I published this story originally the day after Michael Jackson died in 2009. In 2007, he admitted he was addicted to prescription drugs during a deposition. Here’s the original story. His addiction, and his financial disaster, were already well known stories by then. I’d written many of them. I can’t figure out what’s going on in his trial. But the depositions Michael gave in cases after he left the U.S. in 2005– many of which are on video– tell the whole story of how he got drugs, took them, and kept it a secret.
From June 26, 2009, Showbiz411.com:
Michael Jackson gave a deposition on July 25, 2007, that fully addressed his drug use. The testimony came about because of a lawsuit with former manager Dieter Wiesner.
This is what it looked like in the actual transcript, obtained exclusively by this reporter and written about in 2007. Here it is again:
Q Were you impaired by the taking of prescription medications or something else at the time you signed these two documents?
A I could have been.
Q Is that best of recollection, that you signed these while impaired, not knowing what they meant?
A I could maybe say so, but I’m not ‘ I don’t remember them.
It’s not like Jackson misunderstood the questioning, either. In the same line of examination, the attorney for Wiesner managed to get this in as well:
Q How long in 2003 were you impaired because of the taking of prescription medication?
A I don’t know.
Q Was it most of 2003?
A I’m not sure.
Q Did Dr. Farshchian prescribe that medication for you?
A No, it wasn’t Farshchian. I think it was a local.
And then there’s also this exchange:
Q As of March 31, 2003, were you still impaired because of the taking of prescription medication?
A I could have been.
Q During the period of time you were impaired by the taking of prescription medication, was this an impairment that lasted like all your waking hours, or did it come and go?
A It comes and goes, not all of the waking hours, of course not. Yes.
Q Now, during the period of time you were taking this medication when you weren’t impaired, did you ever tell one of your advisors that you were [concerned] about your impairment and they better watch what you were signing during this period of time?
A Not that I recall.
Dr. Alimorad Farshchian, of course, was Jackson’s doctor upon whom Jackson relied heavily in 2002-2003.
It was Dr. Farshchian ‘ founder in 2000 of the the Center for Regenerative Medicine ‘ who accompanied Jackson from Florida back to California in February 2003 with the Arvizo family.
The Arvizo’s eventually filed charges against him that consumed Jackson in a trial and took away a couple of years of his life.
Jackson’s vagueness about his business transactions didn’t go over so well, I was told. As usual, he claimed to have no memory of people or events that had already been documented or testified to in other cases.
After losing a multimillion-dollar case to another former partner, Marc Schaffel, Jackson was convinced by his attorneys to settle the Wiesner case instead of letting it go to trial.
For Jackson, the admission in sworn testimony that he was “impaired” thanks to too many prescription drugs was startling. It may play a part in the answer to how Jackson tragically died yesterday at age 50.
