AEG Live Found Not Liable for the Wrongful Death of Michael Jackson: What’s Next?

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The King of Pop, Michael Jackson

AEG Live scored a massive victory on Wednesday afternoon, as the jury of its civil trial found the concert promoter not liable in the death of pop superstar Michael Jackson. But with the Jackson family estate almost certain to appeal, questions remain about where this long running legal drama is headed next, and it appears the story is far from over.
Responding to the questionnaire put before them to establish liability for the singer's death, the jury today gave unanimous reactions to the first two questions (of 16) asked. A "yes" answer was required for all of the first five questions in order for AEG to be found liable .
To question #1: Did AEG Live hire Dr. Conrad Murray? — The jury answered: Yes
But for question #2: Was Dr. Conrad Murray unfit or incompetent to perform his duties? — The jury returned a "No" answer.
That response brought an end to the proceedings, letting AEG Live walk away clean. Presiding Judge Yvette M. Palazuelos then thanked the jurors "from the bottom of my heart" and referred to them as "model citizens" for their five months of service.
[Related: Jury Rejects Claim That Jackson Promoter Negligent]
In a statement released immediately after the decision was read, AEG Live lead counsel Marvin Putnam of O'Melveny & Myers LLP said, "The jury's decision completely vindicates AEG Live, confirming what we have known from the start — that although Michael Jackson's death was a terrible tragedy, it was not a tragedy of AEG Live's making … There was simply no evidence that anyone at AEG did anything wrong … Some people make the mistake of looking at AEG Live as an easy target due to their size and presence in Los Angeles. That's a mistake."

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AEG Live attorney Marvin Putnam on Wednesday

On the other side, however, the Jackson family made clear they do not necessarily see this as the end of the line. "We are evaluating everything at this time and will then decide," attorney Brian Panish said following the verdict. "We are disappointed by the verdict but respect the jury system."
So what does this ruling mean for both AEG Live and the Jackson family estate? Omg! spoke with two attorneys not involved with this case to get their takes.
Darren Kavinoky a criminal defense attorney at The Kavinoky Law Firm in California, also a TV legal analyst, frequent keynote speaker, and the creator and host of "Deadly Sins" on Investigation Discovery, notes, "Given the inevitability of an appeal, this case is not yet over. Some of the issues that were most contentious in the court of public opinion, namely whether Jackson himself bore some responsibility for his own demise, were never reached."

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Katherine Jackson

Could the tricky phrasing of the questions have influenced the outcome? "Legal analysts have opined that the wording of the jury question could have impacted this result," Kavinoky continued. "Since it caused jurors to focus simply on whether he was competent at the time of hiring, and didn't speak to the over-prescribing and reckless conduct that led to the criminal conviction for manslaughter."
Speaking as a group outside of the courthouse after their verdict was delivered, members of the jury addressed that issue. "The question was over whether or not Dr. Murray was competent. We found that he was," the jury foreman Gregg Barden said. "(He) had a license, he graduated from an accredited college, and we felt that he was competent of doing the job of being a general practitioner."
"Now That doesn’t mean we felt he was ethical," Barden continued. "If ethical was in the question, it could have been a different outcome. In the end, he was very unethical. He did something he shouldn’t have done."
Still yet, he admitted, "Question #2 was confusing."
Kavinoky points out that the most awaited opinion, however, could be coming shortly.
"Trial watchers won't have long to wait to hear perhaps the most interesting interview concerning this case: Dr. Murray himself! Conrad Murray is expected to be released from custody in approximately three weeks. Stay tuned!"
Tanya Acker, an attorney at Goldberg Lowenstein & Weatherwax LLP, has followed the case closely and believes an appeal is in the works. "An appeal is inevitable and the plaintiffs are already gearing up for it," she says. "While the jury's finding that Murray was competent may seem surprising in the context of Murray's criminal trial, that competency finding isn't necessarily inconsistent with the criminal verdict. Someone who is generally competent may nonetheless act negligently, even criminally, in particular circumstances."

Keshi clears Ameobi

Shola Ameobi

Super Eagles coach Stephen Keshi says  injured Newcastle striker Shola Ameobi will be fit for a 2014 World Cup playoff in Ethiopia.

Ethiopia host Nigeria on October 13 in a first leg play-off for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

Ameobi has been sidelined by a knock he picked up while on international duty last month with his club saying he will be sidelined for several weeks thus raising fears he may miss the match in Addis Ababa.

“Shola is fine. He will be ready for the game against Ethiopia. I spoke with him last week and he said he is good. In any case he is a very disciplined player who really wants to play for his country,” Keshi was quoted by MTNFootball.com as saying on Wednesday.

“So, my list remains intact, there would be no changes.”

Ameobi has won four caps for Nigeria and scored a goal since he made his long-awaited international debut against Venezuela last year in the United States.

Internet technology becoming cyber chic

 

 Models wearing Google Glass eyewear, Pebble smart watches and other hot gadgets strutted a catwalk late Monday as Internet technology continued to merge with the world of fashion.
A Digital Fall fashion show here marked the close of the first Glazed Conference devoted to setting the stage for wearable computing start-ups to become billion-dollar businesses.

“It looks like technology for the sake of technology is dead,” said Eliane Fiolet, co-founder of popular technology news website Ubergizmo.com and organizer of the fashion show.

“People want a great piece of technology that works well and looks great.”

Companies are increasingly tuning into desires for sophisticated gadgets that also let people express personal styles, she noted.

Jawbone lets people customize colours of Jambox wireless speakers that synch wirelessly to smart phones, tablets, or laptop computers.

Nike allows people visiting its website to design their own athletic shoes, and matches some sports attire with wearable devices that track daily active for those chasing fitness goals.

“There will be more and more integration with fashion and technology,” Fiolet said. “We are just at the very start of it.”

She believed that Google has touched on a winning formula with Google Glass Internet-linked eyewear, which have become a fashion trend in the San Francisco and Silicon Valley areas.

“We are in the next stage of human evolution,” said Glazed Conference organizer Redg Snodgrass, co-founder of Stained Glass Labs start-up accelerator devoted to revving up the wearable computing industry.

“Entrepreneurs aren’t those nerds living in a closet anymore,” Snodgrass said as the fashion show was about to commence in a club not far from Twitter’s headquarters in San Francisco.

“They are out there pushing the limit. Anything that is technologically fascinating is sexy, and fashion is tied to that.”

While fitness has been a winning theme for early wearable computing devices, such as UP and Fitbit bracelets for providing feedback on whether people are hitting activity and sleep goals, Snodgrass thinks films and games will be the next areas to catch fire.

The one-day Glazed Conference was intended to bring together entrepreneurs, investors and others to explore ways to realize ideas and make money in the world of wearable computing.

“Not only did they show up, they brought the heat,” Snodgrass said of the turnout. “They brought some great stuff.”

Among the attendees was self-described ‘cyber technician’ Tyler Freeman, who sported Drum Pants lined with sensors that let him play percussion beats by slapping various spots on his legs. The sensor strips are held in place with Velcro, meaning they can be swapped between pieces of a wardrobe, he explained.

“The goal is to get banned in public schools; then we know we are a success,” said the San Francisco-based entrepreneur.

Tapping on Drum Pants sends signals wirelessly to smart phones, which then direct thumps or synthesized sounds to come from speakers. The sensors could be used to control PowerPoint presentations or Google Glass cameras with casual touches of a leg, according to Freeman.

Fiolet already has her sites set on next year’s show, with hopes of being able to showcase creations of London-based Cute Circuit, the cyber chic fashion house that wowed the world with a “Twitter Dress” worn by a celebrity to a 4G mobile network launch event in Britain in late 2012.

LED lights designed into the gown displayed posts from the globally-popular one-to-many messaging service.

Technology and fashion need to be combined tastefully to make for a winning creation, according to Fiolet.

“It has to be good looking; be a great piece of technology, and monitor something you care about,” she contended. “If you don’t care, you will never wear it. And, if it is ugly, you will never wear it.”

Jellyfish ‘invasion’ causes Swedish nuclear reactor shutdown

STOCKHOLM: A Swedish nuclear reactor was restarted on Wednesday following a three-day closure caused by a build-up of jellyfish in a cooling system, according to the operators.

The incident occurred in reactor 3 at Oskarshamn power station on the Baltic Sea coast, which is run by OKG, a subsidiary of the German electricity company EON.

“It was a larger amount than we had ever seen. Every autumn we have to get rid of jellyfish, but not that many,” OKG spokeswoman Emmy Davidsson told AFP.

The company announced on Sunday that the reactor—Sweden’s largest with a 1400 MW output and the world’s largest boiling water reactor—was “manually shut down due to a large amount of jellyfish present at the cooling water intake”. The closure did not lead to power outages.

On Wednesday the company said in a statement that the reactor was restarted once the jellyfish had been cleared from the system and the numbers of new arrivals had subsided.

“Furthermore we have reinforced our clearing system to deal with any future jellyfish invasions,” wrote OKG.

The influx of jellyfish damaged the reactor’s seawater filter mechanism, forcing OKG to replace parts and to clear cages with high pressure water, added spokeswoman Emmy Davidsson.

Similar incidents have occurred in other coastal plants such as Torness on Scotland’s east coast in 2011.

A number of factors are believed to have increased jellyfish numbers in the Baltic and other seas, including rising pollution levels, warmer waters and less biodiversity.

Chelsea blow off cobwebs in Bucharest

BUCHAREST: Chelsea got their Champions League campaign up and running at the second attempt on Tuesday with a one-sided 4-0 win away to Romanian champions Steaua Bucharest.

Stunned 2-1 by Basel at Stamford Bridge in their opening game, Chelsea were eager to make up for lost time and the Europa League champions never looked in trouble beneath the closed roof of Bucharest's Arena Nationala.

Ramires broke the deadlock in the 20th minute, with hapless Steaua right-back Daniel Georgievski putting through his own goal on the verge of half-time.

Ramires added a third early in the second period, before Frank Lampard's low shot sealed victory in the 90th minute. "I think the performance was very solid, from the first minute," Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho told Sky Sports. "We kept always the control of the game and the result, and I think we played good football, but also with intelligence and maturity. "I think we are going to do it. I think we are going to qualify. This result today is important, because if you don't win, you are a bit under pressure."

The one false note for the visitors, beaten on this ground en route to success in the Europa League last season, was an injury to Fernando Torres, who left the fray after hurting his knee in the 11th minute.
Mourinho, though, said he did not think the injury was as severe as the one that recently saw Chelsea's Dutch midfielder Marco van Ginkel ruled out for around six months. "We have to wait. Tomorrow (Wednesday) we will have the scans and we will see what happens," he said. "I hope it's not one more dramatic like Van Ginkel. Doc (Paco) Biosca says not to be so worried, because it will not be a Van Ginkel situation."
Schalke's 1-0 win at Basel in the other Group E game leaves them three points above Chelsea at the summit ahead of back-to-back games between the sides later this month and in early November.

Mourinho brought Andre Schurrle and Juan Mata into the team that drew 1-1 at Tottenham Hotspur on Saturday and the Spaniard almost teed up Schurrle for an early opener, but Iasmin Latovlevici blocked.

The visitors' purposeful start threatened to be upset by the premature departure of Torres, but his replacement, Samuel Eto'o, was quick to make a telling contribution.

Schurrle sped past Georgievski on the Chelsea left and centred for Eto'o, who mishit his shot but saw the bobbling ball prodded home by the alert Ramires.

Schurrle blazed over and Mata had a shot comfortably saved by goalkeeper Ciprian Tatarusanu, before the blundering Georgievski inadvertently doubled Chelsea's lead in the 44th minute.

Eto'o was again the catalyst, surging onto Mata's pass, cutting inside Latovlevici and dispatching a shot that Tatarusanu parried, only for the ball to rebound into the net off the shin of the onrushing Georgievski.

Chelsea put the game to bed 10 minutes into the second half, following another strong burst down the left flank by Schurrle. His centre found Oscar, who in turn laid the ball off for Ramires to rattle a shot between Tatarusanu and his left-hand upright.

Mourinho's delight was evident as he congratulated Schurrle with a touchline hug.

Moments later, Mata struck the post from a delightful Oscar back-heel, while Schurrle went close to crowing his display with a goal by curling a shot fractionally wide of the far post.

Steaua had their moments, however, with goalkeeper Petr Cech obliged to tip a feathery chip from Cristian Tanase over the crossbar and block from Nicolae Stanciu, who lashed the rebound over.

Lampard prevented Lucian Filip from claiming a late consolation with a sharp block and then completed the scoring at the death by sweeping home a lay-off from substitute Willian.