AEG Live are currently defending themselves in court from the Jackson family estate, claiming that they have no place in the wrongful death trial of the late Michael Jackson. Whilst in court on Monday (May 20) however, the defendants were presented with a piece of evidence contradicting their claim that they did not hire Dr Conrad Murray, placing their whole defence in jeopardy.

AEG Live took to the stands claiming that they did not hire or pay the doctor convicted in Jackson's death, but were forced to do a u-turn on their initial claim when it was revealed that they had asked the Jackson estate to repay the $300,000 spent on Murray just weeks after the singer's death. A previous testimony from AEG Live Senor Vice President and General Counsel Shawn Trell - and prior to that, AEG LIve controller Julie Hollander - also showed the company's budgets at the time of Michael's death included $1.5 million set aside to pay Murray his $150,000 a month fee.

Michael Jackson
The Jackson family claim Michael was practically forced to go on tour

"To me, it's a mistake," said Trell when confronted with the document asking for repayment, who went on to claim that the company's chief financial officer made the mistake and that the officer also made an error by classifying Dr. Murray's medical fees as "production costs" rather "advances" in the budgets for Jackson's 'This It It' tour. In spite of these mistakes, Trell still called the CFO a "a very detailed-oriented guy."

The revelation may not point toward any wrong-doing per say, but the Jackson family lawyers are hoping it could convince jurors to thinking that AEG Live executives were motivated by money rather than the Prince of Pop's needs. The Jackson family are suing AEG Live because they believe the concert promoter was a liability in the build-up to the singer's death because the company hired and supervised Dr. Murray and ignored all health warnings in a bid to get the singer as stage. AEG are countering that they had no prior warning of any health warnings or signs of malpractice from Murray.

Conrad Murray
Conrad Murray faces four years in prison for involuntary manslaughter