillips said he never told LAPD "Randy stated that Kenny got in Michael's face, at which time Dr. Murray admonished Randy..." "The police made a mistake," Phillips said. "He (detective) misconstrued what was said and made a mistake." Dr. Murray got in to and admonished Kenny Ortega and told him not to be an amateur doctor, Phillips said he told the police.(ABC7) Phillips read one statement about a meeting at Jackson's home between Phillips, Conrad Murray and "This Is It" tour director Kenny Ortega. Report: Randy stated that Kenny got into Michael's face, at which time Dr. Murray admonished Randy, stating, “You are not a doctor. Butt out.” Phillips said the police made a mistake. "If you read it, it makes no sense," Phillips said. Phillips keyed in on how report mentioned Murray got in his face, when it more likely Kenny Ortega he admonished. (AP) "I believe the Los Angeles Police Department is a fine entity as I believe in this judicial system," Phillips explained. Phillips pointed another mistake in LAPD's report. It states Phillips/Gongaware produced 2 MJ's tours but Phillips said he wasn't involved (ABC7) AEG Live CEO Randy Phillips also said police report said he and Paul Gongaware worked with Jackson over course of 16 years. Phillips said that was wrong _ Gongaware worked with Jackson that long, but he hadn't. Those were the two inconsistencies Phillips pointed out in his police report. Interview apparently wasn't taped at request of AEG attorneys. (AP)
As to MJ missing rehearsals, Phillips clarified: "MJ was showing up to rehearsal, just not to enough of them, in Kenny's opinion." (ABC7)
Phillips remembers one phone call with Dr. Murray that lasted probably about 25 minutes. Phillips told Panish he'd know how many times he called Dr. Murray because the attorney subpoenaed the exec's phone records. Panish said he never subpoenaed any phone records, that it was LAPD that did it. Phillips said he made an assumption. The only phone call Phillips remembers is the one that Dr. Murray called him on June 20, 2009.(ABC7)
In his deposition, Phillips said Paul Gongaware never communicated to him about the email that AEG, not MJ, was paying Dr. Murray. Phillips said at the deposition it was the first time he ever saw Gongaware's email. Panish showed the email that was forwarded to Frank DiLeo and Phillips was cc'd containing the mention that AEG, not MJ, pays Dr. Murray. Phillips said he never received the email. Then, after being shown the email at depo, Phillips said he didn't remember receiving it. On the stand today, Phillips said he received Gongaware's email. Panish grilled Phillips pointing out he changed his answer three times. Phillips said he answered the same thing, but with different qualifications. "Frankly, I don't remember reading Paul's email, I was more concerned about Kenny's email," Phillips said. At this point, most jurors seemed to be tuned out when Phillips didn't give straight answers. (ABC7)
Panish showed an email dated 6/17/09 from Phillips to Dr. Tohme:Kenny Ortega, Gongaware, DiLeo, his doctor named Conrad from Vegas and I have an intervention with him to get him to focus and come to rehearsals yesterday. Getting him fully engaged is difficult and the most pressing matter as we are only 20 days out from the first show. (ABC7)
Phillips said it was not an intervention, but a meeting. He said it had nothing to do with drugs. (ABC7)
The jury was shown a June 17, 2009, email Phillips wrote to Tohme, eight days before Jackson died from an overdose of the anesthetic propofol. Phillips wrote him that he had an “intervention” with Jackson scheduled “to get him to focus and come to rehearsals…Getting him fully engaged is difficult and the most pressing matter as we are only 20 days from the first show.” Phillips said the intervention was not drug related. (LATimes)
Panish asked the executive if Jackson had ever fired Tohme. “It’s not a yes or no answer,” he said. “The answer is yes but he kept in contact with him.” (LATimes)
Phillips said he had lunch with Dr. Tohme in Beverly Hills within the past month. Panish asked if Phillips discussed Dr. Tohme's testimony. Phillips said he didn't, but Marvin Putnam, AEG's attorney, was also present. Phillips said they discussed something regarding Dr. Tohme's case against MJ's estate. He said he doesn't remember talking about this case. (ABC7) Phillips was asked about a lunch meeting he had with Jackson's former manager Tohme Tohme about a month ago. AEG attorney was present too. Phillips said he didn't directly discuss Tohme's possible testimony in the Jackson vs AEG Live case. Phillips said he testified in a Labor Commission hearing over Tohme's claim against Michael Jackson's estate. Plaintiff's attorney Brian Panish said he would had a witness who could testify about what was discussed at the table later in the trial. Panish asked Phillips if he testified at Tohme's Labor Commission hearing to "try to help him out." Phillips said no. "I was completely impartial," Phillips said of testifying at the labor hearing. "I was an impartial witness." (AP) (After court, AEG attorney Marvin Putnam, who was at the lunch meeting, said it was standard for attorneys to interview witnesses before they testify. It remains unclear whether Tohme Tohme will testify during the Jackson vs AEG Live trial. (AP))
The Jacksons' attorney brought the courtroom to attention when he asked Phillips if he met with Tohme at the Polo Lounge recently. Phillips said they had lunch there about a month ago. “And you were discussing his testimony in this case at the Polo Lounge with him?” Panish asked. “I wasn’t,” Phillips said. “You know there were witnesses sitting around you?” Panish said. “You know people took pictures of you? Phillips said he didn’t remember exactly what was discussed. “I don’t remember what I ate,” he said. “I didn’t ask you what you ate,” snapped Panish. Phillips said the meeting had to do with the case Tohme filed against Jackson’s estate with the state labor board for money he was never paid. Phillips was a witness. (LATimes)
Panish: Isn't it true, sir, that when Dr. Murray was hired no one was acting as MJ's personal manager? Phillips: He had someone in that capacity. My understanding Frank DiLeo was his manager. Phillips said AEG advanced DiLeo $50,000 at MJ's direction. "We never hired Dr. Murray," Phillips said. (ABC7)
Phillips said he didn't know anything about Dr. Tohme in January 09 other than he was a consultant for Colony Capital and repped MJ. (ABC7)
“With Michael Jackson and his advisers you needed a scorecard,” testified Randy Phillips. Phillips said he was introduced to Tohme in a meeting at the Century City offices of Colony Capital, the investment firm that held the mortgage on Jackson’s Neverland Ranch. It was AEG owner Phillip Anschutz’s friendship with a Colony Capital partner that led to the firm’s promotion of the planned 50 “This Is It” concerts at the 02 Arena in London. Phillips said Tohme was an adviser to Colony Capital who had no background in the music business and represented no other clients when he began working with the singer. Brian Panish, the attorney for Jackson’s mother and three children in an ongoing wrongful death suit against AEG, asked Phillips what kind of doctor Tohme was, whether he was a physician or if he had a doctorate. Phillips said that although he had met this doctor 25 times, he never asked him. (LATimes)
Randy Phillips was also asked about Tohme's $100k/mo. contract between him, AEG Live and Michael Jackson. Phillips said he could recall of only one other instance where AEG Live paid fee for artist's manager. He said it was a standard practice for Michael Jackson during his career. Phillips said Bon Jovi has a similar deal. (AP) Phillips said in MJ's career they always paid his personal manager. Phillips recalls AEG paying artist's manager 1 other time, for Bon Jovi (ABC7)
Panish later showed Phillips an agreement in which AEG agreed to pay Tohme $100,000 a month and asked if that was common practice, even though the manager is supposed to represent the performer, not the promoter. “In Michael Jackson’s case it was standard,” Phillips said. Panish persisted, and Phillips said AEG’s payments to Jon Bon Jovi’s manager were the only other time it had made a similar arrangement. He also said two of Jackson’s attorneys helped draft the agreement. (LATimes)
Randy Phillips denied that he told Sharon Osbourne that AEG Live had kept all the money from ticket sales for "This Is It." "That would be the most idiotic thing in the world" to say, Phillips said of the statement attributed to him in Osbourne conversation. Phillips said it was more of a "hi-goodbye" conversation with Sharon Osbourne. They lived in same building at time of conversation. (AP)
Panish: Did you talk to Sharon Osbourne about the show?
Phillips: No, not to the extent that Sharon is alluding to we did.
Phillips said he ran into Sharon at the lobby of their building. She asked how it was going, he said it's tough but we're going to get there. Phillips said the encounter with Sharon Osbourne was just a hi and bye. They never talked about ticket sales or anything else related to MJ (ABC7)
93% of the "This Is It" tickets sold were refunded, Phillips said. "7-8% people elected to hold the tickets as souvenirs." Out of $75 million in sales, AEG kept more than $5 million, which Phillips said they gave back to MJ's estate. (ABC7) Phillips said AEG didn't refund 7 or 8% of ticket purchases for "This Is It" because the buyers opted to hold on to the tickets. He said the un-refunded ticket revenues totaled more than $5 million. He indicated the money was handed over to the estate. (AP)
Phillips testified it was a "miracle" that the singer showed up at a news conference in London to announce his comeback. Randy Phillips testified that Jackson was hung over, although in emails he says the singer was drunk. "The fact that the press conference even happened is a miracle," Phillips wrote to Jackson's manager. In another email he wrote to Tim Leiweke, then-chief executive of parent company Anschutz Entertainment Group, Phillips said: “MJ is locked in his room drunk and despondent. Tohme [another Jackson manager] and I are trying to sober him up and get him to the press conference with his hairdresser/make-up artist.”
In a second email to Leiweke, Phillips wrote: “I screamed at him so loud the walls are shaking. Tohme and I have dressed him and they are finishing his hair and then we are rushing to the O2. This is the scariest thing I have ever see. He is an emotionally paralyzed mess riddled with self loathing and doubt now that it is show time. He is scared to death. Right now I just want to get through his press conference.”
In another email Phillips wrote to a business partner: “I haven’t pulled it off yet. We still have to get his nose on propery (sic). You have no idea what this is like. He is a self-loathing, emotionally paralyzed mess.” (LATimes)
“Was Mr. Jackson drunk?” Panish asked.
“No, to the best of my knowledge no,” Phillips testified.
“Was he despondent?” Panish asked. “No,” Phillips replied.
Later Panish produced an e-mail writted by Phillips to AEG President Tim Leiwicke the day of the news conference.
“MJ is locked in his room drunk and despondent,” Phillips wrote. “Tohme (Jackson’s manager) and I are trying to sober him up and get him to the press conference.”
“Are you kidding me?” Leiwicke responds.
“I screamed at him so loud the walls are shaking. Tohme and I have dressed him and they are finishing his hair and then we are rushing him to the O2. This is the scariest thing I have ever seen, he is an emotionally paralyzed mess riddled with self loathing and doubt now that it is showtime. He is scared to death. Right now I just want to get through this press conference,” Phillips writes.
After showing the e-mail to the jury, Panish asked his witness if he had yelled at Jackson on the day the e-mail was written.
“In the two-and-a-half hours this all took place, if you take it out of context the answer won’t make any sense,” Phillips said.
The executive later acknowledged “I raised my voice”.
“So the answer is no? Did you or did you not scream at Mr. Jackson? Yes, no or I don’t remember?” Panish asked.
Phillips said he couldn’t answer the question. (CBSLA) (An attorney for AEG told KCAL9 he will show there are no inconsistencies in Phillips’ accounts when he calls witnesses to the stand.)
At his deposition six months ago, before he was shown his e-mails, Phillips denied that Jackson was either drunk or despondent on the day of the president conference, and denied yelling at The Gloved One, saying he merely "raised his voice."
Phillips says he was telling the truth in his deposition, and was not accurate in his email. "I was relaying what Dr. Tohme told me... I wrote it as fast as I could write it."
Panish said, "You have to yell pretty loud to make the walls shake. Do you have a tendency to exaggerate?"
Phillips said, "No."
To another business associate, Phillips wrote: "I haven't pulled it off yet. We still have to get his nose on properly. You have no idea what this is like. He is a self-loathing emotionally paralyzed mess... I just slapped him."
Phillips admitted, "I slapped him on the butt." (NYPost)
Phillips began worrying about Jackson backing out of the concert tour just a month after he signed the contract with AEG Live to promote and produce it and more than a week before the announcement.
"I was worried that we would have a mess, his career would be over," Phillips testified. "There were a lot of things I was worried about."
But instead of pulling the plug then, before millions of dollars were spent, AEG LIve chose to force Jackson ahead.
"Once we go on sale, which we have the right to do, he is locked," Gongaware wrote to Phillips.
Jackson, his children and manager Tohme Tohme boarded a private jet for the London announcement,
but he was not ready when Phillips went to his hotel suite to escort him to the O2 Arena.
"MJ is locked in his room drunk and despondent. Tohme and I are trying to sober him up and get him to the press conference with his hair/makeup artist," Phillips told parent-company AEG CEO Tim Leiweke in an e-mail.
Phillips testified it was "a very tense situation" and "frankly, I created the tension in that room. Because I was so nerve-racked, OK, the time slipping away, and his career slipping away."
AEG was hosting thousands of Jackson fans and hundreds of journalists for the anticipated announcement, which would be seen live around the world.
"I screamed at him so loud the walls were shaking," Phillips wrote to Leiweke. "Tohme and I have dressed him, and they are finishing his hair, and then we are rushing to the O2. This is the scariest thing I have ever seen. He's an emotionally paralyzed mess, filled with self-loathing and doubt now that it is show time. He is scared to death. Right now I just want to get through this press conference."
Phillips e-mailed a man who was waited outside the hotel with a convoy of vehicles that he put Jackson in a cold shower and "just slapped him and screamed at him."
In court, Phillips downplayed his words as "an exaggeration."
"I slapped him on the butt," he testified, comparing it to what a football coach would do to a player. (CNN)