MJ & recompensation: Things money can’t buy

Jackson family drops recompensation claims.

Michael Jackson’s family has dropped a claim for compensation from the King of Pop’s former doctor Conrad Murray over the star’s sudden death in 2009, a spokeswoman said Thursday. Prosecutors were due in court next week to press a claim against Murray — who was jailed for four years in November after being convicted of involuntary manslaughter — to pay over $100 million in damages to the family, according to AFP.

The Jackson family, however, decided it would no longer seek compensation and cancelled the court date, said a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office. “The family withdrew the restitution request and the matter was taken off calendar,” AFP quoted spokeswoman, Sandi Gibbons as saying.

Prosecutors announced when Murray was jailed that they would seek restitution of $100 million, plus more than $1 million in funeral-associated costs from Murray on behalf of Jackson’s children.

But Murray’s lawyers said there was no point, since the doctor has no money. Observers said the restitution claim could be to prevent Murray profiting from the case in the future, by book or other deals.

Murray was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter for having given the singer an overdose of the powerful anesthetic while trying to help him sleep at his mansion on June 25, 2009. According to telegraph.co.uk, the jury concluded that the doctor ordered an “extraordinary” four gallons of propofol, an anaesthetic meant for use in surgery in hospitals, from a pharmacy. Police also found a gap of 20 minutes between Jackson’s death and Murray’s call to emergency services. The singer’s guard later confessed that the doctor started panicking and told him to hide the drugs before he could make a call to 911.

Jackson was in Los Angeles rehearsing for a series of comeback concerts in London when he died.

SOURCE: AFP AND TELEGRAPH

Published in The Express Tribune, January 23^rd,  2012.