LOS ANGELES — A concert promoter grudgingly admitted yesterday that he wrote a damning e-mail that showed his company employed the quack doctor who killed Michael Jackson.
AEG Live co-CEO Paul Gongaware acknowledged that he once called Dr. Conrad Murray, now doing four years behind bars for involuntary manslaughter, an employee of the concert-promoting giant.
“I still don’t recall writing it [that e-mail],” Gongaware told jurors.
“But obviously, I did.”
Just days before Jackson died on June 25, 2009, Gongaware wrote to show director Kenny Ortega, telling him, “We want to remind [Murray] that it is AEG, not MJ, who is paying his salary. We want to remind him what is expected of him.”
Jackson’s family is suing AEG, claiming it employed Murray and should pay civilly for his misdeeds.
AEG maintains Murray was handpicked by Jackson and worked for the singer — not the company.
AEG is also contesting family claims that it knew Jackson was sick and didn’t do enough to save him.
Plaintiff’s lawyer Brian Panish mocked Gongaware and asked if he suffered from repressed memory syndrome or saw a hypnotist to suddenly remember what he had written.
“Just going over the documents . . . putting myself back in that place and trying to remember what I was thinking about at that time,” Gongaware said.
Gongaware also admitted he wrote a June 17, 2009, e-mail, telling lieutenants that Jackson needed medical help.
“We need a nutritionist and a physical therapist,” Gongaware wrote. “Could be two different guys.”
Jackson’s family will try arguing that Gongaware’s e-mail shows that AEG bigwigs knew Murray was nothing more than a prescription pad.