Jan. 3-9: Meet The Witnesses In Michael Jackson’s Preliminary Hearing
The preliminary hearing to determine whether Michael Jackson doctor Conrad Murray should be tried for involuntary manslaughter began Tuesday. Jackson’s parents and several of his siblings have attended the court proceedings.
Reports leading up to the media spectacle said some 30 witnesses would be called to the stand. Throughout the first four days of the hearing, a dozen individuals who came in contact with Jackson during his last days offered testimony before Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Michael Pastor.
That’s Really Week has compiled a list of the witnesses, including a choreographer, security guards, doctors and paramedics, who have testified thus far and summarized their accounts.
Kenny Ortega, “This Is It” choreographer Ortega, the first witness to take the stand, testified Tuesday. Ortega, who appears in Jackson’s posthumous documentary, “This Is It,” said just a week before the scheduled start of the London tour that the singer arrived to rehearsal not well enough to perform, the Los Angeles Times reported. Ortega said he expressed his concerns to Dr. Murray the following day at a meeting at Jackson’s home but was dismissed. “Dr. Murray told me that this was not my responsibility and asked me to not act like a doctor or psychologist … and leave Michael’s health to him,” Ortega said.
Michael Amir Williams, Jackson’s assistant Williams said, on the day of Jackson’s death, Murray called him in a panic, saying Jackson had experienced a “bad reaction.” After Jackson had been pronounced dead at the hospital, Williams claimed Murray suggested returning to Jackson’s house to retrieve a cream. “He said, ‘Brother Michael, Mr. Jackson has some cream in the house that I knew he wouldn’t want the world to know about,'” Williams said, recalling his conversation with Murray, the Los Angeles Times reported.
