This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
Jacksons v AEG Timeline Legal
Murray prosecutors drop restitution claim
By CMU Editorial | Published on Thursday 19 January 2012
Dr Conrad Murray won’t have to pay $100 million to the Jackson family after all – well, not through the criminal justice system anyway, Joe Jackson is still suing the medic for damages through the civil courts.
The prosecutors who led the case against Murray, the doctor who was jailed for four years for causing the death of Michael Jackson through negligence, originally requested that the court award Jackson’s children restitution, which would see the criminal court force Murray to pay money to the late king of pop’s family to compensate for their loss.
Prosecutors proposed $100 million, the sum Jackson stood to earn from the ‘This Is It’ residency in London that the singer was preparing for prior to his untimely death. Murray’s defence team pointed out their client could never afford to pay that level of money, and were busy preparing arguments as to why any restitution payment should be much more modest.
But then yesterday the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office confirmed it was withdrawing its demand for restitution, seemingly at the request of the Jackson family. No reason was given for the move, though it is likely both the prosecutors and the Jacksons realise that, realistically, the money they would receive from Murray, in the short term certainly, would be minimal, the criminal case having left the doctor more or less penniless, and with little chance of him ever being able to practice medicine again.
Two civil lawsuits relating to the death of Michael Jackson are ongoing, one being led by the singer’s mother, the other his father. The former chose to sue ‘This Is It’ promoter AEG Live rather than Murray, arguing that the promoter should accept liability for the doctor’s actions as his employer.
While Joe Jackson initially sued just Murray, he later added AEG as a defendant on his lawsuit too, presumably realising the doctor had no money, so a legal fight with the live music firm – should it go his way – would be more profitable.
