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Doctor Testifies Jackson Sought Propofol Decade Before Death

LOS ANGELES (CBS/AP) —  Michael Jackson requested the anesthetic propofol to help him sleep as early as 1998, according to a dental anesthesiologist who treated the singer.

Dr. Christine Quinn was called to the stand Wednesday by lawyers for AEG Live in the wrongful death trial stemming from a lawsuit filed against the firm by Jackson's mother, Katherine.

Jurors heard testimony about the late star's desire to use the anesthetic as a sleep aid from Quinn, who treated the singer from 1998 until 2009.

The UCLA Professor of Dentistry said Jackson asked her to meet him at his Los Angeles hotel room in 1998 or 1999.

"He told me he has trouble sleeping," Quinn testified.

"Did he ask you to give him propofol for sleep?" an attorney representing Katherine Jackson asked.

"Yes," Quinn replied.

"I said that's inappropriate use of anesthesia, he needs to speak with his physician about sleep aids," she continued.

"I told him that the sleep you get with anesthesia is not real sleep, it's not restful sleep... he told me it's the best sleep that he ever has.

"He told me he had tried other sleep remedies, that they don't work," Quinn said.

The final witness to testify Wednesday was nurse practitioner Cherilyn Lee, who told jurors Michael Jackson asked her about propofol, also known as Diprivan, two months before he died.

She recounted in her testimony the same story she told a criminal jury during the 2011 trial of Jackson's former physician Conrad Murray.

Lee said she told Jackson propofol was too dangerous to use at home.

"His demeanor was, 'I have to have this. I have to have this to sleep. You don't understand, I have not had a good night's sleep,'" Lee said.

Lee did not give propofol to Jackson, who died in June 2009 following an overdose of the drug administered by Murray.

Murray is currently serving a four-year sentence at a L.A. County jail following his 2011 conviction for involuntary manslaughter in Jackson's death.

Katherine Jackson is suing AEG, the concert promoters of her son's ill-fated This Is It comeback concert series, claiming executives were negligent in hiring and supervising Murray.

AEG denies any wrongdoing.

(TM and © Copyright 2013 CBS Local Media, a division of CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2013 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

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