MICHAEL JACKSON’S father has said he believes “foul play” was involved in his son’s death as the Los Angeles Police Department said detectives were investigating the singer’s prescription drug history and trying to talk to his numerous former doctors.
“I do believe it was foul play. I do believe that, yes,” Joe Jackson (79) told ABC News yesterday.
Mr Jackson declined to elaborate on what he believed happened to his son, whose cause of death has yet to be officially determined. He said he knew nothing about any drugs his son may have been taking.
“I don’t even know the name of them,” he said. “I do know that whatever he was taking was to make him rest because he had been working so hard.”
Los Angeles police chief William Bratton said police are waiting for the coroner’s report and the outcome of toxicology tests before ruling out any possibilities in their investigation into the singer’s sudden death two weeks ago.
“Based on those we’ll have an idea of what we’re dealing with,” he said. “Are we dealing with homicide? Are we dealing with an accidental overdose? What are we dealing with?”
Dermatologist Arnold Klein has disclosed that he was subpoenaed for medical records, which he turned over to the county coroner’s office.
Dr Klein, who once employed Jackson’s former wife Debbie Rowe, said this week that he was not the father of Jackson’s children with Ms Rowe, Prince Michael and Paris, “as far as I know”.
Dr Klein later offered to take a DNA test to end speculation that he had fathered the children.
Mr Jackson said yesterday that he and his wife, Katherine, should have custody of the singer’s three children.
“There’s no one else to do what we can do for them,” he said. “We should keep them all together and then make them happy, feed them like they’re supposed to be fed, and let them get rest, plenty of sleep and grow up to be strong Jacksons.”
Ms Rowe, who gave up visitation rights to her two children following an $8.5 million divorce settlement with Jackson, has not ruled out seeking custody.
In Washington, House speaker Nancy Pelosi has ruled out a congressional resolution honouring Jackson because a debate on the symbolic measure could raise “contrary views” about the singer’s life.
At Jackson’s memorial service this week, Texas congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee announced that she was proposing a resolution that would honour Jackson as an entertainer and as a humanitarian.
New York Republican Peter King, who this week described Jackson as a “paedophile” and a “pervert”, vowed to do everything he could to block the resolution.
A resolution would open up contrary views “that are not necessary at this time to be expressed in association with a resolution whose purpose is quite different”, Ms Pelosi said.
Jackson’s children are being cared for by their grandmother pending a Los Angeles court hearing next week.
Burial plans for the singer have not been announced.