A judge has tentatively rejected Michael Jackson's family's request for a retrial in the wrongful death lawsuit against concert promoter AEG Live.
Los Angeles County Judge Yvette Palazuelos, the same judge who heard the original trial last year, handed down a tentative ruling Wednesday with
a final decision expected "soon," according to CNN.
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In 2010, members of the Jackson family sued AEG Live, the concert promoter in charge of the King of Pop's "This Is It" tour. The family accused AEG of negligently hiring, retaining, and supervising Dr. Conrad Murray, pressuring the doctor to get the singer to rehearsals, and failing to get Jackson help in spite of the many signs that he was in trouble.
Jackson died June 25, 2009, at age 50 of cardiac arrest brought on by an overdose of propofol, the surgical anesthetic Murray reportedly used every night for two months to treat the singer's insomnia. Murray was later convicted of involuntary manslaughter for his role in Jackson's death.
AEG Live's lawyers argued throughout the six-month trial that the company's executives had no way of knowing Murray was using propofol to treat Jackson.
In October, a jury found that the concert promoter was not liable for the singer's death.
The Jackson family then filed a motion for a retrial in December, claiming that Palazuelos forced the jury to use a faulty verdict form and slipped up by refusing to allow the family to pursue a negligence claim in connection with the suit, according to CNN. The retrial request reportedly included sworn statements from four of the 12 jurors that said the verdict form they used was "misleading" and they felt "cheated" by the outcome of the trial.
The judge on Wednesday denied all accusations of misconduct.
Lawyers for the Jackson family have said publicly that they plan to appeal any decision.
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