On the day he died, Michael Jackson was already so emaciated that he looked like a terminally ill hospice patient, a paramedic testified yesterday in a multimillion-dollar lawsuit over the King of Pop’s demise.
Los Angeles EMT Richard Senneff was the first witness called by Jackson’s loved ones, who are suing concert-promoting powerhouse AEG Live for allegedly hiring the quack who killed the pop icon.
Senneff, responding to a 911 call to Jackson’s rented LA mansion on June 25, 2009, said he didn’t even recognize the sickly man in bed.
“The patient appeared to be chronically ill to me,” said Senneff, adding that Jackson’s ribs were visible.
“He was very pale and underweight. I thought perhaps this was a hospice patient.”
Jackson (right) seemed so far gone, Senneff said he asked the attending physician, Dr. Conrad Murray, if there was a DNR — a do-not-resuscitate order — for the patient.
Two years after Jackson’s death, Murray was convicted of involuntary manslaughter for giving the pop superstar lethal doses of the anesthetic propofol. The insomniac singer used an IV drip of propofol as a sleep aid.
Senneff testified yesterday that Murray seemed evasive when he, the EMT, desperately asked him questions, in hopes of saving Jackson.
“When did this [cardiac arrest] happen?” Senneff testified he asked the physician. Murray allegedly replied, “Just now.”
But Jackson had no pulse, his pupils were dilated and his eyes were dry — all signs that he had been dead for 20 minutes, according to Senneff.
“To us [other paramedics] it didn’t make sense that it had just happened,” the paramedic told jurors. “His [Jackson’s] skin was very cool to the touch.”
Although Senneff was testifying for the plaintiffs, he might have thrown a small bone to defense lawyers, telling jurors that Murray identified himself as Jackson’s “personal physician.”
Jackson’s family wants to prove that Murray worked for AEG executives, who allegedly knew about the singer’s prescription-drug problems.
Defense lawyers hope to show that Murray was handpicked by Jackson, and that the company had no role in the doctor giving Michael propofol and painkillers.
“Even for [the ritzy LA neighborhood of] Bel Air, a personal physician is unusual,” Senneff testified.
Senneff also described a weird scene at the house after Jackson had been taken away in an ambulance.
The paramedic returned to Jackson’s bedroom and found Murray suspiciously — and frantically — throwing items into a white plastic bag.
An LAPD detective also testified, saying that Dr. Murray had dollar signs in his eyes and would “do whatever he had to do to get paid.”
Detective Orlando Martinez said he pulled an unsigned contract from the trunk of doc’s BMW for a $150,000-a-month salary.