Travis Payne's testimony

Michael and Travis during filming for 'This Is It' June 2009



Under cross examination, choreographer Travis Payne acknowledged that some of Michael's behaviour, including grogginess, lethargy, insomnia and occasional paranoia, were possible symptoms of prescription drug abuse. He also said that despite testifying earlier that he worked with Michael one-on-one five days a week, he couldn't recall how many rehearsals the singer actually attended. Payne had also expressed his concerns to 'This Is It' director Kenny Ortega.

Some of the behaviour occurred after Michael's visits with dermatologist Dr. Arnold Klein, who Payne believed was performing cosmetic treatments on the singer so he would be comfortable performing onstage again.

"Sometimes in rehearsal, Michael would appear just a little loopy," Payne said, adding that the singer appeared to be "assisted or under the influence of something."

Michael was struggling to get into shape for the shows, and Payne said his voice coach suggested using a voice track for fast-paced songs until the singer's stamina improved.

He said Michael wanted to use a teleprompter during the shows as "extra security," but it was an aid the performer had not used in his two previous tours.

"You could sense that something was wrong, you just didn't know what it was?" plaintiff's attorney Brian Panish asked. Yes, Payne replied.

The choreographer had remained composed throughout most of his testimony, occasionally smiling and politely trying to answer questions. But after several hours of testy exchanges with Panish, his voice quivered and he dabbed his eyes with a tissue.

"I don't have a dog in this race," Payne said at one point. "I'm just trying to have a conversation with you and tell the truth."
 

So, here is another long-term colleague who raised concerns - that takes the count to five. Five people who independently raised concerns either to Kenny Ortegea, or Randy Phillips. Some said they thought Michael was taking something, others actually spelled it out and said Michael might die.
Yet AEG are still trying to convince us that they didn't know anything was wrong.

Michael unable to sing and dance at the same time in rehearsals

Michael in Cape Town 1997

On June 16, 2009 music arranger Michael Bearden revealed that Michael was unable to sing live and dance, just three weeks away from the start at London’s 02 Arena. This was also two days before Michael was shivering and cold at rehearsals.

In a message entitled Plan B, Bearden told Kenny Ortega, producer and director of the 'This Is It' tour, that he planned using Michael's studio material.

Bearden wrote: “If we can’t get everything we need from the vault I can use what we have and take out ad libs and such to try to make it feel new.

“MJ is not in shape enough yet to sing this stuff live and dance at the same time. He can use the ballads to sing live and get his stamina back ... I have full confidence he can sing the majority of the show live.

“His voice sounds amazing right now he just needs to build it back up.”

Choreographer Travis Payne, who let slip that Michael needed golf carts to get around the arena, responded with, “Great idea”.


Promoter Terry Harvey claims that Michael had laid down vocals over several months to work as back-up material for shows.

He insists he made Michael's managers Dr Tohme Tohme, Frank DiLeo and contract lawyer Dennis Hawk aware of his dangerously frail state.

He says he warned Di Leo, “You are going to kill Michael.”

Harvey went on to say “On This Is It there were moments where he wasn’t singing, his energy levels were down and anyone who worked with him in the past could tell Michael was a way off from 100 per cent. We found out Michael was in the studio recording tracks for the show and even new albums in his last months. You can put your voice in a sequencer and backing track for live shows, so if you don’t want to sing you mime and fans don’t realise.”

I said as much in my post yesterday - people who had worked with Michael in the past knew that Michael was not up to par: Karen Faye, Michael Bush, Michael Bearden, Terry Harvey. They all tried to raise the alarm. Michael Bearden's email also reveals how they probably made up the sound track for the 'This Is It' film - they took out the ad libs from pre-recorded material, and used that. They asked Karen Faye to touch up the film footage to make Michael look healthier, but she refused. However that doesn't mean they didn't get someone else to do it. I had suspected that they had carefully selected the best film footage and then re-worked the sound, but they probably touched up the film as well. I know plenty of fans who will argue how great Michael looked and sang in 'This Is It', but they have been fed a lie, and I've suspected it all along. Parts of the film break my heart, despite the cover-up job.

Other documents show how, five days before Michael's death, Ortega asked AEG managing director Randy Phillips to pull the plug.

On June 20 Ortega wrote: “My concern is that now that we’ve brought the doctor in to the fold ... the artist may be unable to rise to the occasion due to real emotional stuff.”.

The next quote is telling, and I think is the root of AEG's attitude to all the concerns raised about Michael's health.

Randy Phillips refused to consider stopping the 'This Is It' concerts. “You cannot imagine the harm and ramifications of stopping the show now,” he said.

“I am not just talking about AEG’s interests here, but the myriad of stuff and lawsuits swirling around MJ that I crisis manage, and also his well-being.” Signing off as Randy he added: “It’s time to put out the fire, not burn the building.”

UPDATED: Karen Faye's moving testimony - Michael Jackson

Michael in Munich 1999

Karen Faye, who had been Michael Jackson's make-up artist for nearly 30 years, testified about Michael's health in the days before 25th June 2009.

She said Michael was cold as an “ice cube” on June 19, 2009, after a costume fitting.

"He couldn't get warm. I had a space heater, (and) I put it next to him and put him on the sofa and wrapped him in blankets and held him very close to me,” Faye said.

Michael Jackson costume fitting with Zaldy 19 June 2009

Michael at a healthy weight



Karen said she watched tour director Kenny Ortega try to feed Michael some chicken and pleaded with him to call a doctor.

The next day, she sent an email to Michael's manager, Frank DiLeo. A fan who had a recent meeting with Michael had contacted her with concerns, and she told DiLeo she agreed with the fan.

Jurors and  Katherine Jackson watched as the fan’s email was projected on a courtroom screen.

“(Michael) took his jacket off, and I saw something horrible. A skeleton. I watched his back. It was only bones. I am still in shock,” the fan said of her June 2009 meeting with the star, during which he tried on a jacket.

“It is humanly impossible for a human being to be a skeleton and dance for two hours straight without any danger,” the fan wrote.

Fans, such as myself, who spent many hours doing online research, trying to find out why Michael had suddenly died, have heard this story before. There was a website set-up by some fans who were around Michael in the last few months, and saw his health deteriorate. They contacted Karen about their concerns. They wrote to Michael as well, and put copies of their letters up on the website called This-Is-Not-It. But many fans disbelieved them, and thought they were glory seeking, and making up stories to gain fame. The letters have now been taken down, but I printed copies of them. 
The fan mentioned by Karen in her testimony above, visited Michael on 11th June 2009 whilst he was filming the Dome Project (see my timeline here). She gave him a red jacket as a gift, and it was while he was trying it on that she saw how thin and emaciated he was. She said that the jacket was a small woman's size but was still too large on him.
I think you'd agree from the photo above at the costume fitting that Michael was much thinner than he normally was. I have argued about this many times on fan forums, and yes Michael has been thin before, for example during the 2005 trial. But my point is, he wasn't about to start a 50 show concert in 2005. The body needs energy for a performance, and draws on the body's reserves. If you have no bodily fat to burn up, the body starts to break down muscle for energy.

19th June was the day that Michael was sent home from rehearsal by Kenny Ortega, who said he was incoherent, shivering and obsessive.

You can read more of Karen's testimony here.



Many fans also do not like Karen, and believe she is a liar. However, this testimony is under oath, and I believe what she is saying is the truth. I personally don't know what Karen nor the fans who spoke out about Michael's health, really have to gain from lying at this point. Lying isn't going to earn them money nor help them gain longlasting fame.

UPDATED 14th May

"Oh, my God, Turkle, I can see Michael's heart beat through the skin in his chest," stylist Michael Bush said after a costume fitting on June 19, 2009.

Turkle is the nickname of makeup artist Karen Faye.

"Get him a bucket of chicken," manager Frank DiLeo said in reply to concerns about Michael's weight loss, Faye testified.

"It was such a cold response, it broke my heart," Faye said through tears.

The Michael Jackson that the public saw in the documentary "This Is It" is not reality, Faye said.

She was asked to help retouch the video to make Michael look healthier on the big screen, she testified. But she refused.

"It was a lie. I didn't want to lie," Faye said. "Everybody was lying after he died, saying that Michael was well, and everybody knew he wasn't. I felt that retouching Michael was just a part of that lie."

Before Faye testified, jurors heard a similarly disturbing description of Michael in his final days from "This Is It" associate producer Alif Sankey.

Michael "was not speaking normally" at the June 19 costume fitting, Sankey said. She and producer Kenny Ortega cried after he left because of his appearance and what he said."God keeps talking to me," Michael told Ortega, Sankey testified.

Faye said Michael seemed "frightened," and he was talking to himself, repeating "the same thing over and over again."

"He kept repeating, 'Why can't I choose?'" she said.

Michael was shivering from chills, and it was "like I was touching ice" when she put on his makeup, Faye testified.

Faye said she raised her concerns with AEG Live CEO Randy Phillips. He told her, "Yeah, this is bad. It's not so good. I had to scrape Michael off the floor in London ... because he was so drunk," she said.

Sankey, who knew Michael since she first danced with him in 1987, said she screamed at Ortega in a phone call after the June 19 rehearsal, begging that he get help for Michael.

"I kept saying that 'Michael is dying, he's dying, he's leaving us, he needs to be put in a hospital,'" Sankey said. "'Please do something. Please, please.' I kept saying that. I asked him why no one had seen what I had seen. He said he didn't know."




So it seems that people who knew Michael and had worked with him before, could see that he he was not well. If you have seen Michael work before, and compare that to his 2009 rehearsals, you will see a difference. See the videos of 'Billie Jean' on my post here. Michael was always very energetic, and moved around a lot. A lot more than most people do, and more than most dancers do. So if you only saw him rehearse in 2009, you might not see a problem.

However, enough people saw real problems on 19th June, and although personally I think even then was not soon enough, someone should have taken responsibility at this point. But what we know actually happened, was a meeting took place at Michael's house with Dr Murray present. Murray and Michael said everything was fine.

Knowing Michael's history, this was hardly an acceptable reassurance.

AEG can't have it both ways

Michael Jackson October 2008

Evidence was given this week about Michael Jackson's physical health, by Dr. Christopher Rogers. The coroner's report at the autopsy showed that Michael was in good health, and that he would be expected to have a normal lifespan.

"There was no indication from the autopsy that there was anything anatomically wrong with him that would lead to premature death," Rogers said.

He had no signs of being addicted to street drugs, such as needle marks or disease. The testimony is important for the case, because if the jury decides that AEG is liable in his death, his expected lifespan will be used to calculate damages. Michael's lawyers will contend that he would have made billions of dollars during the rest of his life through several more world tours, merchandizing, recording and movies.

I also include an interview with Tom Mesereau, who represented Michael at the 2005 Arvizo trial. Tom makes some good points here, which also occurred to me, one of which is that if Michael was so unhealthy and messed up, why did AEG Live enter into a contract with him in the first place?

The Jackson family tried drug interventions

Michael Jackson in Honolulu 1997

On Thursday, Detective Orlando Martinez who took the lead investigating Michael's death in 2009, testified that Katherine Jackson told him the family had tried drug interventions for Michael, believing he was addicted to painkillers. Katherine told him her son refused any help, saying he didn't have a drug problem.Martinez said Katherine told him she believed her son was taking medicine for back pain and might have become addicted.

Martinez also said that five days before Michael died, his manager Frank Dileo called Dr Murray, told him Michael was sick, and implored him to have blood tests done, according to a voicemail retrieved by police from Murray's cellphone.

"I'm sure you're aware he had an episode last night," the message said. "He's sick. ... We gotta see what he's doing."

But this testimony doesn't specify when the drug interventions were attempted. Nobody has categorically stated that one was attempted at any time in 2009. There were rumours that an intervention was going to be attempted around 11th June 2009, but Michael resisted and agreed to a 'sober coach' accompanying him to London, see article here. As far as I'm aware, nobody has confirmed that any of this actually happened, and there has been no evidence so far of this sober coach ever being hired. Michael spent a week filming the video footage due to be shown in the 'This Is It' concerts in Culver City, around the time of the alleged intervention, and it would have been only a month until he was due to open in London. Not the ideal time for an intervention. It would have delayed the concerts for sure, and by then everything had already been arranged. I'm sure Michael was feeling the pressure to deliver to his fans and AEG.

Now I'd like to address some speculation in the media about a letter written in 2007, by the Jacksons, denying any drug intervention. It has been speculated that this letter harmed the case against AEG, as it showed that the family had since admitted they attempted interventions,  but denied it in the letter. This is a classic case of taking words out of context. The letter was written in 2007 specifically to address a 2007 article in People Magazine and other publications who said that Michael was dependent on painkillers and alcohol. The letter does not say the family have never staged an intervention. Michael's manager at the time, Raymone Bain, also issued a statement in June of 2007 denying Michael was on painkillers or in a wheelchair, in direct response to the media speculation at the time.

The way I see it, even if Michael did hide his drug intake, as AEG claim, there were enough people working directly with Michael in 2009 who knew of Michael's previous history, and who could ring alarm bells. Dileo, Karen Faye, Travis Payne, even Paul Gongaware had all worked with Michael before.Some were around during the 'Dangerous Tour' which was cancelled when Michael went into rehab. Dileo clearly saw the signs in 2009 and wanted action taken. Addicts often hide their addiction, or deny it. It's a well known fact. Addiction does not go away, it is managed.Anyone who has had an addiction in the past can lapse, and it is unlikely that the addict is going to ask for help. They are suffering from addiction. Saying that someone is an adult and therefore is responsible for their actions, does not work for people who have had an addiction.
Is this really your line of defense AEG?

Fans knew Conrad Murray was in debt four years ago!

Michael Jackson in Lyon 1997

A second witness called in the wrongful death lawsuit, Los Angeles Police Detective Orlando Martinez, said cell phone records showed that Dr. Conrad Murray called his girlfriend, Nicole Alvarez, at 1:08 p.m. on June 25, 2009, a minute after the ambulance carrying him and Michael Jackson left the Carolwood home for the UCLA Medical Center.

“Do you have an opinion as to the substance of that call?” Brian Panish, a lawyer representing Michael's mother and children asked Martinez.

“Yes,” the lawman replied, explaining that he had interviewed Alvarez and served a search warrant at her Santa Monica address.

“What was determined?” Panish asked.

“I found one piece of paper with Dr. Murray’s name — that had fallen behind the door of a cabinet — in the entire apartment (where) he’d been staying at (for) at least two months,” Martinez replied.

Panish asked whether he found that suspicious.

“Yes,” Martinez replied. “He was living there, and none of his stuff was there.”

Murray's 2011 trial revealed that he had had pharmacy shipments sent to Alvarez’s address, including Propofol.


Martinez told jurors his investigation led him to conclude that Murray was deep in debt at the time of Michael's death, giving him a financial motive to provide the anaesthetic Propofol as a treatment for insomnia.

On Tuesday, Martinez told jurors that Murray was about to lose his home to foreclosure and was approximately $500,000 in debt when he negotiated a $150,000-per-month agreement to act as Michael's personal physician for “This Is It”. The contract was never signed by Michael, however it was revealed by AEG lawyer Putnam that Michael Jackson was paying Murray during the last two months of his life. 

"He was paying for him during his entire time in Los Angeles and during the time we're talking about, Dr. Conrad Murray was being paid by Michael Jackson," he said. "We know this. We know this because the plaintiffs have said so."

Martinez covered more financial ground in testimony Wednesday, saying Murray had a history of unpaid rent on his Las Vegas office and was delinquent in paying his taxes.

“(It’s) just some more evidence of him being in financial dire straits,” Martinez said.

He said police also ran credit reports on Murray.

“If anyone would have run the credit report, they would have got the same information?” Panish asked.

“Yes,” Martinez said.

Well, some of us fans investigated Murray in 2009, and we found out about his debt purely by looking on the internet. Yet there is an email from Randy Phillips, AEG Live President, to Kenny Ortega saying :

“This doctor is extremely successful (we check everyone out) and does not need this gig, so he is totally unbiased and ethical.”

Yeah. Right. 

Did Michael Jackson really look like a hospice patient?

Michael Jackson March 2009

Michael Jackson 1994

The first witness to testify in the Michael Jackson wrongful death lawsuit trial was a paramedic who responded to a 911 call at Michael's rented Carolwood home in June 2009.

Paramedic Richard Senneff testified Tuesday that Michael most likely died before the ambulance crew arrived on the scene three minutes after getting the emergency call.

Senneff described Michael as resembling someone who was suffering from a long-term “chronic” disease. 

“The patient looked very pale, very, very underweight.  I could see his ribs.  To me, he looked like someone who was at the end-stage of a long disease process,” Senneff testified.

This is the same testimony that Senneff gave at the Conrad Murray trial in 2011.

My view is also that Michael was very underweight by June 2009.

I know a lot of fans disagree with my view, but I'll explain my reasoning below.

Firstly, I have been a fan of Michael since 1973, and have seen photos of Michael as he grew from a skinny teenager into a slim adult. He was always slim. I know that.

Secondly, I spent many many years in and around the world of classical ballet dancers. Classical dancers are expected to be underweight their entire working life. I've stood next to hundreds and hundreds of dancers in class, when they are wearing only a leotard and tights, and spent time with them outside the theater. So I know what a healthy professional dancer body looks like.

I also know that a dancer can lose a lot of weight, if they are performing a demanding dance role regularly over a period of weeks. It's something they have to watch out for and accommodate, so that they do not lose too much weight and lose their strength and stamina along with it.

Watching rehearsal footage from 24th June 2009 in the 'This Is It' film, it immediately struck me that at times Michael looked very thin and seemed to try and conserve his energy between songs. This starkly contrasts with footage of Michael rehearsing 10 years or so prior, where he is constantly on the move, even between songs, and is running all over the stage.  My knowledge of dancers and my experience of sitting in ballet rehearsals told me that Michael was in no fit state to start a series of concerts. I might have expected him to be thin and tired some weeks or months into the shows, but not before the shows had begun.

I selected the two photos of Michael above, as he is wearing similar outfits, but I think you can see that his hips and legs are a lot thinner in 2009. 

I read that Michael's waist measurement in the 1980s was 32". 

In 2009 it was 28". 

His weight was 136lbs in 2009. I've checked some height/weight tables specifically for men, and they say that man of 5'9" should be between 142 and 176lbs, depending on their frame, so Michael was definitely underweight.

Check out these videos of Michael rehearsing 'Billie Jean' from 1992 and 2009 and see the difference for yourself.