Nurse Cherilyn Lee warned Michael Jackson against using the anesthetic propofol as a sleep-aid, three weeks before his death, a courtroom heard Tuesday (October 25). "He told me that doctors had told him that it was safe," Lee testified. "He said, 'I just need to be monitored.'" AEG concert promoter Randy Phillips also told jurors of Jackson's plans and hiccups with the ill-fated "This Is It" tour.
(ABOVE: Nutritional therapist Cherilyn Lee, tearing up on the witness stand, Tuesday.)
LOS ANGELES – A nutritional therapist who treated Michael Jackson testified tearfully at the homicide trial of Jackson's doctor on Tuesday (October 25) that the singer believed he could safely use an anesthetic to battle insomnia if a doctor with proper equipment monitored his sleep.
Cherilyn Lee, a nurse practitioner who counts entertainers and athletes among patients for her vitamin and nutritional supplement regimens, was the sixth witness called by lawyers for defendant Conrad Murray.
The 58-year-old cardiologist has pleaded not guilty to a charge of involuntary manslaughter. Prosecutors allege he was grossly negligent in administering the surgical anesthetic propofol to Jackson, who died of "acute propofol intoxication" on June 25, 2009. Four medical experts testified earlier for the prosecution that Murray did not have adequate monitoring equipment on hand as he administered propofol to the the pop star at his Holmby Hills mansion.
Lee said she began giving Vitamin C, amino acids and other natural substances to Jackson, sometimes by IV injection, in February 2009 when he complained of fatigue and low energy.
On April 12, Easter Sunday, Jackson said for the first time that his main complaint was sleeplessness and that he needed unspecified "products for sleep," according to records Lee kept of her visits.
On April 19, as she gave Jackson a high-protein smoothie and a Vitamin B-12 shot during a morning house call, he told her that propofol was the only medicine that "helps me to fall off to sleep right away," she said.
Questioned by Ed Chernoff, Murray's lead counsel, Lee said Jackson told her he had received propofol "for surgery" years earlier.
"I woke up and I didn't even know that I was asleep that long," she quoted her patient as saying. "I had fallen asleep so easily."
Lee said she had never heard of propofol, and called a doctor for information. The doctor explained that propofol was used for surgery or in hospital intensive care, "absolutely not" in home settings, Lee said.
Jackson disagreed with her warnings against using propofol, she said.
"He told me that doctors had told him that it was safe," she testified. "He said, 'I just need to be monitored.'"
Jackson asked her to return late that night to observe his unsatisfactory sleeping patterns, Lee said.
Indeed, Lee observed that Jackson slept for about three hours, before he awoke, unhappy with the natural substances she was prescribing.
"He said 'I'm telling you the only thing that's going to help me sleep right away is the Diprivan and can you find someone to help me to sleep?'" Lee said. (Diprivan is a brand name for propofol.)
After some quick research, the nurse warned Jackson that it was dangerous to use propofol at home, Lee testified. She brought her copy of the Physicians' Desk Reference, showing Jackson that propofol's side effects include dizziness, agitation, chills, delirium, shivering and memory loss, she said.
(ABOVE: Defense attorney Ed Chernoff, seen questioning a witness Tuesday, as Conrad Murray and defense attorney J. Michael Flanagan listen on.)
Cross-examined by prosecutor David Walgren, Lee provided more details of her conversations with Jackson about propofol.
She testified that among the drug's side effects she mentioned to Jackson, "one of them was memory loss. I knew I was working with a great entertainer, and said, 'What if you started forgetting your lines?' He said, 'I would never forget all my lines.'"
She then told the singer, "I understand you want to sleep, you want to be knocked out, but what if you don't wake up?" Lee said.
Jackson replied, she said, "I will be OK. I only need someone to monitor me, with the equipment, while I sleep."
Walgren asked Lee if those were Jackson's exact words. She sighed and dabbed at her eyes with a tissue. "Yeah," she replied. "That's exactly what he said."
Oddly enough, records show that Conrad Murray ordered his first supplies of propofol for Jackson on April 6, 2009 -- thirteen days before Jackson first mentioned propofol to Lee, who had been treating the singer with natural remedies to induce sleep.
Another witness for the defense Tuesday was Randy Phillips, CEO of AEG Live, the concert promotion company that signed with Jackson for 50 shows at the company's O2 Arena in London.
For two hours, Phillips walked jurors through "This Is It," Jackson's planned comeback concert series, from its genesis in a Bel-Air hotel suite to a final rehearsal at Staples Center that left a normally cynical music executive with goose bumps and his star performer with a great confidence.
"He put his hands on my shoulders as we were walking out and he said to me, 'You got me here, now I'm ready. I can take it from here.' And that's the last I saw him," Phillips recalled in a packed courtroom that included Jackson's sister Janet.
Phillips was called to the stand by lawyers for Dr. Conrad Murray, who had hoped his account would bolster their claim that an anxiety-ridden Jackson gave himself a lethal dose of propofol in a desperate attempt to sleep before critical rehearsals.
But Superior Court Judge Michael Pastor prohibited many of the areas the defense planned to probe, and the answers Phillips gave often were at odds with their portrait of Jackson as fearful and the production as deeply troubled.
"No one on our end was ever contemplating pulling the plug," insisted Phillips, chief executive of AEG Live. "I never felt, at any time, that [Michael] was not capable of doing these shows."
Five days before Jackson's death, "This Is It" concert director Kenny Ortega sent Phillips an e-mail, referring to Jackson's fear the company would "pull the plug" on the tour.
If the tour was canceled, Jackson would have to pay for all of the production and rehearsal costs, Phillips said, although the judge would not let him tell jurors how much that might have been. Defense attorney Ed Chernoff estimated the cost to be about $40 million, leaving him "a very, very poor man," but it was not while the jury was present.
Jackson's mother, Katherine, is suing AEG for wrongful death, and a lawyer for AEG accompanied Phillips to court and sat in the spectator's gallery as he testified.
Phillips said "This Is It" grew out of a 2008 phone call from Philip Anschutz, the billionaire head of AEG Live's parent company. Anschutz asked him to meet with Century City financier Tom Barrack, whose company had recently purchased a note on Jackson's Neverland ranch.
Jackson said achieving stability for his family was the motivating factor for performing again, Phillips testified.
"The primary reason was that he wanted to finally settle down and get a really, really good home for the kids and his family so they weren't, in his words, living like vagabonds," Phillips said.
The children were present in the Hotel Bel-Air suite for the Halloween 2008 meeting -- he recalled that they wore costumes, ready to go trick-or-treating -- and Phillips said the discussion about securing them a home "got emotional" and both men teared up.
Jackson, Phillips said, was a "phenomenal father," adding that his children "were everything to him."
(ABOVE: Randy Phillips, the CEO of AEG Live, took the stand Tuesday.)
The defense has suggested that Jackson was forced by Phillips and AEG into more shows than the 10 originally scheduled, but the executive denied that. He said that 31 shows were always planned and that Jackson agreed to 19 additional concerts "in 20 minutes."
His only conditions were that Phillips get the Guinness Book of World Records to document his 50-show feat and rent him a sprawling country home outside London for his children.
"He was very specific. He wanted 16-plus acres, running streams, horses," Phillips said. "He wanted to give them a pastoral country vibe."
Phillips testified that Murray (whose $150,000 a month salary was to be paid by AEG) assured him in June 2009 that Jackson was in perfect health.
Two weeks later, things had taken a different turn. The concert director, choreographer Kenny Ortega, told Phillips in an email that Jackson had shown up to one rehearsal "trembling, rambling and obsessing."
Jackson, Ortega said, was "terribly frightened" that AEG would cancel the tour.
"He asked me repeatedly tonight if I was going to leave him," Ortega wrote. "He was practically begging for my confidence. It broke my heart. He was like a lost boy.
"There still may be a chance he can rise to the occasion if we get him the help he needs."
This email prompted a June 20 meeting at Jackson's Holmby Hill mansion. Throughout the meeting, Phillips said, an abrasive Murray assured everyone that Jackson was in "great health," guaranteeing that the singer would "get into it, would connect" in future rehearsals.
Murray promised to make sure that the 136lbs Jackson had a "proper diet," including high-protein shakes, Phillips recalled.
Murray also expressed anger that Kenny Ortega had sent Jackson home from rehearsal the day before. "[He said that] Kenny should be the director of the show and leave Michael's health to Dr. Murray," Phillips said.
Ortega similarly told jurors, during his September 27 testimony, that Murray had told him to "stop playing amateur psychiatrist and doctor and to leave Michael's health to him."
Jackson -- who seemed "not focused" at the meeting -- deferred to Murray on most issues, said Phillips.
"It was very obvious," he said, "that Michael had great trust in Dr. Murray."
Phillips told jurors that he had been concerned by Jackson's distracted behavior that day, noting that it was unusual for the otherwise "laser-focused," "sharp" singer. When he asked if Jackson was unwell, the singer's personal assistant told Phillips that Jackson had just visited dermatologist Dr. Arnold Klein's Beverly Hills clinic. (Jackson visited Dr. Klein a total of six times in the month of June 2009, for various cosmetic procedures, including dermal fillers.)
Phillips subsequently told Murray of Jackson's visit to Dr. Klein. "Because he's his principal physician, I thought he should know," he said.
This was a blow to the defense's claim that Murray did not know Jackson had been seeing Dr. Klein in the weeks before his death. The defense contends Jackson became addicted to the painkiller Demerol in his frequent visits to Klein. His withdrawal from the Demerol, which Murray was unaware of, would explain why Jackson could not sleep the day he died, the defense claims.
"Dr. Klein is a pointless smokescreen," Jermaine Jackson said on Twitter, Tuesday (October 25). "It is normal for someone to be groggy after dermatological treatments." He further stated that "these treatments for Michael, over a period of weeks, prove nothing" except for the fact that Michael visited Klein for "established dermatological reasons."
Said Jermaine: "Most of us are not fit to speak with anyone after invasive medical procedures."
There was no evidence of Demerol, or it's long-living metabolite, in Jackson's blood. There was also no evidence of Demerol in two urine samples, which toxicologist Daniel Anderson previously stated would show if the drug had passed through someone's body. The average life-span of the longest Demerol metabolite is roughly a week.
Defense lawyers said they'll call their last witness Thursday, after summoning two scientific experts and five former patients of Murray who will be character witnesses for him.
Superior Court Judge Michael Pastor said this indicated to him that Murray will not take the stand.
The judge said he will explain to Murray his "absolute right" to testify if he chooses, regardless of what his lawyers advise.
Sources - 1, 2, 3
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Click the links below to read about the trial so far:
DAY 1 summary -- Prosecution & defense give opening statements
DAY 2 summary -- MJ's personal assistant & security chief testify
DAY 3 summary -- MJ's bodyguard & personal chef testify about frantic morning of his death
DAY 4 summary -- Paramedics testify that Murray lied & was seen hiding potential evidence
DAY 5 summary -- Fierce female doctors testify that Murray lied, never mentioned propofol
DAY 6 summary -- Murray's "girlfriends" testify re: propofol shipments & critical phone calls
DAY 7 summary -- Court hears the full, four-minute MJ audiotape
DAY 8 summary -- The coroner investigator and toxicologist take the stand
DAY 9 summary -- Court hears the the first half of Murray's two-hour police interview
DAY 10 summary -- MJ's autopsy photo is shown & coroner deals a major blow to the defense
DAY 11 summary -- Murray's med. peers blast him in court & the defense drops critical theory
DAY 12 summary -- A UCLA sleep expert calls Murray's actions "unethical, disturbing"
DAY 13 summary -- Propofol expert Dr. Shafer lists 17 "egregious" violations Murray committed
DAY 14 summary -- Dr. Shafer dismisses defense theories & demonstrates how he thinks MJ died
DAY 15 summary -- The defense challenges Dr. Shafer on cross examination
DAY 16 summary -- The prosecution rests. Defense calls former MJ doctor and nurse to stand
The trial begins airing live at 11:45 EST every weekday. You can watch along online, commercial free, HERE.
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