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A courtroom sketch depicting the testimony of Katherine Jackson, mother of late pop star Michael Jackson, as she took the stand in the family’s lawsuit against concert promoter AEG Live.
Michael Jackson’s mom turned testy on the witness stand Monday, snapping at a lawyer who questioned her about the King of Pop’s drug dependency.
Katherine Jackson said the “Thriller” singer bore no personal responsibility in his 2009 overdose death and that he denied abusing pain pills during their one and only private conversation on the topic in Las Vegas.
The famous music matriarch lost her cool when a lawyer for the concert promoter she’s suing for more than $ 1 billion asked her repeatedly about the date and details of the mother-son meeting in Vegas.
“I’m not answering that question,” she shot back at one query she felt “didn’t make sense.”
She then accused the lawyer of intentionally trying to trap her over the exact wording of the confrontation.
“You’re just getting me confused so you’ll have something to come back on,” the 83-year-old said sternly.
Kevin Mazur/AP
Michael Jackson rehearses at the Staples Centerfor his world tour just weeks before his death.
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“I don’t want to get into this,” she said when asked about her superstar son’s finances.
The lawyer for AEG Live reminded Katherine that it was his job to ask questions because she wants a mountain of money for the claim AEG negligently hired Dr. Conrad Murray, the personal physican now serving four years for overdosing her son.
AEG denies any wrongdoing in the case, saying it was Michael who personally hired Murray and secretly begged for propofol, the surgery-strength anesthetic that killed him.
Katherine testified Monday that she never personally witnessed her son abusing drugs and that he relied on doctors to do the right thing.
“Even though he asked for (propofol), (Murray) could have said no,” she said softly but forcefully.
Ethan Miller/Getty Images for Cirque du Solei
Katherine Jackson arrives at the world premiere of “Michael Jackson ONE by Cirque du Soleil” at THEhotel at Mandalay Bay in June.
Katherine also recalled joining her daughter Janet and other relatives for a surprise intervention at Neverland Ranch in 2002. She said Michael was upset by the intrusion and appeared to be sober.
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“There were no deep discussion or anything like that. When we got there, he was okay, he was upset,” she recalled. “It was kind of embarassing.”
She then was asked about an open letter to the media that she signed in 2007 along with several of Michael’s siblings. It denied Michael had a drug problem and any history of a family intervention.
“Why would you sign it if it wasn’t true?” Putnam asked.
“I wanted (to stop) things that weren’t true,” she said, appearing confused.
Getty Images/Getty Images
The King of Pop died in 2009 of an overdose of propofol, a sleep aid.
Putnam also grilled Katherine on the timing of her lawsuit, which was filed a year before Murray’s 2011 criminal trial.
“Prior to the trial…did you ever talk to your grandchildren about the fact that Dr. Murray treated Michael Jackson upstairs in a bedroom behind locked doors,” Putnam asked.
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“No,” she replied.
“Mrs. Jackson, you do believe that Dr. Conrad Murray has some responsibility for your son’s death, do you not?” he asked.
“Of course,” she said.
After Katherine’s first day of testimony last Friday, Putnam told the Daily News he believes she was in the same uninformed position as AEG prior to Michael’s June 2009 death.
“As Katherine Jackson has now testified, she was in the dark about her son Michael Jackson’s decades of drug use and ‘closes her ears’ whenever someone discloses anything negative about him,” he said.
“She doesn’t want anyone or anything to disturb her idealized memory of the child she lost,” he said. “Who can blame her?”
ndillon@nydailynews.com
