AEG Live brought in its own expert to counteract the arguments of the Jackson family that the concert promoter put pressures on Michael Jackson's doctor that made him unfit to properly provide medical care for the pop star.
Gordon Matheson, an expert on medical ethics, alleged in his testimony that AEG made an unwise choice when it contracted Murray to handle Jackson's health because the doctor was more than $1 million in debt, and was therefore unlikely to do anything that would prevent Jackson from performing in the scheduled "This Is It" concert series, an action that would result in his firing by the concert promoter. However Gary Green, the medical ethics expert hired by AEG naturally argued that Matheson's case was flawed because AEG wasn't responsible for Murray's hiring...Jackson was.
Green reportedly reviewed the proceedings of the previous 16 weeks of the trial before concluding that Matheson was misinformed, and AEG was doing nothing unethical by paying Murray's salary. The problem was that Jackson had almost complete control of the physician, including the propofol treatments that killed him. Not only were the treatments kept secret from AEG, they were kept away from even Jackson's family, happening in private behind locked doors.
Of course no one in the court considered that the disagreement between Green and Matheson may go beyond the facts of the case as well. Green is an athletic team doctor at Pepperdine University in Malibu, while Matheson serves as a team doctor at California rival Stanford University.
