Jackson lawyer: medication fears
Updated on 26 June 2009
Watch excerpts from the full interview with Michael Jackson's lawyer, Brian Oxman, as he tells Krishnan Guru-Murthy his fears about the singer's use of medication.
Mr Oxman spoke to Channel 4 News about how the singer's heath could have deteriorated so quickly.
The lawyer and family spokesman said that Jackson had been on medication for a long time for health reasons but that he and the family "have been very frightened of him abusing those medications."
Jackson's history with drugs
Mr Oxman said: "Michael's condition has always been fairly steady in his ability to take care of himself and to eat well. But he has not been doing what we have wanted him to do to take care of himself in the sense that he was very frail, he was very thin.
"He has been on medication for a great long time. If you will remember back to the time when he burnt his hair at the Pepsi commercial - he started using pain killers then.
"He then fell from a stage and broke his leg, he also cracked a vertebra in his back and those things have caused him terrible pain which has resulted in him using medications - and we have been very frightened of him abusing those medications.
"I do not want to speculate what an addiction might be but I have warned that the abuse of these medications is dangerous and I have told everyone in this family that if one day Michael Jackson woke up dead that I would not be silent with my criticism."
Cause of death?
"I do not think that Michael has been cared for right for the longest time.
"Since he was eight his life has been a commotion. But as to the medications…we are going to have to wait and see what the coroner says.
"We do not know what the cause of Michael Jackson's death is but I do know that these medications are something that I warned about.
"If it comes to pass what I think has happened here I am going to be very vocal and very critical."
At the hospital
"I received a call from Randy Jackson's assistant - he is the youngest of the Jackson brothers - and the assistant told me that Michael had been taken to the hospital.
"I got to the hospital before Randy and it was chaos.
"When he walked through the door we just hugged each other - he was crying, he could not speak, I could not speak.
"A few minutes later Jermaine (Jackson) came in - his tears were streaming down his face.
"I hugged him but he could not speak to me - I then knew what had happened."
The impact of the child abuse trial
"I can say that Michael was severely impacted by the criminal trial in California; I was also impacted. The fact is none of us will ever be the same. We will probably not fully recover from those allegations which were false.
"Michael was recovering - he was getting better. He wanted to perform as he has an amazing constitution and he was going to be ok and start smiling again; but now that will not happen.
"I would like to ensure that the entire public knows that Michael Jackson is innocent - there was not a shred of evidence to remotely come close to establish any of those claims.
"I think his reputation from now on will be that he was the biggest entertainer in the world - we will never see the likes of Michael Jackson again."
What will happen next?
"I suspect that the fight has just begun in Michael Jackson's life.
"I think that there are going to be a lot of allegations made by various people who surrounded him. I think there is going to be a lot of contention as to who should take what property, who was owed what money.
"This is going to be the beginning of a commotion despite the fact that Michael will no longer be with us."
