Update : April 17 , 2012
Not surprisingly Katherine Jackson's lawyers have filed opposition documents to AEG's motion asking the judge to order Katherine Jackson to answer interrogatories, document requests and deposition.
Main points :
- Katherine's lawyers argue that AEG's motion is unnecessary because Katherine already agreed to be deposed on April 17, 2012 .
- No one from AEG has been deposed to this date as well.
- Katherine (and Prince, Paris, Blanket) will submit supplemental responses to the interrogatories before April 24 (hearing date).
- Katherine (and Prince, Paris, Blanket) do not have any documents in regards to most of the requests and if they have anything they would provide them to AEG before April 24 (hearing date).
- Katherine's lawyers argue that AEG cannot complain about the responses Katherine already sent them. (If you remember AEG argued that Katherine responded by sending the same answer copied pasted to multiple questions. AEG argues this is non-responsive.) Katherine's lawyers argue that Katherine's responses are proper and even objections can be sent as a response.
- Katherine's lawyers state "just because AEG Live doesn't like Mrs. Jackson's response, it's not entitled to a court order mandating that she change it"
- They state as some of the questions are about to find out Katherine's legal theories in this case, objections to such questions saying that they are protected "work products" or "attorney-client privilege" is proper.
The document reads
"The plaintiffs (Katherine and PPB) did not, at the time of filling of the complaint nor currently possess the full body of evidence of this misconduct. Rather, plaintiffs suspected (correctly) that this evidence would emerge in discovery and indeed it has."
Furthermore they state
"The most evidence of Defendants (AEG) wrongdoing is in Defendants (AEG) possession"
In other words Katherine's lawyer say that they still do not have the full evidence but they are uncovering evidence from the documents / answers sent to them from AEG. They also argue that AEG have the answers / documents / evidence in their possession.
They cite some examples of this evidence.
- First is a June 2009 email from Gongaware which states " We want to remind him (Murray) that it is AEG, not MJ who is paying his salary. We want him (Murray) to understand what is expected of him (Murray)".
- It's stated that Michael missed / did not attend rehearsals on June 13 based on Murray's direction (which resulted in the above email). It's alleged that the next day Gongaware called for a meeting with Murray asking him to explain why Michael missed a rehearsal. It's stated that after AEG's reminder (that they are paying Murray) and Murray's job was to get Michael to rehearsals, Murray started creating a schedule for Michael so Michael would not miss rehearsals.
- There's a mention that Gongaware and Phillips was advised on June 19 that Michael was a "basket case". (no other details are provided)
- It's also stated that on June 20 meeting Murray guaranteed he would resolve the situation with Michael missing the rehearsals.
- KJ's lawyers argue that either implicitly or explicitly AEG was requiring Michael to treat with Murray and work with Murray to get to rehearsals.
- KJ's lawyers also argue that AEG / Phillips has supervised Murray as he asked him to look into Klein's treatment of Michael.
- The documents also state that Murray's goal was not health and well-being of his patient MJ but Murray's object was to ensure that Michael attended rehearsals as AEG wanted.
Tidbit : From the documents we also learned that Katherine's lawyers served Paul Gongaware with a notice of videotaped deposition on September 28,2011 after he testified in Murray trial. AEG's lawyers rejected the deposition request citing that Gongaware was still "subject to be recalled as witness" on the criminal trial.
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AEG has filed a response to Katherine's lawyers objection documents.
In their objection documents Katherine's lawyers stated that Katherine (and Prince, Paris and Blanket) would be sending their answers , document requests and Katherine would be deposed before April 24 hearing date. They argued that therefore AEG's motion was unneeded and should be taken off calendar.
In this new set of documents we see that Katherine's lawyers has also asked AEG if they would take their motion off calendar, AEG refuses to do it. This is their reasons :
- AEG states as of April 17, they did not receive anything from Katherine. AEG states they sent over 14,000 pages of documents to Katherine to this date.
- AEG states Katherine has been making promises but for a year she did not keep any of the promises. AEG states they simply do not know if she would keep her promises now. (AEG's requests were sent April 2011, AEG states there have been agreed upon dates before but Katherine & her lawyers did not submit anything on those dates and kept asking extensions.) AEG says they will keep the motion active until they get what they are promised.
- AEG argues that the only reason that Katherine's lawyers are making "we will submit the answers before April 24 hearing" promises or agreeing Katherine to be deposed is because AEG filed the motion to compel.
- AEG says if Katherine shows for her deposition as promised, their request to compel her deposition should be considered moot. If she again doesn't show up despite the promises she must be compelled to sit down for a deposition within a week.
- AEG argues that Katherine is a vital witness in this case and her deposition / testimony is "essential to understand the scope and bases of her contentions in her complaint, to test her standing as a wrongful death plaintiff and to shed light on MJ's long history of drug use".
- AEG says with summary judgement deadline being in May 2012 and trial scheduled to start in September 2012 they can no longer wait for answers and they need them as quickly as possible.
- AEG says they have the right to know the "factual bases" of Katherine's claims against them and if there's no factual bases Katherine's lawyers should say so.
- In their opposition Katherine's lawyers had stated that they didn't have the full body of evidence and they were uncovering evidence from the documents AEG sent them and AEG already has the records of their wrongdoing. AEG responds to this with "AEG is not asking plaintiffs to produce AEG Live's own documents back to it. That would make no sense". AEG says they are asking for the information, documents that Katherine has in her possession.
- AEG explains why Katherine's answers to interrogatories is deficient. Katherine used 10 same reply to respond to 66 questions.
For example AEG says one question asks her "witnesses that was present at rehearsal on June that 18 that can confirm MJ was not himself at that day". AEG states that Katherine's answer does not reference June 18 or give any names of witnesses. (I cross checked her answer - Katherine mentions Ortega June 19 email in her answer and a brief mention of Karen Faye's observations about Michael on month of June. It does not mention the events of June 18 or who was there or who would testify to it).
Documents also include an email series between the AEG and Katherine Jackson lawyers trying to set up deposition dates and so on. From the emails we see that:
- AEG sends a long list about deficiencies in Katherine's answers and repeat that they need to know the factual bases and sources of facts of the claims in the complaint. The email also states that AEG suspects there's none.
- AEG and Katherine's lawyers discuss how long Katherine's deposition will be. Katherine's lawyers want it to be short. AEG argues that as Katherine is a vital witness the deposition can take hours / days.
- Tito Jackson has been deposed by AEG. Katherine's lawyer complain that Tito was asked if he ever missed any alimony payments and whether his father (Joe) used any corporal punishment on him when he was a child. AEG lawyers state that they can explore any areas that might lead to discovery of admissible evidence.
- Taunya Zilkie was to be deposed last week. (Taunya is the ex-girlfriend of Randy Jackson, ran MJSource and management of Karen Faye)
- AEG is also trying to set up dates for Randy, Jermaine and Janet Jackson depositions.
(Note : Previous document mentioned AEG staff including Gongaware and Phillips would be deposed in May 2012).
Katherine's lawyers write in one email AEG "wanted everyone to know after AEG wins summary judgement, this case will not be over".
"summary judgement" seems like AEG will ask the case to be disposed without a trial.
"this case will not be over" seems to be a mention of lawsuit against Katherine and/ or her lawyers. AEG lawyer explains this as "AEG reserves their right to seek relief if it turns out Jacksons brought this case without any legal or factual basis".