This report was compiled by City News Service and posted by Patch Local Editor Guy McCarthy.
Testifying in trial of a negligence/wrongful death suit against AEG Live over the death of Michael Jackson, a professional tour director on Friday criticized Dr. Conrad Murray for initially demanding $5 million from the entertainment giant to be the singer's personal physician on tour.
"That raised a red flag," Marty Hom said. "That was outrageous."
Lawyers for the late singer's mother, Katherine Jackson - who filed the lawsuit in 2010 on behalf of herself and her son's three children - allege that AEG Live hired Murray to care for the singer and failed to supervise him properly.
AEG Live attorneys maintain that Jackson hired Murray in 2006 as his personal physician and chose him to be his doctor during his "This Is It Tour." Jackson was rehearsing for 50 sold-out concerts in London at the time of his death on June 25, 2009, at age 50.
A contract was later prepared by AEG Live in which Murray was to be paid $150,000 a month, but Jackson died before he could sign it.
Murray was convicted in 2011 of involuntary manslaughter for giving the singer the anesthetic propofol as a sleep aid and was sentenced to four years in jail.
Hom has worked in the entertainment industry for 30 years and was hired as an expert witness by AEG Live. He was questioned by both Jackson family attorney Kevin Boyle and AEG lawyer Sabrina Strong - with all of his testimony presented through a video deposition.
Hom, who said he had worked in the past with such artists as the Eagles, said he has never personally been associated with a concert deal such as the "This Is It Tour," in which the artist took his personal doctor on tour.
However, he said the Rolling Stones and Blink-182 have had arrangements to take their physicians with them on the road.
Hom also said that he has hired doctors during the course of a tour when singers and dancers get sick. He said that while he is unsure whether it is ethical to ask the doctors directly about the health status of the performers, he does so anyway so he knows whether he will have to seek replacements.
"I think it's a legitimate question I have to ask as a tour manager," Hom testified.
Hom said it was proper for AEG lawyers to inquire of Murray whether Jackson would be able to perform all of the scheduled shows in London.
Jackson died in June 2009 after being found unresponsive at his Holmby Hills home in the district of Westwood.
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