Paul Gongaware Day 2 Testimony

"You aren't going to kill the artist, are you?" Michael Jackson purportedly asked producers after viewing and "endorsing" a test of the combustible special effects, a production manager recalled in a June 19, 2009, email revealed in court.

Concert production manager John "Bugsy" Houghdahl relayed the quote to his boss Randy Phillips, the CEO of concert giant AEG Live, as part of an explanation of the singer's sick and disoriented demeanor at the June 19 rehearsal in Los Angeles.



Houghdahl said he assumed the comment was a passing reference to the pyrotechnics, but he also said show director Kenny Ortega later observed Michael acting like "a basket case."


"Kenny said (Jackson) was shaking and couldn't hold his knife and fork. Kenny had to cut his food for him before he could eat, and then had to use his fingers," Houghdahl wrote in the email. "I don't know how much embellishment there is to this, but (Kenny) said repeatedly that MJ was in no shape to go on stage." (Houghdahl is referring to June 19, not the whole rehearsal period).


Katherine's lawyer Brian Panish said outside court that he thought the Houghdahl email showed Michael was shaken by the pyrotechnic display after having suffered serious burns from an explosion on the set of a 1984 Pepsi commercial.

A lawyer for AEG said that wasn't the case.

"It may seem chilling in retrospect, but (Houghdahl) believed (Michael) was making a joke at the time. Michael Jackson wasn't afraid of the pyrotechnics. He wanted them," AEG lawyer Marvin Putnam told the News.

Panish needled Gongaware repeatedly on Wednesday, asking what steps AEG took to address Ortega's concerns, and why some messages about Michael's meltdown were sent by Phillips to his personal email address, not his business account.


Gongaware said he didn't know why Phillips used different email addresses for him but that he believed everyone wanted what was best for Michael.

"The artist's health is the most important thing, I agree with that," Gongaware testified Wednesday. "The artist is the most important thing."

Gongaware also told the court he wasn't worried about Jackson getting adequate health care.


An email from "This Is It" concert documentary director Kenny Ortega about Michael being late or absent for rehearsals. Gongaware responds with a request for a face-to-face meeting with Michael's doctor, Conrad Murray.

"We want to remind him that it is AEG, not MJ, who is paying his salary. We want him to understand what is expected of him," Gongaware says in the email.

The statement is evidence that AEG hired Murray, according to the plaintiffs. It is the centrepiece of their lawsuit.

For 30 minutes Gongaware rebuffed questions about that email. Repeatedly, he testified, "I don't know"; "I don't remember writing it." His only concession was, "I was going through hundreds of emails. If I knew lawyers would be picking apart everything, I would have been more careful."

Further emails show that as the opening of "This Is It" drew near, Ortega writes that Michael needs nourishment, physical therapy. "We have 20 days, we can't let him slip."

Gongaware responds: "We're on it."

Ortega says, "Super, not a minute too soon."

Days later another email was headlined "Trouble on the front." It warned Gongaware that "We might be getting beyond damage control here."

Yet on the stand Gongaware testified that no physical therapist or nutritionist was ever hired. He said he thought Ortega was exaggerating Michael's health concerns.

He said Michael didn't like to rehearse, that previously Michael didn't rehearse before the "HIStory" tour either. But when the lights went up, Michael was "on," he stated.

AEG's position is that Michel did not die from poor health or pressure -- rather that it was Dr. Murray's decision to secretly administer an intravenous sedative. AEG says in court documents that Murray's conduct was not foreseeable.

 

Paul Gongaware also testified his only role in Murray's contract was negotiating the price of  Murray's services in compliance with what Michael asked him to do.

Gongaware said that neither he nor anyone at the entertainment giant investigated Murray's background or credentials.

"The fact that he had been Michael Jackson's personal physician for three years was good enough for me," Gongaware said.

Who told him that? I was aware that Murray had helped Michael's children in Las Vegas a few years before, but does that make him Michael's personal physician?

Asked if he knew that Murray was in financial difficulties when he took the job as tour doctor, Gongaware answered no.

He said that Murray initially asked for $5 million to travel to London with Michael and tend to him during the tour.

"I just told him it wasn't going to happen," he said, recalling that Michael then suggested offering him $150,000 a month.

"Michael Jackson insisted on it and recommended him and it was not for me to tell him no," said Gongaware, who is a defendant in the multibillion-dollar lawsuit.

"I wanted to provide what was necessary for him to do his job...He wanted a doctor and I wanted him to be healthy."

Even after the offer of $150,000, Murray wasn't satisfied.

"He started saying he wanted more and I said, 'The offer is coming directly from the artist," Gongaware said.

Minutes later, he said Murray accepted.

"Did that seem desperate to you?" asked Panish.

"No," said Gongaware. "He just accepted Michael's offer."

Gongaware often pleaded poor memory of events. He said he may have met with Michael as many as 10 times, but could remember only two of the meetings and only one when Murray was present.

Really, is this how people wriggle out of their responsibilities these days, by claiming poor memory?

Prodded by Panish, he remembered a meeting at which Michael arrived late from a doctor's appointment and had slurred speech.

"He was a bit off," he said, "that was the only time I saw him like that."

At the heart of the case is who hired Murray. At first, Gongaware insisted he did no negotiating with Murray, but, confronted with emails and his previous testimony, he changed his position and said, "The only thing I did with Dr. Murray was negotiate a price."

He indicated that he was so shocked by Murray's demand that he consulted a doctor friend to see what he would charge for the same job. The other doctor said he would have gone on tour for $10,000 a week.

"Did you ever convey that to Michael Jackson?" asked Panish.

"I don't recall," said Gongaware whose testimony was peppered with that phrase.