Days before his death in 2009, Michael Jackson told his producer/director Kenny Ortega that "God keeps talking to me." Ortega and associate producer Alif Sankey testified on Wednesday that they became increasingly alarmed at Jackson's frail appearance during his final rehearsals, CNN reported.
Sankey testified that during rehearsals, the famed singer looked "extremely thin" and "was not speaking normally" as he was being fitted for his stage clothes.
Sankey was so worried "because I had a very strong feeling that Michael was dying. I was screaming into the phone at that point," she added. "I said he needs to be put in the hospital now."
In their lawsuit, the Jackson family claims that AEG and Phillips did not properly check out his physician Conrad Murray's background. If they had, they would have discovered he was saddled with debt and was desperate to keep his high-paying job treating Jackson, suggesting that the death could have been avoided.
Michael Jackson died of an overdose on June 25, 2009 of Propofol and several other sedatives, administered by Murray. Investigators said that Murray claimed he treated Jackson with the combination of drugs so he could sleep and be ready for his rehearsals.
While Jackson died before the This is It tour could hit the road, a 2009 documentary about the tour's rehearsals was released. In the film, Ortega is seen talking about working with Jackson. "I'm proud to be able to say I was a participant, and that I helped and he trusted me," he says. "It's really one of the great gifts of my life to have earned that trust and to be able to collaborate with him and to just take part. There aren't too many people, any more, that can drop my jaw and Michael Jackson remained one of those people all the way until the end." The lawsuit, brought by Michael Jackson's elderly mother Katherine on behalf of the singer's three children, alleges that privately-held AEG Live was negligent in hiring the physician convicted in 2011 of his involuntary manslaughter to care for her son while he rehearsed for the series of 50 shows.
