Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Michael Jackson Medic Dr. Conrad Murray Could Have License Suspended, Face Manslaughter Charges
A quack by any other name may turn out to be a murderer.
Dr. Conrad Murray was hired by AEG Live to keep Michael Jackson healthy and in tip-top shape for his unlimited amount of “This Is It” shows at the O2 in London 18 months ago.
The disgraced medic ended up in the superstar’s room, unable to prevent him from dying after administering, with Jackson’s help, the powerful anesthetic Propofol.
Judge Michael Pastor should rule within a week whether there's enough evidence to warrant a manslaughter trial in the death of the beloved performer. If the judge orders a trial—which he's expected to do—the lawyer for the Medical Board, who has been attending the hearing, will ask the court to suspend Murray's license, effective immediately.
It will be the Board’s third attempt to suspend Murray's license, after failing the first two times. Murray is already prohibited from administering "deep anesthetics," including the heavy doses of Propofol which did in Michael.
Sources connected with Murray say he is furious that the Board is trying to suspend his ability to practice medicine, which would then make it impossible for him to pay for lawyers to defend him.
If California suspends Murray's license, it's likely the medical boards in Texas and Nevada would follow suit.
Yesterday’s courtroom revealed some of the most dramatic testimony to date as LAPD Robbery Homicide Detective Orlando Martinez revealed an interview he conducted with the doctor two days after MJ died. Martinez said Murray told him the night before Jackson died, he was having trouble sleeping, just as the doctor was trying to ween Jackson off Propofol.
Murray told Martinez he was giving Jackson a variety of other drugs, beginning sometime after 1 a.m., to no avail. Jackson then said if he didn't get to sleep, he would cancel rehearsal, then began begging the doctor for Propofol.
Murray said he was feeling "pressure" from Jackson to give him something to help him sleep, then claims he gave Michael a reduced dose of the drug, with the superstar's help, telling the courtoom MJ liked to "push in the Propofol himself and that other doctors let him do it."
Murray then went to the bathroom for less than two minutes, came back and claims he saw Jackson wasn't breathing. Not knowing CPR, he allegedly panicked when the superstar wouldn’t regain consciousness
