LOS ANGELES – Concert promoters couldn’t buy coverage for Michael Jackson because insurers feared he had cancer and several other diseases The King of Pop really didn’t have, a top executive testified today.
Shawn Trell, AEG Live’s general counsel, told jurors that insurance carriers had a laundry list of health concerns about Jackson but they were clueless about The Gloved One’s insomnia and his use of powerful intravenous anesthetics to sleep.
With Trell on the witness stand, an e-mail from British insurance broker Bob Taylor was shown to jurors: “The insurers have specifically requested information in the following: press reports the artist is at various times using a wheelchair…suffering a back injury… Lupus … cancer …cosmetic procedures… lung infection… emphysema … chronic gastrointestinal bleeding.”
That e-mail was sent on June 25, 2009, hours before Jackson died in his rented LA mansion.
Trell confirmed the document doesn’t mention insomnia or drug use, the conditions that were actually causing Jackson to be so weak and underweight that he could barely sing, dance or show up to rehearsals.
Jackson had already been examined in February by a “Lloyds-preferred doctor” from New York, Dr. David Slavit.
Trell never saw results because of confidentiality, but testified that Taylor later told him: “Other than a slight case of hay fever, he passed with flying colors.”
Jackson died from an overdose of the anesthetic propofol that he was getting from Dr. Conrad Murray as sleep medication.
A coroner’s report showed that Jackson suffered from the skin ailment vitiligo but none of the maladies listed by British insurers.
Jackson died while preparing for a grueling 50-show run of the ill-fated “This is It” concert series in London.
AEG had a $17.5 million “non-appearance” policy on Jackson should he fail to perform the first 13 of his 50 shows at London’s O2 Arena, Trell said.
But the insurers wouldn’t cover illness until Jackson underwent a second medical exam to be performed in London by a doctor selected by the insurers.
AEG is being sued Jackson’s family, which claims the concert giant knew MJ was sick and didn’t do anything to help him. Jackson’s physician, Dr. Conrad Murray, was convicted of involuntary manslaughter and is serving four years behind bars.
AEG puts blame for Jackson’s death on the singer and doctor and claims the company shouldn’t be held liable.
Additional reporting by David K. Li in New York