A spokesman for LA police have confirmed an area will be set aside for Jacko’s fans at the Forest Lawn cemetery, overlooking the mausoleum where the singer is interred. Fans won’t be allowed all the way up to the mausoleum, and efforts will be made to ensure the gathering in Jackson’s memory doesn’t hinder the families of others laid to rest there trying to get to their loved one’s graves.
Sergeant Tom Lorenz told the LA Times: “We understand that Forest Lawn is working with the Jackson family for some kind of commemoration. We will be working closely with Forest Lawn to ensure the safety of those who want to pay their respects to Michael Jackson, while [also] ensuring the safety of others who are coming to the cemetery to pay respects to their loved ones”.
Other plans to mark the first anniversary of Jackson’s sudden demise are to be announced, though they will include the singer being posthumously inducted into the Apollo Legends Hall Of Fame in New York.
Before then, the late singer’s former private doctor Conrad Murray, who is accused of causing Jacko’s death by negligently administering a dangerous drug, will be back in court next week for an update in the case against him. As that court date approaches, the Californian Medical Board has requested a judge permanently ban Murray from practicing as a doctor in the state. Murray is currently banned by administering anaesthetics, but – while he has chosen not to – could in theory continue to work as a medic in California if he so wished.