Jacksons vs AEG - Day 76 – August 28 2013 – Summary
No Jackson family members are in court today.
Dr. Petros Levounis Testimony
Jackson cross
The first hour had Dr. Levounis going over all the records of Dr. Conrad Murray had his treatment of MJ and his children back from 2009. Dr. Levounis questioned by Jackson Attorney said there is no evidence MJ ever self injected Demerol. No evidence took drugs for a euphoria. After the morning Break, Dr. Levounis was asked about MJ opioid use in 2009. Was there any evidence Dr. Murray was giving MJ demerol? No. Was anyone else? Yes, Dr. Klein. Dr. Levounis also said that a person can be addicted to opiates without having to take them every few hours. Still have withdrawal symptoms. He said the term Addiction is widely used in the field. On recross, Dr. Levounis was asked if MJ is an addict despite no drugs, no symptoms, no sign of use? Dr. say addict with no evidence.. (ABC7)
Dr. Christine Quinn Testimony
AEG direct
She is a Dental Anesthesiologist from UCLA school of Dentistry. She treated MJ about 10 times from 1997 to February 2009. She would administer the anesthesia for MJ's dentist because MJ had anxiety. (ABC7)
Quinn didn't know the exact date of her meeting with Jackson, but said she knew Paris Jackson was an infant at the time. Paris was born in April 1998. Quinn didn't see her _ the baby was in another part of the hotel suite where Jackson was staying. (AP) She said in about 1998 (couldn't remember exact date) she received a call from MJ. She returned the call and spoke to his assistant. She was told Mj did not return phone calls. Dr. Quinn finally did speak to him and set up a meeting at the Beverly Hills Hotel. In her deposition she misidentified the hotel as the Bel Air Hotel. She called it the hotel on sunset today in court and the pink hotel. Under cross examination she realized it was actually the Beverly hills hotel. (ABC7)
Quinn said she brought her sister to the meeting because she didn't feel it was "prudent" to go by herself. Quinn said her sister stayed with Prince Jackson in one part of the hotel suite while she and Jackson went to another room to talk. (AP) She agreed to meet MJ at the hotel and brought her sister because she did not think it prudent to meet someone at a hotel suite. The meeting was brief. She and MJ stepped into another room to talk while Dr. Quinn's sister watched Prince who was about 2 years old. MJ told Dr. Quinn he was having trouble sleeping. Asked if he called Propofol by name, the Doctor needed to refresh her memory. After checking her notes, she said he did call it propofol. She said he asked her to administer propofol outside of a dental setting. She told him that was an inappropriate use of the anesthesia. He should talk to his doctor about the sleep problem. She told him that anesthesia induced sleep is not restful sleep but he told her it was the best sleep he ever had. MJ told Dr. Quinn he had tried other remedies but nothing worked. She said propofol not for insomnia and not outside a medical setting. She said he never asked for propofol again from her. She never spoke about the encounter except in the deposition and in court today. she said it was no one's business. (ABC7) Dr. Catherine Quinn, a dentist who specializes in giving anesthesia during dental procedures, said Jackson asked her to infuse him with propofol in 1998. "He told me that he has trouble sleeping," Dr. Quinn testified."I said that's inappropriate use of anesthesia," Quinn said. "He needs to speak with his physician about sleep aids. I told him that the sleep that you get with anesthesia is not real sleep, it's not restful sleep. He told me that it's the best sleep he ever had." (CNN)
Dr. Christine Quinn said Jackson summoned her to a Beverly Hills hotel in 1998 or 1999 and asked her to give him propofol. The request came after she met the entertainer while he was undergoing dental procedures. She said she refused the request and told Jackson it wasn't appropriate to use anesthesia as a sleep aid."I told him that the sleep you get with anesthesia is not real sleep, not restful sleep," Quinn said.Jackson responded by saying his time under anesthesia was the best sleep he had ever had, she testified. (AP)
Quinn said she gave Jackson anesthesia for procedures done after the meeting at the hotel. He never asked for propofol after the meeting or requested that he be kept under for longer than was medically necessary, she said. (AP) She continued to treat MJ with his dentist. The last appointment was February 2009. She remembered because there were paparazzi outside in the parking lot standing on their cars talking pictures of MJ when he got out of limousine. (ABC7)
She read about MJ's death from the propofol overdose in news accounts.(ABC7)
Jackson cross
On cross examination she told the Jackson attorney that MJ's dentist used and anesthesiologist because of his anxiety. (ABC7)
Cherilyn Lee Testimony
AEG direct
Cherilyn Lee - a Nurse Practitioner and Holistic healthcare practitioner. She treated MJ from February 2009 to April. At the first consultation on Feb 1, 2009 she asked MJ about 200 questions including drug use where he said no, no smoking, and no alcohol. The paperwork had his name as David Mich and his chief complaint was fatigue in the middle of the day. Lee thought it might be red bull. He claimed he had some problems sleeping and for that he took Tylenol PM. Claimed he used Zanax, Atavan, and Ambien 12 years ago not since. Testified that with her natural products MJ would only sleep about 5 hours a night. Continued to complain of fatigue. (ABC7)
My concern was that he was drinking Red Bulls," she said. He drank several cans of the energy drink during their first meeting. "I was thinking his tiredness and fatigue was related to that." Jackson "started to feel really great" and "looked healthier" after a month of her IV treatments of Vitamin C and other nutrients, she testified. But he still couldn't sleep more than five hours a night and with rehearsals for his "This Is It" tour cranking up in April "he needed something a little more," she testified.Jackson rejected her recommendation that he have a sleep specialist visit his home to study his insomnia -- or that he cut down the lights and music in his bedroom, she said. (CNN)
On April 18th, MJ talked to Lee about Diprivan - the commercial name for Propofol. He told Lee he just needed a good night sleep. She consulted a friend, a medical doctor, who told her it was an anesthetic used only in a medical setting. Lee went to her office to get her Physicians Desk reference to show MJ the side effects of propofol use and only in medical setting. MJ kept insisting his Drs had told him it was safe as long as he was monitored and that all he wanted was a good night sleep. She kept insisting to MJ and getting more and more upset in her testimony that it wasn't safe. He had been assured by his doctors its safe. (ABC7) Jurors heard from Cherilyn Lee, a nurse practitioner who said Jackson said he needed propofol to help him sleep in April 2009, a little more than two months before his death. Lee said she warned Jackson that propofol was unsafe for home use and he might not wake up, but the singer insisted that doctors told him he would be fine as long as he was monitored."His demeanor was, 'I have to have this. I have to have this to sleep. You don't understand, I have not had a good night's sleep,'" Lee said.Lee did not give propofol to Jackson. (AP)
Jackson was apparently still looking for a doctor to give him the propofol when Lee visited his home the morning of April 19, 2009. "He wasn't quite himself," she testified. "He just seemed really stressed or something. He said at certain points he was under a lot of pressure to finish rehearsals and he said 'I've got to get my sleep so I can do this.'" Jackson told Lee he wanted her help in getting propofol infusions instead of the vitamin cocktail IVs, she said. Lee didn't know about the drug, so she looked it up in her Physician's Desk Reference manual. "I remember telling him that it wasn't something he wanted to use at home," she said. "It wasn't a safe medication. It was definitely not a medication for insomnia." Lee's handwritten notes from that day described their conversation: "I went as far as to say I understand you want a good night sleep -- want to be 'knocked out' -- but what if you don't wake up," she wrote. "He said 'I'll be ok. I only need someone to monitor me with equipment while I sleep.'" Jackson "kept telling me 'You don't understand, doctors are telling me it's safe just as long as I am being monitored,'" Lee testified.It was then that Lee collapsed on the witness stand. "It's so unfair," she cried. "I am so sick." I can't do this anymore! I can't do this anymore," Cherilyn Lee cried at the end of Wednesday's testimony in trial to decide if concert promoter AEG Live is liable in Jackson's death. As she broke down, she was assisted by others in the courtroom including one of the lawyers. Lee broke into tears after telling jurors that she believed people, including Jackson and her own mother, have died because they listened to bad advice from doctors who overprescribe drugs (CNN)
Lee's testimony for the day ended on an emotional note. She broke down sobbing on the stand. The judge excused the jury for the day. Lee was being asked by AEG Live defense attorney Kathryn Cahan about the April '09 meeting where Jackson asked for propofol. Lee recounted showing Jackson the specific side effects of propofol and asking him what would happen if he didn't wake up. She said Jackson kept telling her that doctors had told him he'd be safe as long as he was monitored. Lee said he wouldn't say which docs. Lee started talking about how all medications have side effects and how doctors tell patients that they'll be safe on certain medications. Lee started to break down, saying it was a difficult subject because her mother had died in 2010 and she'd tried to warn her about all the medications that she'd been prescribed. Lee said she told her mom that she couldn't take all those medication. Her mother died, Lee said "because she believed her doctor." She started bawling, at one point putting her head in her hands. She said testifying was "so stressful for me because of what I have gone through." Cahan suggested they recess and the judge agreed. Lee continued to talk and cry as the jury shuffled out of the room. "I can’t do this anymore. I really can’t do this anymore," she said. "It is so unfair," Lee said. "I'm so tired." At this point, AEG Live defense attorney Sabrina Strong went up to witness box. Strong had been sitting in the audience, and she brought up two of Lee's relatives who had accompanied her to court. At least a couple jurors were still walking out, and plaintiff's lawyer Brian Panish complained about Strong trying to comfort Lee. Panish said it wasn't appropriate for a lawyer to comfort a witness while the jury was in the room. He argued the point for several minutes. Judge Yvette Palazuelos pointedly asked Panish what he wanted her to do. Panish said Strong should be admonished. Palazuelos told Panish that if he wanted an admonishment, his team would have to write a brief to show it was appropriate. By this point Lee had been taken out of the courtroom and was being comforted by her relatives in the hallway. Lee was composed within a few minutes of leaving the courtroom and said she would return and be OK for tomorrow's testimony (AP) "That's not appropriate," Jackson lead lawyer Brian Panish protested. "Lawyers don't do that. It's not appropriate for lawyers to come out of the audience in front of the jury.""Appropriate or not, it happened," Judge Palazuelos said. Panish argued that Strong was trying to "curry favor" with the jury by appearing compassionate. He demanded that the judge admonish her in front of the jury. The judge suggested he put his request in writing for her to consider. (CNN) At this point, a very upset Lee cries that it is the same with her mother who died in 2010 because mother believed doctors about chemo. Testimony ended and Lee was in tears. As the last of the jurors were leaving the courtroom an AEG attorney got up to comfort the witness. The Attorneys for Mrs. Jackson were upset with that telling the judge it was inappropriate in front of Jury. Judge said write a brief.(ABC7)