Emails warned of Jacko decline

[1]

A stage manager working on Michael Jackson’s ill-fated This Is It concert warned an AEG executive days before the star’s death that he was in physical and mental decline and needed help, according to an email shown to jurors on Thursday in court.

“I have watched him deteriorate in front of my eyes over the last eight weeks,” said John Hougdahl in an email to Randy Phillips dated June 19, 2009. Jackson died five days later.
“My laymen’s degree tells me he needs a shrink to get mentally prepared to get on stage,” said Hougdahl, “and then a trainer to get him in physical shape.”
He reported on Jackson’s rehearsal performances saying, “He used to do multiple 360 spins back in April. He’d fall on his ass if he tried now.”
The email was presented by a lawyer for Katherine Jackson in her lawsuit against the entertainment giant’s parent company, AEG Live LLC, for negligence in the hiring of Jackson’s doctor, Conrad Murray, who was later convicted of killing the pop superstar with an overdose of the anesthetic propofol.
Attorney Brian Panish presented several emails during questioning of AEG Live general counsel Shawn Trell. Trell’s marathon four days of testimony ended only when Superior Court Judge Yvette Palazuelos finally cut him off and excused Trell from the stand.