Murray Trial - All media reports/articles - Merged - No discussion

Re: Murray Trial_ All media reports/articles - Merged - No discussion September 30th

Michael Jackson was 'clinically dead' on arrival to hospital, ER doctor says

By Alan Duke, CNN
October 1, 2011 -- Updated 0148 GMT (0948 HKT)

Los Angeles (CNN) -- The emergency room doctor who pronounced Michael Jackson dead testified Friday that the pop icon had "signs of a dying heart" when he arrived at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center.
"He was clinically dead," Dr. Richelle Cooper said. "He did not have a pulse."
Dr. Cooper was the 13th and last witness for first the week in the involuntary manslaughter trial of Dr. Conrad Murray.
Prosecutors argue Murray, who was Jackson's personal physician as he prepared for planned comeback concerts, was criminally responsible for his death because of medical negligence and his reckless use of the surgical anesthetic propofol to help the pop icon sleep

As Jackson was being rolled into the trauma center after an ambulance ride from his home, Dr. Murray told Cooper that he witnessed when Jackson stop breathing and his heart stopped beating.

Prosecutors argue that Murray was out of the room and had essentially abandoned his patient when Jackson's heart stopped.

Murray told Dr. Cooper Jackson's arrest came after he gave him two doses of Lorazepam, a sedative, Cooper testified.

He did not mention any other drugs, including propofol, which the coroner ruled played a major role in Jackson's death.

Cooper is expected to detail the unsuccessful efforts in the hospital to bring Jackson back to life when her testimony resumes Monday.

A Los Angeles County paramedic who responded to the delayed 911 call from Michael Jackson's home the day he died testified Friday that Jackson was "flatlined" and appeared dead when rescuers arrived.

Paramedic Richard Senneff and his partner Martin Blount both testified that at no time during the 42 minutes they were with Jackson did they see any signs of life in him.

Deputy District Attorney Deborah Brazil asked Blount, who drove the ambulance, about his initial assessment of Jackson's condition when he arrived.

"I felt he was dead, ma'am," Blount said.

Senneff testified that Murray told responders he had only given Jackson a dose of lorazepam to help him sleep and that he was treating him for dehydration and exhaustion, with no mention of the propofol.

Prosecutors contend one of the acts that makes Murray criminally responsible for Jackson's death was that he misled the paramedics by not telling them he had given his patient propofol before he stopped breathing.

The coroner ruled that Jackson's June 25, 2009, death was the result of "acute propofol intoxication" in combination with sedatives.

The judge imposed a gag order Friday, preventing lawyers for Murray from talking to reporters about the case. His order came after he learned Matt Alford, a law partner to lead defense lawyer Ed Chernoff, gave a TV interview to NBC's Ann Curry on Friday morning.

"The court wants to make it clear that the attorneys for the parties in this case are ordered not to comment to anyone outside of their respective teams, either directly or indirectly, on any aspects on this case," Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Michael Pastor said at the end of Friday's morning session.

Pastor has previously admonished lawyers not to talk to reporters, but until now there has been no official order preventing it.

In his testimony, paramedic Senneff said that when he asked Murray "how long the patient was down," the doctor responded "It just happened right when I called you," Senneff said.
Paramedic Blount recalled Murray saying Jackson was "down" just one minute before their arrival.

Earlier testimony indicated the emergency call was not placed for at least 15 minutes after Murray realized Jackson was not breathing.

"It meant to me that this was a patient we had a good chance of saving," since the paramedics arrived just five minutes after the 911 call, Senneff said.

The paramedic, however, said it "did not add up to me" because of Jackson appeared dead.
"When I first moved the patient, his skin was very cool to the touch, his eyes were open, they were dry and his pupils were dilated," Senneff said. "When I hooked up the EKG machine, it was flatlined."

At one point, Murray told paramedics he felt a pulse in Jackson's upper right leg, but their heart monitor showed no rhythm, Senneff said
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A doctor communicating by radio with the paramedics recommended at 12:57 p.m., a half hour after they arrived, that they cease efforts to revive Jackson and declare him dead, according to a recording of the radio traffic played in court.

Murray then took over responsibility for the effort and continued resuscitation efforts, Senneff said.

The defense appeared to make one important point in their cross-examination of Senneff. The paramedic said when he first walked into bedroom he saw Murray and a security guard moving Jackson off the bed and onto the floor.

That contradicts Thursday's testimony by Alberto Alvarez, who worked for Jackson, who said he helped move Jackson from the bed while he was on the 911 phone call at least six minutes before the paramedics arrived.

The timing is important because it could call into question testimony by Alvarez about when Murray asked for his help in collecting drug vials from around the bed.

Prosecutors argue Murray's medical care as Jackson's personal physician was so reckless that he should be held criminally responsible for his death.

Deputy District Attorney David Walgren said Murray abandoned "all principles of medical care" when he used a makeshift intravenous drip to administer propofol to put Jackson to sleep.

Murray acknowledged in a police interview that he gave Jackson propofol almost every night for two months as the singer prepared for comeback concerts that were set to start in London in July 2009.

The device Murray used to monitor Jackson's pulse and blood oxygen level while he used propofol to put him to sleep was the focus of testimony by the first witness Friday.

An executive with the company that made the Nonin 9500 pulse oxymeter said it was "designed for spot checking of vital signs" and was "specifically labeled against continuous monitoring."
The $275 device did not have an audio alarm, requiring someone to constantly keep an eye on the tiny screen, Robert Johnson testified. Murray would have been better equipped with his company's table top version that would cost $1,200, Johnson said.

Prosecutors argue Murray's lack of professional monitoring equipment was reckless and is one reason the doctor should be held criminally responsible for Jackson's death.

One of Murray's former patients testified Friday that Murray saved his life after a heart attack just months before Jackson's death.

Although Robert Russell was called by the prosecution, his testimony possibly bolstered the defense contention that Murray is a caring and capable cardiologist.

"The advice he gave me saved my life," Russell said, describing how Murray not only put several stents in the arteries near his heart, but he also took time to help him change his unhealthy habits.

"He gave me advice on exercise, on eating, just how to live my life, doing away with pressure and stress that I believe I thrived on in the business world," said Russell, a sales manager for an electrical distribution firm.

The prosecution called Russell as an example of how Murray left his patients without a doctor when he went to be Michael Jackson's personal physician in April 2009.

"I was dismayed, flabbergasted, left out," Russell said. "I did feel abandoned."

His testified, however, that he was still able to contact Murray over the phone for advice and his clinic staff supported his therapy.

Russell's new cardiologist recently checked the Murray's work on his heart and "was very excited how my stents have held up," Russell testified.

In previous testimony, Jackson's chef Thursday defended her decision not to alert a security guard that Murray needed help in Jackson's bedroom after the doctor frantically asked her to do so.

It wasn't until about 10 minutes later that a guard in a trailer a few feet away from chef Kai Chase's kitchen was ordered upstairs to the bedroom where Murray was trying to revive Jackson, according to trial testimony.

Murray "was very nervous, and frantic and he was shouting," when he ran down a staircase near the kitchen where Chase was preparing Jackson's lunch, Chase testified Thursday afternoon.
"Get help, get security, get Prince," Chase said Murray screamed.

The chef's response was to walk into the nearby dining room where Jackson's oldest son, Prince, was playing with his sister and brother, she said.

"I said 'Hurry, Dr. Murray needs you. There may be something wrong with your father," Chase said she told Prince Jackson.

She then returned to the kitchen to continue lunch preparation, she said.

"He's asking for help, he's asking for security," defense lawyer Michael Flanagan said during cross-examination. "Did you think that a 12-year-old child was going to be able to assist this doctor with a problem with Michael?"

"I did what I was told and I went to get Prince," Chase answered.

Murray's lawyers are laying the groundwork to argue that Murray should not be blamed for the delay in calling for help because he relied on the chef to alert security, who then could call for an ambulance.

The prosecution, meanwhile, contends that a delay in calling 911 for an ambulance was Murray's fault and one of the negligent acts that make him criminally responsible for Jackson's death.

Alvarez, the Jackson employee who called 911,at least 10 minutes after Murray's plea to the chef for help, testified earlier Thursday that Murray told him to help gather up drug vials around Jackson's deathbed before he asked him to place the emergency call.

Alvarez, who served as Jackson's logistics director, showed the court how he saw an empty vial of propofol inside a torn IV bag that was hanging on a stand.

During questioning by the defense, however, Alvarez indicated it was another IV bag with a clear saline solution, not propofol, that was attached by a tube to Jackson's leg.

Alvarez testified that when he first rushed into the bedroom where Murray was trying to revive Jackson, the doctor asked him to help put drug vials into bags.

"He reached over and grabbed a handful of vials, and he asked me to put them in a bag," Alvarez testified.

Prosecutors contend that Murray was trying to gather up evidence of his criminal responsibility for Jackson's death, even before asking that someone call for an ambulance.

Under cross-examination, defense lawyer Ed Chernoff led Alvarez slowly through his steps during a half-minute period, apparently trying to show that his memory is wrong about the sequence of events.

When Chernoff asked him whether all of the events he described could have happened in the 30 seconds, Alvarez answered, "I'm very efficient, sir."

Chernoff also hinted that the defense would argue that Alvarez altered his account of events two months later after conferring with other witnesses.

After helping Murray place the vials in bags, the doctor asked him to call 911. The recording of the call was played in court Thursday.

Alvarez said he's been offered up to $500,000 for interviews about Jackson's death. He's turned them all down, despite financial problems and the lack of employment, he said.

The trial began Tuesday.

Chernoff contends that Jackson, desperate for sleep, caused his own death by taking a handful of sedatives and self-administering propofol while the doctor was out of the room.

If convicted of involuntary manslaughter, Murray could spend four years in a California prison and lose his medical license.

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/09/30/j...ad-murray-trial/index.html?section=cnn_latest
 
Re: Murray Trial_ All media reports/articles - Merged - No discussion September 30th

Michael Jackson illness information did not add up, paramedic tells Michael Jackson trial
1/10/2011



After just a few moments in Michael Jackson's bedroom, the paramedic sent to save his life told the trial of the doctor accused of killing the singer that he knew things did not add up.
A skinny man was on the floor, eyes open with a surgical cap on his head and his skin turning blue, said Richard Senneff. The paramedic asked the sweating, frantic-looking doctor in the room what condition the stricken man had.
"He said, 'Nothing. He has nothing'," Mr Senneff told jurors at the involuntary manslaughter trial of Jackson's doctor, Conrad Murray.


"Simply, that did not add up to me," Mr Senneff said.
Over the course of the 42 minutes that Los Angeles paramedics tried to revive Jackson, 50, several other things about the room and Murray's responses seemed inconsistent to Senneff.
After repeated prodding, Murray revealed a few details about his actions, saying he had only given Jackson a dose of the sedative lorazepam to help him sleep, Mr Senneff told the Los Angeles court.
In addition, there were bottles of medicine on Jackson's nightstand and Murray finally offered that he was treating the singer for dehydration and exhaustion.
Mr Senneff said Murray never mentioned that he had also been giving Jackson doses of the anaesthetic propofol and other sedatives, a key omission that prosecutors say shows he repeatedly tried to conceal his actions during the struggle to save the pop superstar in June 2009.
Murray, 58, has pleaded not guilty. If convicted, he could face up to four years in prison and lose his medical licence.
Prosecutors say the Houston, Texas-based cardiologist repeatedly lied to medics and emergency room doctors about medication he had been giving Jackson in the singer's bedroom. They claim Murray administered a fatal dose of propofol and other sedatives.
Defence lawyers claim Jackson gave himself the fatal dose after his doctor left the room.
Defence lawyer Nareg Gourjian asked Mr Senneff whether Jackson's appearance was consistent with someone who was a drug addict.
Mr Senneff said that was a difficult determination to make, but he did think the singer "looked like he had a chronic health problem".
Mr Senneff was the first paramedic to reach Jackson's bedroom and said within moments he and three other paramedics were working to revive Jackson. But after trying multiple heart-starting medications and other efforts, Jackson was still lifeless.
"Did you ever see any sign of life in Mr Jackson during the entire time you were attempting to save him," prosecutor Deborah Brazil asked.
"No I did not," Mr Senneff said.
Another paramedic dispatched to the room, Martin Blount, agreed. He told jurors that they thought Jackson was dead soon after they arrived in the room.
Mr Blount also said he saw three open bottles of lidocaine on the floor of the room but noted that Murray never mentioned giving Jackson the painkiller. He told jurors he saw the doctor scoop up the vials and drop them in a black bag.
The seven-man, five-woman jury heard evidence about efforts to revive Jackson, who the paramedics and emergency room doctor thought was dead at his rented mansion. Still, the singer was transported to Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Centre because Murray wanted life-saving efforts to continue.
After loading Jackson into an ambulance, Mr Senneff said he saw Murray collecting items from Jackson's bedside. The doctor was alone in the bedroom for several moments before joining paramedics in the ambulance for the drive to the hospital, Mr Senneff said.
Mr Gourjian suggested Murray had been collecting his wallet and glasses, but Mr Senneff said he could not see the items.
In the ambulance, Mr Blount said, he heard Murray make a phone call. "'It's about Michael and it doesn't look good'," Mr Blount recalled hearing Murray saying.
Jurors also heard from a former Murray patient who praised the doctor's treatment of him, but said the cardiologist became increasingly distant and hard to reach while working with Jackson.
"I felt like I was getting the best care in the world," said Robert Russell of Las Vegas, before Murray became the singer's personal physician. "The advice he gave me saved my life."
But Mr Russell said he could not get answers about his own treatment, and the man who once spent so much time offering care and advice was unreachable.
He called Murray's office on June 25 2009 - the day Jackson died - and demanded to speak to the doctor.
The doctor returned the call and left him a voicemail at 11.49am. Prosecutors are using records to show that Murray was on the phone in the moments before he realised Jackson was unconscious.
Thirty-seven minutes later Mr Senneff ran into Jackson's bedroom.


Read more: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-sto...#ixzz1ZVqI9BdS
 
Paramedic: Doc told me Jacko was not on drugs

by Don Mackay, Daily Mirror 1/10/2011




MICHAEL Jackson’s doctor insisted the star was fine as he lay lifeless on his bed, a paramedic told a court yesterday.

Paramedic Richard Senneff said that Dr Conrad Murray also told him that the singer, 50, was not on any drugs.

He told LA Superior Court that when he was asked if Jackson had any medical problems, Murray replied: “Nothing, nothing, he had nothing.”

<NOSCRIPT></NOSCRIPT>
Mr Senneff, who arrived at 12.26pm on June 25, 2009 and found a “frantic” Murray, described his surprise when Murray said Jackson was healthy: “Doctor in the house, IV hooked up to the patient, it didn’t add up,” he said.

As the paramedics began CPR, Mr Senneff said that Murray told him: “He is not taking anything,” only to admit seconds later giving Jackson anti-anxiety drug, Lorazepam.

Prosecutors believe Mr Senneff’s testimony shows the doctor tried to cover his tracks after giving propofol.

Mr Senneff said Jackson was given heart-starting drugs, yet was still flatlining and he began to think the star had been dead for a while.

He said: “When I first moved the patient his skin was very cool to the touch, his eyes were dilated and dry.”

The paramedic spoke to doctors at UCLA Medical Center at 12.57pm who advised him to cease resuscitation.

But Murray had told the paramedic he could feel a faint pulse in the femoral artery area of Jacko’s body. “I didn’t feel a pulse,” Mr Senneff said.

Earlier, the court heard that Murray ignored instructions on a heart rate monitor which warned against using it for constant monitoring.

The defence had previously argued that Jackson had taken an extra dose of propofol when Murray left the room and it was during this time that Jacko is believed to have died.

The prosecution said that if Murray had used the correct heart monitoring device he may have lived.

Superior Court judge Michael Pastor has banned lawyers from discussing the trial in public. The move came after a defence lawyer told NBC’s The Today Show the jury was smart enough to know the case wasn’t proven.



Read more: http://www.mirror.co.uk/most-popula...asn-t-on-drugs-115875-23458122/#ixzz1ZVtzJrSp
 
Re: Murray Trial_ All media reports/articles - Merged - No discussion September 30th


Judge issues gag order in Jackson death trial

10/01/2011 | 02:31 PM


LOS ANGELES - The judge in the manslaughter trial of Michael Jackson's doctor issued a sharply worded gag order for attorneys on Friday and ordered one of them to return for a possible contempt hearing after he appeared on a TV show telling details about the case.

Judge Michael Pastor's order came at midday on Friday, the fourth day of the widely watched trial in which prosecutors are trying to prove Dr. Conrad Murray was responsible for the drug overdose that caused the pop star's death on June 25, 2009.

Prosecutors brought to the courtroom paramedics who responded to a call for help on that day, as well as other witnesses, to try to prove Murray was negligent in his care and covered up Jackson's use of the anesthetic propofol, which was the principal cause of Jackson's death.

But the day's bombshell came with Pastor's gag order, which followed an appearance by defense attorney Matthew Alford on NBC's morning talk show "Today."

"The attorneys for the parties in this case ... are ordered not to comment to anyone outside of their respective teams either directly or indirectly regarding any aspects of this case, whether orally or in writing," Pastor said in court.

Alford said on "Today" that one witness had changed his testimony several times. He also declared that Jackson was addicted to propofol. That raised the ire of Pastor, who a day earlier instructed attorneys to rein in their comments to the media. On Friday, Pastor told defense attorneys he found the "Today" show appearance "shocking," according to a court transcript.

Murray's defense lawyer, Ed Chernoff, argued that even though Alford was part of his law firm, he was not directly a member of Murray's defense team and was speaking as a private citizen. Pastor did not seem to accept that argument and ordered Alford to return to his court for a later hearing on possible contempt proceedings.

Also in Friday's testimony, paramedics who rushed to the singer's bedside told jurors they were initially optimistic he might live because they arrived within five minutes of being called. But they soon saw Jackson was unresponsive.

"I knew that we got there very, very quickly. It meant we'd have a good chance of restarting the heart if that was the issue," said paramedic Richard Senneff.

COLD SKIN, DEAD EYES

But Senneff said he quickly realized Jackson had been down for more than five minutes. "His skin was very cool to the touch," Senneff said. "When I took a first glance at him, his eyes, they were open and his pupils were dilated. When I hooked up the EKG machine, it was flatlined."

Murray admits administering propofol but denies involuntary manslaughter. His lawyers have argued that Jackson caused his own death by giving himself an extra dose of propofol, mixed with prescription sedatives, without Murray's knowledge.

In trying to prove Murray's negligence, prosecutors have spent much of this first week creating a timeline between when Jackson stopped breathing and Murray called for help. During those precious minutes, prosecutors claim Murray was trying to cover up evidence of Jackson's use of the anesthetic propofol, which ultimately caused the singer's death.

The first call for help was received at 12:22 p.m., paramedics arrived at 12:26 p.m. and made it to Jackson's bedroom a minute later, working feverishly to revive Jackson.

Senneff testified he was on the phone with doctors at a nearby hospital and they recommended at 12:57 p.m. that Jackson be declared dead. Murray demanded that Jackson be taken to the hospital for further treatment.

The singer was pronounced dead later that day at UCLA Medical Center in Los Angles.

Jurors earlier heard a voicemail Murray left for one of his heart patients at 11:49 a.m. the day of Jackson's death -- seven minutes before he is believed to have found the singer unresponsive in his bedroom.

Prosecutors seek to prove Murray failed to monitor Jackson properly after giving him a dose of propofol. They claim that instead of watching Jackson in the singer's bedroom, Murray was busy on his cell phone before discovering around 11:56 a.m. that the "Thriller" singer had stopped breathing.
http://www.gmanews.tv/story/233978/entertainment/judge-issues-gag-order-in-jackson-death-trial
 
*Start from botton - scroll up* The times related to UK time of yesterdays proceedings.
Michael Jackson case — Day 4

By STAFF REPORTER
Published: 30 Sep 2011
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepag...kson-case-Day-4.html?OTC-RSS&ATTR=Jacko+trial



0016
: Court goes into recess for the weekend. Judge tells jury to ignore media on case and forbids discussing trial with anyone.

2358: Cooper says Jackson was clinically dead on arrival.

2327: Blount evidence finishes. UCLA emergency room doctor Richelle Cooper is called.

2317: Court resumes. Blount cross-examined by Gourjian.

2221: Blount tells court Murray said he was providing saline to treat exhaustion.

2207: Blount says Murray was flustered and sweating after helping paramedics get Jacko off bed.

2158: Medic Martin Blount - who was driving the ambulance - is called by prosecution.

2154: Senneff says Murray was "surprised to see me" when he returned to bedroom after CPR administered on Jacko.

2140: Court resumes after lunch. Gourjian continues cross-examination of Senneff.

1957: Senneff confirms he saw IV tube on the leg but cannot remember asking Murray whether Jackson took recreational drugs.

1953: Gourjian asks whether patient looked like a drug addict. Senneff says he couldn't confirm.

1952: Senneff says Jackson was so thin he was able to see his ribs which looked like he had a chronic health problem.

1950: Defence Nareg Gourjian cross-examines Senneff.

1950: Murray never mentioned propofol at all. Murray was alone in the bedroom for a time.

1948: There was no sign of life in the entire time they were trying to save him, says Senneff.

1945: Senneff says Jackson's skin was still tinged blue, his eyes were dilated, there was no change in his condition on the way to hospital. More starter drugs were given in the ambulance.

1942: Senneff sees Murray picking up items from the floor after Jackson is taken from the room by paramedics.

1939: Paramedics arrived at 1226, five minutes after they received the incident sheet. Murray asks for central line direct into artery in chest. Senneff says he doesn't have the training or equipment. Murray asks him to give patient magnesium. The court is shown emergency medical service report completed by Senneff.

1936: Senneff asks Murray if he accepts decision to call death. Murray wants to carry on.

1930: At 1257pm UCLA wanted to call it as no signs of life in Jackson. Senneff writes down what Murray says he has given the patient.

1919: EKG still flatlined, says Senneff, after Murray's observation. Senneff checked for a pulse and didn't feel one at all. He checked in the same area as did another medic.

1917: Murray pulled IV out of Jackson's leg. A pulse was detected by Murray in right of the groin.

1916: There was no change in Jackson's condition and UCLA advised to stop as he was essentially dead.

1910: He tried to get more starter drugs in through Jackson's arm. He tried five times to get needle in either arm but it didn't work. This would be because it was harder to find a vein if the circulation had stopped.

1909: Senneff says patient's skin was cold when he moved him, his eyes were open and dry, the pupils dilated.

1907: A radio nurse at UCLA was in contact with doctors at the hospital to relay information to Senneff.

1905: Murray told Senneff Jackson was not taking any medication. Tube placed quickly into lungs - in the blink of an eye says Senneff.

1901: Tube put into Jackson to help get oxygen in, Senneff tells court.

1858: Jackson had IV in leg and given drugs to start heart. There was no change in his condition after drugs administered.

1853: Paramedics arrived at 1226, five minutes after they received the incident sheet.

1849: Mr Senneff asked Murray what Jacko's "underlying health condition" was and there was no response. Eventually he replied: "There is nothing."

1848: The paramedic noticed there was an IV stand with a saline bag and also an oxygen tank in the bedroom.

1847: He said Murray's demeanour was "frantic".

1846: Mr Senneff said Murray was leaned over the patient, holding his torso and moving him to the floor with a security guard.

18.45: Jacko was in pyjamas bottoms with his top open. He was wearing a cap covering his hair and appeared to be underweight.

18.44: The paramedics arrived at 1226 and followed security guards into the house. Mr Sennett was the first into the bedroom where he saw Dr Murray, the patient and a security guard.

18.42: Trial resumes after recess and Mr Senneff continues to give evidence.

18.18: Trial breaks for a 15-minute recess.

1812: The incident sheet says the call came into the dispatch centre at 1221 and involved a 50-year-old male. It said he was "not breathing at all".

18.06: An incident sheet is shown to the court which is the teletype the paramedics received to alert them to the emergency situation. At 1222 the call comes in.

18.03: Richard Senneff, a paramedic who tried to save Jacko's life, is now on the stand.

17.56: Mr Russell told the hearing how he felt "abandoned" when Murray went to work for the Jackson family.

1749: The court heard a voicemail Murray left for Mr Russell on the day of Jacko's death saying that Mr Russell's heart was "repaired" and he was taking a sabbatical. This voicemail was left at 11.49, minutes before Murray raced downstairs shouting for Prince as Jacko lay dying.

17.39: Murray sent a letter out to his patients in June, 2009, saying he had a "once-in-a-lifetime opportunity" and was intending to leave his practice.

1727: At a follow up appointment Murray told Mr Russell he was going to take care of one person in Great Britain and he thought it must be royalty. He said Murray seemed "excited" about it.

1726: Murray sternly advised Mr Russell he was not to leave the hospital that night and if he did he would be "short of being a dead man".

1725: Robert Russell, a former patient of Murray has taken to the stand. He told how he was woken up by Murray during surgery, who asked if he wanted to look at his heart on the monitor.

1725: Mr Johnson said the model is not suitable for constant monitoring of anyone being sedated.

1723:Mr Johnson said the oximeter is for spot check only and advised it takes about 10 seconds to get an adequate reading.

(UK time) 1711Robert Johnson, who works for Nonin Medical, manufacturers of pulse oximeters has taken to the stand. Yesterday bodyguard Alvarez said he saw Murray clip an oximeter - which measures a person's heart rate and red blood cell content - to Jacko's index finger as they tried to resuscitate him.
 
Re: Murray Trial_ All media reports/articles - Merged - No discussion September 30th

Why Michael Jackson's Doctor May Wind Up In Jail
By Judge Jeanine Pirro

Published September 30, 2011
| FoxNews.com
Print Email Share Comments

Can the prosecution prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the doctor actually killed Michael Jackson? Should this medical malpractice even be a criminal case?
The answer to both is a resounding "yes"!


Involuntary manslaughter under California Penal Code section192 (b) requires the state to prove that Murray acted without due 'caution and circumspection'. In simple terms -- was Murray's conduct such a departure from the conduct of an ordinary prudent person under the same circumstances (in this case a physician) as to disregard either human life or the consequences of such an act. This criminal negligence requires that death was a reasonably foreseeable consequence of the reckless or negligent conduct.


Here's how prosecutors will meet their burden:
Dr. Murray was hired as a concierge doctor by Jackson to attend to his medical needs for $150,000 a month.
Murray secured propofol (an anaesthetic intended for hospital use only) to administer as a sleep aid for Jackson in his home.
Propofol must be administered by an anaesthesiologist with proper resuscitation equipment. No only was Murray was not an anesthesiologist, he also had no resuscitation equipment should it be needed. His request for such equipment for Jackson's planned tour indicates his knowledge of the need for such equipment when administering propofol.
Murray says he was out of Michael's room for only a short time to go to the bathroom, during which time he alleges Jackson self- administered the lethal dose of propofol.
Cell phone records will apparently show that Murray was out of the room for a longer period of time, talking on the phone with his girlfriend.
Murray's first phone call was not to 911, a doctor, an ambulance or a hospital, but instead to Jackson's assistant. He never asks that emergency medical help be called.
Here's what happened next: When the assistant, and then security arrives, the good doctor asks "if anyone knows CPR," while he (a cardiologist) feebly attempts to administer CPR with one hand while Jackson is lying on a bed -- eliminating the possibility of real chest compression!
When emergency personnel is finally called, Murray never explains Michael has propofol in his system to better assist them in their resuscitation efforts.
After Jackson is pronounced dead at UCLA Hospital, Murray wants to go return to the home and secure the "cream" (Jackson called propofol "milk') so he says, the world won't know about Jackson's use of the drug. This statement about the "cream" instead will be used as evidence later of Murray's "consciousness of guilt" -- his attempt to remove the incriminating evidence from the crime scene.
The improper administration of a powerful hospital anaesthetic; failure to have resuscitation equipment on the scene, failure to monitor a patient whose respiratory system was under duress; failure to call 911; failure to inform 911 of the presence of the anaesthetic in Jackson's system; lying about his bathroom visit as well as the amount of time spent outside the room will all point to substandard medical care.
Murray cannot be heard to argue he was "weaning Michael off his drug addiction" because he bought hundreds of bottles of propofol.
He cannot blame Dr. Klein for Jackson's dependency on demerol since Jackson died of acute propofol poisoning -- not demerol (although he will argue it in some way contributed to Jackson's death.)
He'll also have a hard time explaining how Jackson administered the drug to himself.
The bottom line question is whether the medical care Michael Jackson received was sub-standard and whether the doctor disregarded his life and consequently caused his death. Although they have no burden of proof, the defense has a lot of catching up to do. If convicted Murray faces four years in prison.
Judge Jeanine Pirro is the host of "Justice with Judge Jeanine" which airs Saturday evenings at 9 p.m. ET on Fox News Channel. She is a former County Court Judge and District Attorney of Westchester County, New York


Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2011/...#ixzz1ZXJU1Pkw
 
Re: Murray Trial_ All media reports/articles - Merged - No discussion September 30th

Jackson Trial: 'A Bad Week For Dr Murray'

2:46pm UK, Saturday October 01, 2011
Greg Milam, US correspondent
"This has been a very bad week for poor Dr Murray" - that is the opinion of high-profile Los Angeles criminal defence attorney Dana Cole on week one of the Conrad Murray trial.

Mr Cole worked on Michael Jackson's 2005 child molestation trial and has experience of facing David Walgren, the prosecutor in Murray's case, in court.

He told Sky News: "Dr Murray was sort of clobbered by the prosecution this week. All the witnesses have been terrible for him and the prosecution's opening statement was painful for him to listen to.

"Frankly, you see it on his face. He seems completely and totally dejected and pretty scared by what has unfolded in the courtroom."

Dr Murray has seen a trail of prosecution witnesses describe what they felt was suspicious behaviour on his part on the day Michael Jackson died in June 2009.

The defence will have to find some holes in what bodyguards and paramedics have described happening in the bedroom of 100 North Carolwood Drive in Bel Air's Holmby Hills neighbourhood.


If we can judge anything from the analysis on the evening entertainment shows, a staple of the LA media diet, the prosecution has done a pretty good job raising doubts about Dr Murray's "actions and omissions".

In a country that had perhaps tired of the Michael Jackson story a little, they certainly grabbed headlines by presenting the photograph of the deceased star and audio of him barely comprehensible under the influence of sedatives.

The question is whether they can convince the seven men and five women of the jury with what is largely circumstantial evidence.

For light relief, we have the continuing soap opera of Judge Michael Pastor's increasing annoyance with both legal teams. He was overheard to say: "I'm not going to tolerate this anymore" when the prosecution arrived back late after a break.
They blamed faulty lifts.


There have been constant interruptions to proceedings as lawyers bicker over what they can and cannot introduce as evidence.

Judge Pastor raised a laugh when the fire alarm went off: "Don't worry, it is a regular occurrence here. If it is serious, I will be the first one to leave."

Back to the really serious and, with week two looming, Mr Cole offered this glimmer of hope.
He said: "In any high profile case you can expect the unexpected. You never know what might come down the pike, who might emerge as a witness to turn it around. Right now, though, it looks pretty grim for him."

His advice to the Murray team? "Pray. A lot."


http://news.sky.com/home/showbiz-news/article/16080572
 
Propofol: The Drug That Killed Michael Jackson


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<!-- end SHARE -->7:38am UK, Saturday October 01, 2011
Hannah Thomas-Peter, US reporter
Propofol - it is the drug at the centre of the Dr Conrad Murray trial, the substance that a coroner's report said killed pop star Michael Jackson.

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Dr Conrad Murray's lawyers say Jackson self-administered propofol
<!---->
It is a powerful anaesthetic, used in most operations that require patients to be unconscious.
The white liquid is known in medical circles as "milk of amnesia", and Michael Jackson referred to it as his "milk".

Dr Murray's lawyers are arguing the singer self-administered a fatally large dose.

But the prosecution says Dr Murray gave Jackson the propofol, as a sleep aid, and then failed to properly monitor the pop star.

The American Society for Anaesthesiologists said the drug is "meant only for use in a medical setting by professionals trained in the provision of general anaesthesia".
<CUT>
</CUT>
It said: "Though the drug is often used for procedures requiring sedation, patients can have extremely variable responses to the drug and some patients can become completely anaesthetised, including losing the ability to breathe."

A court in Los Angeles has heard testimony that Dr Murray was on the phone to another patient minutes before he discovered Jackson in difficulty.

Dr John Dombrowski is on the board of directors of the American Society of Anaesthesiologists and uses propofol regularly.

He told Sky News Online: "When you give anyone an anaesthetic, the whole point is to monitor them beat to beat, minute to minute.
<CUT>
</CUT>"You never know if there is going to be a good or a bad outcome, which is why you must always be there."

The paramedics who attended the scene and bodyguards who were also there have testified that Jackson was not attached to any monitoring equipment.

Dr Dombrowski said, because the drug can impair a patient's ability to breathe, at a minimum he would monitor heart rate, blood pressure, respiratory rate and levels of oxygen in the blood.
He said: "If someone stops breathing because they have been given too much propofol, it is easy to fix… but you need to be right there with them."
<CUT>
<!----><!----></CUT>He also said it was essential that any sedated patient be given supplemental oxygen.
"You just don't allow a patient under anaesthetic to breathe room air," Dr Dombrowski said.
Witnesses have said they did not see Jackson being given any oxygen.

The court has also heard that, on the day he died, Jackson had taken enough Lorazepam - a drug that treats anxiety and insomnia disorders - to put six people to sleep.

Dr Dombrowski explained that, properly used, propofol is extremely safe.
<CUT>
<!---->
<!----></CUT>But it does not mix well with drugs in the benzodiazepine family of drugs, because it greatly diminishes a patient's ability to breathe and increases the risk of heart failure.

The doctor said: "I compare it to standing on thin ice and then jumping up and down on it."
The LA court has heard from the defence team that Jackson was a desperate drug addict - and his dependency on propofol was what led him to self-administer the anaesthetic.

Psychiatrist Dr Omar Manejwala is an expert in addiction medicine and has treated approximately 30 propofol addicts over the past eight years.

He said it is a "significantly addictive substance", and that some of his patients come to rely on it because of a "desperate desire to check out of reality".

He described some of the addicts as having bruises on their foreheads because it is such a fast-acting drug that people pass out and bump their heads after injecting it.

Dr Manejwala said: "People develop a tolerance to it, so they need to take more to achieve the same effect, they can't control their usage, and they often end up sacrificing things that are important to them as a result of their addiction.

"Some become addicted to the sense of euphoria that can be experienced when emerging from propofol sedation."

http://news.sky.com/home/world-news/article/16080567
 
October 1, 2011
Vinnie Politan: Conrad's Big 5 Lies

Posted: 10:22 AM ET

There are some glaring differences between the Conrad Murray case and the Casey Anthony trial. These are two very different situations, on many levels: Manslaughter versus murder. Celebrity versus civilian. L.A. versus Orlando. But there is a significant similarity: Both defendants appear to have a difficult time telling the truth. They lie!

I do not have enough space here to track Casey Anthony's lies, so let's focus on Dr. Propofol.

Here are what I see so far as the Big Five Lies:

1. Dr. Murray said he needed a CPR machine because Michael Jackson was 50 years old and engaging in a very strenuous performance schedule. The truth? He knew he needed it because he was using propofol in a dangerous setting.

2. Dr. Murray tells an arriving paramedic that "it just happened" when describing Michael Jackson's condition. The truth? Jackson was cold to the touch and Dr. Murray had discovered Jackson more than a half hour before paramedics arrived.

3. Dr. Murray tells a paramedic that he was treating Jackson for exhaustion and dehydration. The truth? He was knocking him out at night with propofol. 4. Murray tells the paramedic he gave Jackson just a little lorazepam. The truth? He gave him propofol.

5. After Jackson is brought to the hospital DOA, Murray says he wants to return to Jackson's house to get some cream Jackson would not want the world to know about. The truth? He wanted to return to the scene to clean up some potential evidence.

The jury from Orlando is on the record as saying that they did not consider Casey's lies as evidence of anything–a big reason for the big “not guilty” verdict. I hope this jury has a different take and does consider the lies when trying to figure out what happened.

People lie for different reasons and one of those reasons is to cover up criminal conduct. That is something every jury should at least consider when coming to a verdict. There should be no benefit derived to any defendant as a result of his or her own lies. That's what happened in Orlando...we'll see what happens in L.A.
http://insession.blogs.cnn.com/2011/10/01/vinnie-politan-conrads-big-5-lies/
 
September 30, 2011
Dr. Drew exclusive: Cosmetic doc says he also used propofol on MJ

Posted: 08:58 AM ET

Conrad Murray apparently wasn't the only doctor to give pop star Michael Jackson propofol.

On Thursday night, Dr. Drew spoke exclusively with Dr. Patrick Treacy, who said he gave Jackson the powerful anesthetic on two different occasions.

Dr. Treacy, a cosmetic dermatologist from Dublin, Ireland, says he first met Jackson while treating him for his dermatologic conditions.

&#8220;Tell us&#8230; when, where and why you gave Michael propofol?&#8221; Dr. Drew asked at the opening of the interview.

Dr. Treacy said there were issues relating to medical confidentiality that would prevent him from talking about all aspects of his care for Jackson, but he did reveal some bits of information.


&#8220;Michael had dermal fillers in his face &#8211; the area around his nose,&#8221; Treacy explained. He said Jackson was very &#8220;hypersensitive&#8221; because of a previous surgery that he had, and he wanted sedation prior to getting some fillers in his face.

Dr. Treacy said he had treated Jackson five or six times. On two of those occasions, Jackson received propofol, where an anesthesiologist was present. &#8220;That was his [Michael Jackson&#8217;s] request,&#8221; Treacy said. That&#8217;s why Treacy believes that Jackson didn&#8217;t self-administer the anesthetic.

&#8220;Are you as concerned as I am that he [Michael Jackson] keeps being called an insomniac?" Dr. Drew asked. &#8220;At no point do I see any of the physicians who are treating that insomnia &#8211; attempting to decide... Is he in withdrawal? Is he depressed? Does he have hyperthyroidism? Is there something else causing this insomnia? There&#8217;s no diagnosis &#8211; only the symptom of insomnia, which is the same as saying they&#8217;re treating a fever... very disturbing.&#8221;

Dr. Treacy added that his most serious concern about the Conrad Murray case, which he says he&#8217;s been watching, "is the fact that sort of, you know, the defense immediately turned around and said that Michael Jackson could have killed himself&#8230; and a syringe was found underneath the bed."

&#8220;OK, if we look at the facts... why is propofol so popular with anesthesiologists? Treacy asked. &#8221;If you give injection of it, there is no antidote, but it only last four minutes and it wears off. So, if he took a 20 mil syringe himself, the most he can give himself a shot of is 200 milligrams, which would only keep him asleep for four minutes and he would wake up again. So, it is almost physically impossible that Michael Jackson could have killed himself.&#8221;

&#8220;I completely agree,&#8221; Dr. Drew responded. "And this idea of it being a perfect storm that killed him instantly is also a bizarre notion &#8230; even let&#8217;s say it was enough to cause respiratory suppression, you're looking at quite a period of time before someone is dead.&#8221;

Dr. Treacy was Michael Jackson&#8217;s doctor when he lived in Ireland in 2006-2007.

Join Dr. Drew for more on the Conrad Murray trial weeknights at 9 p.m. on HLN and follow him on Twitter @DrDrewHLN.

HLN coverage of the trial begins at 11am ET/8am PT. Get courtroom updates as they happen on Twitter from @InSession and @HLNtv.
http://insession.blogs.cnn.com/2011...osmetic-doc-says-he-also-used-propofol-on-mj/
 
Meanwhile , outside the courthouse......

An Inside Look at Dr. Conrad Murray's Trial

Published September 30, 2011
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/entertainmen...ook-at-dr-conrad-murrays-trial/#ixzz1ZYZ1awHJ
Fox News&#8217; Adam Housley is covering the trial in Los Angeles.

What was once a three-ring circus outside the courthouse in Los Angeles, now plays more like a five-cent sideshow and while there may be less acts, there are still more than enough players in the ring to keep everyone watching this trial occupied.

As I type this, a plane flies overhead with a Michael Jackson picture and attached sign that reads &#8220;Austrailia Demands Justice!&#8221; That follows yesterday's aerial message of "Latin America Demands Justice" -- no word on who pays for these freedoms of speech, but I am confident that money could have been much better spent -- maybe a road, bridge or heck, a school. At least we know that for once Latin America is united, on this front and the Aussies too are on board.

As for the mood back here on the ground, it's all about the show. The hallway inside the courthouse, yet outside the courtroom, is down to about 30 people or so watching the trial on iPad's, smartphones, etc. They hold prayer circles, debates, voice support when the Jackson family enters and stare down the accused when he does the same.

On the first trial day, one of these individuals demanding justice actually tried to approach the accused, Dr. Conrad Murray. Yeah, not a good idea when Murray is being escorted by deputies more annoyed than amused by the folks clad as the King of Pop.
Most of these individuals have dedicated themselves to being self-employed ambassadors of Michael Jackson, even two years after his death. Some have spray painted t-shirts, while others sport various costumes to back up their aim in life.

As you fight this crowd, along with the normal everyday courthouse goers, into the elevator and down to the sidewalk, the taped-off pen that keeps everyone orderly now only sports 16 &#8220;MJ demands justice&#8221; supporters, four more who have the difficult position here of supporting Dr. Murray and reporter Jane Velez Mitchell, who highlights their cause.

A few days removed from the trials' opening, and leaves now outnumber the people in the once packed taped-off pen area.
These people left mostly have small signs demanding -- you guessed it -- justice. One man past retirement age looks more like a 6'5" version of James Brown, rather than an attempt at the King of Pop, but he too is here to ensure that Michael Jackson gets proper treatment by the American justice system.

There are a few women here who are dedicated every day to letting America know that this is all a conspiracy and that even the 'illuminati' are involved.
They all chant &#8220;justice for Michael&#8221; each morning as the Jackson family arrives and at various times during the afternoon, when the family leaves at different times.
The rest of the day everything is quiet, except for the buses and bustle that races up and down Temple Street.

Speaking of Temple Street, we do get various horn honks throughout the day, those city buses are now joined by their tour bus cousins and for some reason a tractor passes-by every now and then -- I can't figure where the heck the nearest field is, but this isn't California's breadbasket, at least not the one I know.

PR folks claiming their client is our best guest and even the clients themselves visit us. One lady swears she is the best massage therapist and daily gives unwanted samples.

Anesthesiologist Dr. Barry Friedberg has even developed his own press release with a P.O. Box, but no city or town...sadly. He does wear a fair share of cologne that masks the bus exhaust for about five minutes after his daily departure from the media compound.

One final note, the folks who chanted and brought large banners signed by people concerned about Michael from five countries around the globe, well, we are not sure where they have gone, but their backdrops will be sorely missed. Oh great, now it's raining, at least the lunch break is over and I have the trial to take away my focus.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/entertainmen...ook-at-dr-conrad-murrays-trial/#ixzz1ZYYfe8RA
http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2011/09/30/inside-look-at-dr-conrad-murrays-trial/


September 29, 2011, 12:08 pm
Jackson Doctor Trial App Is a Chart Topper
By BEN SISARIO
The trial of Conrad Murray, Michael Jackson&#8217;s personal doctor at the time of his death, has just begun, but there is already an app that &#8212; appropriately enough for anything Jackson-related &#8212; has gone to No. 1.

The Michael Jackson Doctor Trial app costs 99 cents, has a feed of breaking news alerts, a live video stream from the trial, reports from news correspondents and various other videos. There is also a collection of background material like timelines, court documents and a who&#8217;s who of the main parties and lawyers in the case. Its content is provided by KTTV, the Fox affiliate in Los Angeles that is covering the trial.

Developed by CBC HTV, it was released on Monday, the day before opening arguments began, and it has become the top-selling paid news app on the iTunes&#8217;s store, as The Hollywood Reporter noted. As of Thursday morning, the Apple version had collected only 20 reviews, with an average rating of three and a half out of five stars. &#8220;Awesome app,&#8221; wrote a user identified as &#8220;MJfan69. &#8220;So hard to get the information if you are not glued to the TV.&#8221;

Dr. Murray is charged with involuntary manslaughter, and he has pleaded not guilty.
http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/09/29/jackson-doctor-trial-app-is-a-chart-topper/


Michael Jackson's Final Minutes Relived in Cable Hype
By Ted Mann | The Atlantic Wire &#8211; 55 mins ago

Michael Jackson's private physician was not behaving "normally" on the day the singer died, apparently from an overdose of the high-powered sedative that Dr. Conrad Murray had been administering to him. People not behaving normally in the company of Jackson would not, on its own, seem to be news. And the same extends to those lavishing "Trial of the Century"-themed coverage on Murray's trial for involuntary manslaughter.

The Los Angeles Times' James Rainey delivers a hearty raspberry to the HLN network and its breathless treatment of Murray's trial. It's as much about inflating the event to drive viewership as it is about news, Rainey argues.

But the Murray trial saddles HLN and other media outlets less with those striking moments and more with a tale that seems all too familiar &#8212; the brilliant but tormented entertainer who becomes victim of his own compulsions. An inattentive, irresponsible, even criminal, doctor may have hastened the ending. Still, hasn't most of the audience already decided that Jackson was already doomed by his own desperate and addictive personality?

Cable television is not a place, however, for readily accepting what is. It's a place for reimagining what might be. HLN has aimed every ounce of its firepower at expanding and extending the Jackson story. That means dragging in front of its cameras CNN medical authority Dr. Sanjay Gupta, HLN house shrink Dr. Drew Pinsky, a gallery of former Jackson family employees and, of course, every pop legal theorist not lashed to a trial lectern. "Unleash the lawyers!" Grace commands. HLN obliges.

Cringe-inducement abounds here, as when one of the HLN staffers calls out to compliment the passing Janet Jackson on her shoes. (Perhaps there's a reason they took the word "News" out of the channel's official name?) Despite the hyperventilation of the anchors, not very many TV viewers are actually watching, Rainey says, and finds a network employee, of all people, to join in his disdain.

Not far away, I talked to a television sound man. He was happy to be working, though a bit tired of the crammed sidewalk scrum and the "lunatic fringe" fans he has to elbow for space.

"I wonder how this can be in even the first five stories in the news," said the sound guy, who didn't want to give his name for fear of angering his bosses. "It's so inconsequential. It's a sad commentary on what we care about." A fleet of satellite trucks and news vans crowded two entire sides of a city block, confirming that his opinion did not hold much sway.

Inside the courthouse, meanwhile, things do not seem to be going well for Murray. Paramedics testified that he didn't disclose valuable information to them &#8211; including that he had given Jackson the drug, propofol, that an autopsy found to be a major factor in his death &#8211; and that he was gathering vials and drug containers rather than attending to Jackson as they worked to save him.

http://news.yahoo.com/michael-jacksons-final-minutes-relived-cable-hype-175459133.html
 
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Re: Murray Trial_ All media reports/articles - Merged - No discussion September 30th

Contrasting portraits of Conrad Murray emerge in Jackson case

The prosecution presents the singer's personal physician as reckless and determined to hide the truth while the defense portrays him as caring and dedicated.
By Victoria Kim and Harriet Ryan, Los Angeles Times
October 1, 2011
The portrait of Michael Jackson's doctor that emerged from the first week of his manslaughter trial in the King of Pop's death had many faces.

Was Conrad Murray the doctor who called patients "friends" and returned their calls no matter the hour? Or was he the doctor who talked on the phone while one of them died? Was he the one who cared for the poor when they couldn't pay? Or the one who demanded $5 million for his services? Was he the man who saved lives or the one who took the most prominent life entrusted to him?

A series of prosecution witnesses this week portrayed him as reckless and deceptive, waging a coverup before his famous client was even pronounced dead. The defense presented Murray as a dedicated physician who had gotten in over his head trying to help Jackson, a man he cared about, prepare for a comeback.

This contrast was on display Friday, when the prosecution called one of Murray's former patients to the stand.
The patient, Las Vegas salesman Robert Russell, testified that he felt desperate, frustrated and abandoned when Murray failed to keep crucial appointments about his heart at about the time of the pop star's death. Russell said he felt he was "at the end of the rope" after the physician canceled two meetings concerning treatments for his heart.
"I was dismayed, flabbergasted; I felt left out, I felt abandoned," Russell testified Friday.
But he also credited the doctor with saving his life after a heart attack, and said that the doctor took the time to follow up with detailed personal phone calls about his health. When he tried to leave the hospital early after a heart procedure, Murray sternly cautioned him about what kind of medical danger he was in.
"I felt like I was getting the best care in the world," Russell said.

The exchanges offered a glimpse into an important element of the defense strategy: Focusing on what attorneys describe as Murray's charitable work and testimonials from people who say Murray saved their lives. During opening statements, Chernoff told jurors that they would hear from an 82-year-old woman who was treated at a clinic Murray set up in one of the poorest neighborhoods of Houston.

As the prosecution this week presented witness after witness who harshly criticized Murray's conduct before and after Jackson's death, the defense persistently asked them if Murray appeared on the surface to care about Jackson and have his best interests at heart. Several answered yes.

Still, the overwhelming bulk of testimony portrayed Murray as incompetent and far more concerned about his own paycheck than the well-being of his famous charge. He balked when a choreographer raised concerns about Jackson's health and repeatedly said his patient was in excellent condition while he was injecting Jackson nightly with propofol to get him to sleep.
After Jackson stopped breathing, witnesses said, Murray performed inadequate CPR and delayed calling 911 while he grabbed vials of drugs and stuffed them into a bag.
There was more damning testimony Friday. Paramedics who responded to Jackson's home described a frantic Murray who told them things that didn't add up, lied that his patient was simply dehydrated and hid the fact that he administered the powerful surgical anesthetic that saturated the singer's blood.
Although Jackson appeared dead, his skin cold, eyes dry and his pupils dilated, Murray insisted he had "just" lost consciousness, paramedic Richard Senneff testified. Murray said Jackson had no underlying medical condition, Senneff said, but the presence of a doctor in the house, the IV pole, and the IV connected to Jackson did not match up with what the physician was telling him. A second paramedic said he saw the doctor pick up three drug vials off the floor near Jackson's body and put them in a black bag.

"He never mentioned the word 'propofol,' " Senneff testified. A coroner ruled that Jackson's June 25, 2009, death was caused by that drug.

Murray, prosecutors also suggested, was a doctor who jeopardized a patient's life for a few hundred dollars' difference.
They called to the stand Friday a representative of a medical equipment company who testified that the monitoring device Murray used with Jackson was inadequate for constantly monitoring a patient, and that an appropriate device could have been leased for $40 a month.

The week did have its share of moments that portrayed Murray in a more positive light.

The concert promoter, testifying about the $5 million Murray sought to care for Jackson, agreed with a defense attorney's description that the relationship between Murray and Jackson was "caring and friendly." An attorney who said the doctor was preoccupied with his contract also said Murray wanted a crash cart and a backup doctor for the aging star, worried about the strenuous performance he would be putting on.

Jackson's personal chef, who said the frantic doctor never asked her to call 911 after he found the singer wasn't breathing, described how the doctor took Jackson's favorite organic juices up to the singer's bedroom each morning.
"Michael Jackson and he became friends first," Chernoff said.

victoria.kim@latimes.com
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-10-01-conrad-murray-20111001,0,1488874.story?track=rss


Murray didn't act as "normal" M.D. would: Expert
October 1, 2011 12:03 P
(CBS News) The first week of the involuntary manslaughter trial of Michael Jackson's physician when he died featured prosecutors trying to show Dr. Conrad Murray acted like a guilty man, according to former federal prosecutor Sunny Hostin.

Testimony they elicited that Murray was scooping up drug vials rather than taking care of Jackson was part of that effort, Hostin told "Early Show on Saturday Morning" co-anchor Russ Mitchell, as was paramedics saying Murray didn't tell them Jackson had been given the powerful anesthetic Propofol - which authorities say killed Jackson.

What struck her most about the paramedics' testimony, Hostin says, was "Murray's behavior after they arrived there. Prosecutors want to show consciousness of guilt. They want to show that he didn't act the way normal doctors would act in a situation like this. Rather than attending his patient, he is grabbing drug vials. That is very unusual, and the prosecution wants the jurors to infer he knew he had done something wrong. Something is just not right. That really is damaging evidence for him."

Murray not mentioning Propofol "again, looks like consciousness of guilt," says Hostin, a legal contributor to CNN's "In Session." "He's a physician. If you are giving your patient something that your patient is supposed to have, why not tell the EMTs (emergency medical technicians) -- the people who are there to help and you to help your patient -- the truth? He didn't mention Propofol. He didn't mention a lot of the drugs that were in Michael Jackson's system. Again, consciousness of guilt, and that's what the prosecution wants to show. This is a doctor who wasn't behaving as a doctor. He was way beyond the standard of care, way beyond what a normal doctor in the same circumstance would do."

Hostin called the timeline of events the day Jackson died "crucial," saying, "What we learned was 911 was called about 12:20. We also know that, around 11:49, he placed a call to a patient. (At) 11:51, a call to a girlfriend, and then the call drops. So, between 11:51 and 12:20, 911 wasn't called.
"That, again, is -- who does that? Who doesn't call 911? A reasonable doctor would have called. A doctor deviating from the standard of care would not. We're talking about 30 minutes. And the EMTs testified that, when they got there, they thought Michael Jackson was already dead. Cool skin, eyes open, mouth agape, hands, palms facing up. Looks like a dead body to them."

Hostin says the defense "has to address" Murray's actions that day. "You've to go explain that behavior. Certainly, a lot of people are saying, 'Well, now Conrad Murray has to take the stand.' That's very risky. I don't know that he's going to take the stand, but I always like to remind people trials are marathons, not sprints. We're in the first week here. This is a very, very good defense team. It's too soon to call it, but it isn't looking great in terms of Conrad Murray."

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/10/01/earlyshow/saturday/main20114318.shtml
 
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Re: Murray Trial_ All media reports/articles - Merged - No discussion September 30th

Michael Jackson's Kids :We're Boycotting the Trial

10/1/2011 1:00 AM PDT BY TMZ STAFF
Prince, Paris, and Blanket Jackson have created a self-imposed blackout of Conrad Murray's trial ... TMZ has learned.
Sources directly connected to the kids tell TMZ ... the Michael Jackson manslaughter trial is just too painful to relive -- especially for Prince and Paris, who witnessed the demise of their dad firsthand.

We're told Katherine is relieved the kids don't have the kind of curiosity that would drive them to the screen, especially after prosecutor David Walgren displayed the body of Michael Jackson in the first graphic during opening statements.
We're told Katherine was unhappy and disturbed the shocking photo was displayed at all.

It's unclear -- and unlikely -- the kids will be called as witnesses, but as we previously reported, Prince is willing to take the stand.

http://www.tmz.com/2011/10/01/micha...blanket-not-watching-trial-katherine-jackson/
 
Re: Murray Trial_ All media reports/articles - Merged - No discussion September 30th

Michael Jackson Death: Summing Up The First Week Of The Conrad Murray Trial
October 2, 2011

LOS ANGELES -- The first week of the manslaughter trial of Michael Jackson's doctor has had all the trappings of other courtroom spectacles involving the King of Pop: Dozens of sign-toting fans, TV crews, Jackson lookalikes and the familiar faces of the Jackson family enduring yet another public crucible.

Inside the courtroom, jurors heard intimate, riveting details of the pop superstar's life, including recordings of his drug-slurred voice, his hopes for a major comeback tour, even his love of spinach cobb salad with organic turkey breast.

But jurors have been reminded regularly that someone else is on trial here. And despite all the courtroom drama, the involuntary manslaughter case against Dr. Conrad Murray is relatively straight-forward. To win a conviction, prosecutors must simply prove that Murray acted with gross negligence as Jackson's personal physician in the days and hours before his death.

Murray, 58, a Houston cardiologist, sat silently as prosecutors called witnesses who said he never told them to call 911 after Jackson was found unconscious in the bedroom of his rented Los Angeles mansion. They suggested Murray could have instructed security guards, a chef and Jackson's personal assistant to make the crucial call, but he didn't.
One security guard said Murray delayed the call while telling him to bag vials of medicine.
In the eyes of prosecutors, Murray did nearly everything wrong and even abandoned the singer in his hour of extreme need when he left his bedside to make a phone call. Defense attorneys are aggressively challenging such claims.

Attorney Adam Braun, who briefly represented a doctor charged with overprescribing drugs to Anna Nicole Smith, said the first requirement for prosecutors is to prove the cause of Jackson's death.

A coroner's report said he died on June 25, 2009, of acute intoxication from the powerful anesthetic propofol, with the presence of sedatives known as benzodiazepines.
Prosecutors "have to show it was reckless both to prescribe and administer propofol and to leave it next to the bed," Braun said.
Thus far, prosecutors have focused their evidence on alleged serious acts of omission by Murray. Witnesses said he delayed asking others to make the 911 call; failed to have the proper lifesaving equipment on hand; and didn't tell paramedics that he had given Jackson propofol.
Central to their case is Murray's decision to provide the star with propofol, the drug Jackson called his "milk," delivering it in a cozy home bedroom rather than a hospital room where it is meant to be given with an anesthesiologist on hand and life-saving equipment such as a CPR machine available for any emergencies.

In pictures shown to jurors, there are fluffy pillows and a thick down comforter on Jackson's bed, but no CPR machine or oxygen monitoring equipment. A lawyer for the producer of Jackson's ill-fated "This Is It' concert said the doctor had ordered a CPR machine to be provided when they arrived for the shows in London but not before.

In his opening statement, prosecutor David Walgren said Murray told police he gave Jackson a small amount of propofol on the day he died and provided doses every night for about six weeks before that as a sleep aid.
Defense attorney Ed Chernoff countered that Jackson did not die because Murray gave him propofol; he died because he stopped giving it to him. Murray was actually trying to wean him from the drug when Jackson downed a fatal dose while Murray was out of the room, the lawyer said.
With no one present in the room when that would have occurred, lawyers will be asking jurors to infer it from circumstantial evidence.

Prosecutors also presented evidence that Murray denied important information to paramedics who arrived at the house. Paramedic Richard Senneff testified Friday that Murray didn't reveal he had given the singer propofol that morning, saying only that he had given Jackson the sedative lorazepam.
Prosecutors claim all those circumstances indicate that Murray's standard of medical care was below the level that would have been practiced by a reasonable physician.

Murray may be the only person who can tell jurors why he did what he did. But experts say it would be risky for him to testify and open himself up to accusatory questions from the prosecution.
Former federal prosecutor Marcellus McRae, who has been monitoring the trial, said the defense claim that Jackson killed himself is a risky strategy, and calling Murray to the witness stand would be a mistake.
"Dr. Murray doesn't have to prove he's innocent," McRae said. "If you take the stand, the impression is you're worried. You have some explaining to do. You only do that when you have to."

The one thing neither Murray nor his attorneys can address is the constant presence in court of the famous Jackson family and the message sent by their presence.
McRae said much of the drama swirling in the courtroom may not determine a verdict. But the presence of the Jackson family is a powerful factor.
"I don't think people compartmentalize the emotional and the rational," said McRae. "When you see that a person had a family and that family is in the courtroom, the basic instinct is to want there to be some responsibility."
He also notes the need for a sense of immediacy since Jackson died over two years ago.
"There's a linkage for people to see the wreckage caused by his death and the sense of devastation," he said. "All these people living and breathing in the courtroom makes it immediate."
Jackson's mother, Katherine, his father, Joe, and up to six of their famous children have been present daily.
Jurors have also seen a large photo of Michael Jackson's three children taken at his memorial. They have heard about his daughter crying out, "Daddy," when she saw him dying.
And during that poignant testimony, they have seen his mother's tears.

Murray has pleaded not guilty. If convicted, he could face a maximum sentence of four years behind bars and the loss of his medical license.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/01/michael-jackson-death-sum_n_990609.html
 
Michael Jackson Manslaughter Trial Enters 2nd Week

by The Associated Press
<!-- END ID="STORYBYLINE" CLASS="STORYLOCATION" -->
<!-- END ID="FEATUREDCOMMENTSMAIN141001160" --> LOS ANGELES October 3, 2011, 03:25 am ET
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The manslaughter trial against Michael Jackson's doctor begins its second week Monday with prosecutors furthering their examination of an emergency room physician who gave paramedics permission to pronounce the pop superstar dead in the bedroom of his home.
Prosecutors have been laying out their case against Dr. Conrad Murray largely in chronological fashion, with witnesses during the first week of trial recounting the singer's final performances, his interactions with fans on his last day and frantic efforts to revive the King of Pop.
Authorities contend Murray gave Jackson a lethal dose of the anesthetic propofol and other sedatives in the singer's bedroom in 2009.
Murray's attorneys are presenting jurors with an alternate theory — that Jackson gave himself the lethal dose when Murray left the room.
The Houston-based cardiologist has pleaded not guilty. Murray, 58, faces four years behind bars and the loss of his medical license if convicted.
Prosecutors will continue to question emergency room doctor Richelle Cooper, who authorized the decision to pronounce Jackson dead in his rented mansion. Murray wanted resuscitation efforts to continue at the hospital. Cooper and another doctor are expected to testify about their interactions with the cardiologist.
Cooper is the 12th witness prosecutors have called so far in the trial, which is expected to last five weeks.
Jackson loomed large throughout opening statements and testimony last week, with Deputy District Attorney showing jurors a photo of a lifeless Jackson on a gurney and playing clips of his final performances from the film "This Is It."
Jurors also heard during opening statements a never-before-heard recording of Jackson, rambling and slurring his words, which Walgren said was extracted from Murray's cell phone.
The physician's phone records are a central part of the prosecution case. Prosecutors intend to show records of Murray's phone calls and emails from the hours before Jackson's death to show that the singer had other things on his mind — getting his $150,000 a month deal to serve as Jackson's personal physician approved, running his medical practices and fielding calls from mistresses.
During a preliminary hearing, prosecutors showed that Murray was engaged in three phone calls in the hour before he emerged from Jackson's bedroom and frantically told a chef to seek help.
One of Murray's former patients, Las Vegas salesman Robert Russell, detailed one of those calls for jurors last week. Russell praised Murray in testimony, crediting the doctor with saving his life, but said he had grown distant after going to work for Jackson. Russell said he called the physician's office seeking answers about his care on June 25, 2009 — the day Jackson died. Murray returned the message at 11:49 a.m., roughly 15 minutes before telling Jackson's chef to call security and asking to speak to Jackson's eldest son, Prince.
At some point during the trial, prosecutors are expected to detail the other phone calls and emails Murray fielded that day, including one to his girlfriend that was apparently made in the back of the ambulance on the way to the hospital.
The exact order of witnesses is unclear. The judge overseeing the case imposed a gag order last week prohibiting either side or their spokespeople from talking about the case outside of court.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=141001160
 
Re: Murray Trial_ All media reports/articles - Merged - No discussion September 30th


Michael Jackson fans stay faithful at trial





LOS ANGELES
(Reuters) - Their faith has been tested many times, but Michael Jackson's fans have always supported the "Thriller" singer. That remains true at the trial of his former doctor who is accused in the superstar's death.
Outside the Los Angeles courthouse where Dr. Conrad Murray faces a manslaughter charge, the fans do not number as many as they did at the singer's 2005 child molestation trial. But his supporters are just as colorful and no less passionate.
Cooper Lawrence, author of "The Cult of Celebrity," told Reuters Jackson had a unique relationship with his fans.
"He constantly talked about them, whereas now a lot of celebrities have taken the lazy man's approach to staying in touch with fans through Twitter and Facebook," Lawrence said.
More than two dozen people, including European tourists, celebrity impersonators and women with sunflowers, Jackson's favorite, showed up last week for the start of Murray's involuntary manslaughter trial in the pop star's 2009 drug overdose death.
A handful earned seats in the courtroom, where they watched in silence and, when the second week gets underway on Monday, there is little doubt they will be there again.
Jackson's personal assistant, Michael Williams, testified last week that when Jackson was rehearsing in Los Angeles for the "This Is It" tour, his admirers would camp out just beyond the driveway to his rented mansion.
Fans would cheer Jackson as his Cadillac Escalade pulled into the arena where he rehearsed. They would be there when he left at night and would race back to his home to see him again. Often, the singer stopped to greet them, sign autographs and collect gifts or letters they brought, Williams said.
Gregory Son, 34, is one of those outside the courthouse, and he wears a red armband that reads "Justice." Son said he was among the fans who gathered at Jackson's mansion and saw the gifts he would receive.
"People, they spent money on Michael. They'd give him jewels, statues, antiques, dolls, Mickey Mouse or Charlie Chaplin things, pictures of babies," Son said. "I mean, the list just goes on."
Rita Bosico, 46, a Web editor, flew to Los Angeles from Oklahoma for the trial. She said after Jackson died she had a "spiritual awakening" and wants to create an outreach mission called Square Peg for people who do not always fit in.
The cadre of Jackson fans is vocal in demanding "justice" for their fallen icon -- which for them means Murray's conviction.
Prosecutors claim Murray was negligent in his care for the singer, improperly administered the anesthetic propofol that Jackson used as a sleep aid, and then did not properly monitor his patient. Murray has pleaded not guilty, and his defense is expected to argue Jackson gave himself the fatal drug dose.
But the pop star's adoring fans have already reached their own conclusion. One trailed Murray in the court house hallway this past week yelling, "murderer."
For the most part, however, the fans have been peaceful as they face a handful of Murray's own supporters who have carried signs proclaiming his innocence.
"He's a good man, he's a Godly man, I believe when all the facts are in he will be exonerated," said one supporter, Beatrice Fakhrian, who said she attended church with Murray.

http://news.yahoo.com/michael-jackson-fans-stay-faithful-trial-192054340.html
 
MichaelJackson'sFingerprintsNotOnAnyPropofolBottles

By Jen Heger
Radar Legal Editor
As Dr. Conrad Murray's involuntary manslaughter trial enters its second week, RadarOnline.com has exclusively learned that Michael Jackson's fingerprints were not found on any of the Propofol bottles.

Dr. Murray's lawyers contend that when the Houston-based cardiologist left the King of Pop briefly on the morning of June 25, 2009, he grabbed a bottle of the drug, ingested it, and then subsequently died.

Dr. Murray's attorney Ed Chernoff told the jury during opening statements that Jackson self-administered an extra dose of Propofol and Lorazepam creating "a perfect storm in his body, that killed him instantly...there was no CPR, nor doctor, no paramedic, no machine that was going to revive Michael Jackson. He died so rapidly, so instantly, he didn’t even have time to close his eyes."

The defense might have a hard time convincing the jury of this, since there were no fingerprints of Jackson's found on any of the Propofol bottles. "Plain and simply, the Los Angeles Police Department didn't find any fingerprints of Michael Jackson's on ANY Propofol bottles or the Lorazepam bottles. There were no partial fingerprints of Michael's or any unknown prints on the medication bottles," a source close to the situation tells us.

It was a blistering week for Dr. Murray's defense team, as two paramedics, and the attending emergency room doctor all testified that at no point did Dr. Murray ever reveal that he had given Jackson Propofol. The first paramedic on the scene, Richard Senneff said that after Jackson was loaded into the ambulance, he went back up to the bedroom to quickly retrieve some medical equipment. The medic told the jury he saw Murray putting lidocaine vials into a bag.

Paramedic Martin Blount also took the stand and testified that when he arrived at Jackson's house, Dr. Murray appeared "agitated" and asked "for help."
Dr. Richelle Cooper, the emergency room doctor at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, who treated Jackson, told jurors on Friday that he was "clinically dead" on arrival. She will resume her testimony on Monday morning.
RadarOnline.com will continue live streaming the trial, starting at 8:45am PT today.

http://www.radaronline.com/exclusiv...les-fingerprints-not-conrad-murray-defense-he
 
ER Doc Testifies at Jackson Doctor Trial
By Jonathan Lloyd, John Cadiz Klemack
NBCSanDiego.com
updated 10 minutes ago 2011-10-03T17:15:48

The testimony came at the start of Day 5 of the involuntary manslaughter trial of Dr. Conrad Murray and after a week in which paramedics and members of the pop star's staff described the frantic scene inside Jackson's bedroom on the day he died.
"Mr. Jackson had already been dead for some time when he became my patient," Dr. Richelle Cooper said Monday under cross-examination from the defense.

She was one of two emergency room doctors at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center when Jackson arrived June 25, 2009. Cooper took the stand Friday and resumed testimony at the start of the trial's second week.

Two paramedics who responded to a 911 call from Jackson's security guard also have testified that Jackson was dead by the time the medical team arrived at the rented Holmby Hills mansion. Cooper was on the phone with paramedics when she advised them to pronounce Jackson dead about 30 minutes after paramedics began life-saving efforts.
Paramedics testified Friday that Murray demanded Jackson be transported to the hospital.
."I did not personally ever confirm a pulse," said Cooper at the start of her testimony Monday.

Cooper and paramedics testified last week about their interactions with Murray, who was described as "frantic" and "flustered."

"I asked what other medical problems Mr. Jackson had, if he had any cardiac history, if he had ever had a blood clot, a history of drug use," Cooper said.
When asked what Dr. Murray said in response, Cooper said, "No, to all of them."
Richard Senneff was the first paramedic to arrive at the mansion. He repeatedly asked Murray, "What's his underlying health condition?"
The doctor responded, "There is none," Senneff said, before detailing the medical equipment he saw in the superstar's bedroom.
"That did not add up to me," said Senneff. "Doctor's in the house. IV pole, IV hooked up to the patient -- it didn't seem normal."
Eventually, Murray told the paramedics Jackson was being treated for exhaustion and dehydration, Senneff said. The only drug Murray mentioned was the sedative lorazepam, and the doctor never indicated he was administering propofol, he added.

Prosecutors have attempted to prove that Murray gave Jackson a lethal dose of the anesthetic propofol, then failed to properly monitor his patient. A medical equipment company executive testified last week that the equipment used to monitor Jackson was not adequate.

But Murray's attorneys argue that Jackson self-administered the fatal dose when Murray left the room. In their opening statement, they claimed Jackson created "a perfect storm" inside his own body.

The first week of the trial included testimony from two members of the team that promoted Jacksons upcoming "This Is It" concerts, a former patient of Murray's and several of Jackson's staff members, including the first security guard who responded to Jackson's bedroom. One of the prosecution's most important witnesses, Alberto Alvarez, testified that Murray told him to call 911 after he asked him to hide several bottles of drugs and remove Jackson's eldest children from the room.

"There's always a tendency to rush to judgement when listening to impressive district attorney arguments, but there's a long way to go," said NBC4 legal analyst Royal Oakes. "There's a lot of scientific evidence that the defense has promised to establish that whatever happened to Michael Jackson's life it really wasn't Dr. Murray's actions that caused his death."
.Jurors also heard a recording of Jackson, his speech slow and slurred, in which told Murray of his dedication to the upcoming series of London concerts and his goal of building a children's hospital. The message was recorded on Murray's phone about a month before Jackson's death.

Phone records played a key role in the prosecution's case. During a preliminary hearing, prosecutors showed that Murray was engaged in three phone calls in the hour before he emerged from the bedroom and asked a chef to seek help.
Prosecutors are expected to detail the other phone calls and emails Murray received and made on the day Jackson died. One of Murray's former patients, Robert Russell, said he called the doctor's office with answers about his care on the day Jackson died. Murray returned the call at 11:49 a.m., about 15 minutes before telling chef Kai Chase to call security.

The order of upcoming witnesses remains unclear. Judge Michael Pastor prohibited attorneys and staff members from speaking about the case outside court last week after a defense team spokesman conducted a live television interview.
Murray, 58, faces four years in prison and the loss of his medical license if convicted.
Follow NBCLA for the latest LA news, events and entertainment: Twitter: @NBCLA // Facebook: NBCLA

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44756855


Witness: Jackson's doctor didn't mention propofol
But physician says information couldn't have saved 'clinically dead' singer
By ANTHONY McCARTNEY

updated 1 hour 50 minutes ago 2011-10-03T17:12:03
Print Font: +-
LOS ANGELES &#8212; An emergency room physician told jurors Monday that Michael Jackson's doctor never mentioned that he had given the singer the powerful anesthetic propofol, but acknowledged the disclosure probably wouldn't have saved the King of Pop.

Dr. Richelle Cooper recounted her conversations with Dr. Conrad Murray on the day Jackson died, telling jurors that he told her that he had only given the singer the sedative lorazepam.
She said under defense questioning that had Murray mentioned the anesthetic, it probably wouldn't have allowed doctors to save Jackson's life because he was "clinically dead" by the time he arrived at the hospital.
Cooper resumed testifying Monday as Murray's involuntary manslaughter trial began its second week.

Murray, 58, has pleaded not guilty and his defense lawyers claim Jackson gave himself a fatal dose of sedatives and propofol, which is normally administered in hospital settings.
Authorities say Murray administered the fatal dose and acted recklessly by providing Jackson the drug as a sleep aid.

Cooper testified she never asked Murray to sign a death certificate because, by the time he was brought to Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, Jackson became her patient.
"Mr. Jackson was my patient and I didn't really have an explanation for why he was dead," she said.
Cooper has previously testified she gave paramedics permission to pronounce Jackson dead, but that Murray wanted resuscitation efforts to continue
at the hospital. She has said more than an hour of resuscitation efforts at the hospital did nothing to improve his condition.
Cooper also told jurors about trying to speak to Jackson's children after he was pronounced dead at the hospital at 2:26 p.m. on June 25, 2009.
"They were crying," Cooper said. "They were fairly hysterical."

Cooper is the 12th witness prosecutors have called so far in the trial, which is expected to last five weeks.

The physician's phone records are a central part of the prosecution case. Prosecutors intend to show records of Murray's phone calls and emails from the hours before Jackson's death to show that the singer had other things on his mind &#8212; getting his $150,000 a month deal to serve as Jackson's personal physician approved, running his medical practices and fielding calls from mistresses.

During a preliminary hearing, prosecutors showed that Murray was engaged in three phone calls in the hour before he emerged from Jackson's bedroom and frantically told a chef to seek help.

One of Murray's former patients, Las Vegas salesman Robert Russell, detailed one of those calls for jurors last week. Russell praised Murray in testimony, crediting the doctor with saving his life, but said he had grown distant after going to work for Jackson.

Russell said he called the physician's office seeking answers about his care on the day Jackson died. Murray returned the message at 11:49 a.m., roughly 15 minutes before telling Jackson's chef to call security and asking to speak to Jackson's eldest son, Prince.

Prosecutors on Monday began to bring Murray's phone records into the trial, having an AT&T representative detail his records for jurors. Later in the case, prosecutors will further detail calls and messages Murray fielded that day, including one the physician apparently made to his girlfriend as he rode in the back of the ambulance on the way to the hospital.

The exact order of witnesses is unclear. The judge overseeing the case imposed a gag order last week prohibiting either side or their spokespeople from talking about the case outside of court.

Are you following the Conrad Murray trial? Share your impressions on Facebook.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/44755817


Michael Jackson Death Trial: ER Doctor Says Propofol Details Could Not Have Saved Singer
JIM AVILA (@JimAvilaABC) , BRYAN LAVIETES, KAITLYN FOLMER (@ABCKaitlyn) , JESSICA HOPPER (@jesshop23) and CHRISTINA NG
Oct. 3, 2011
An emergency room doctor who attempted to resuscitate Michael Jackson the night he died said that even if Dr. Conrad Murray had told her Jackson had taken the drug propofol, it would not have changed her treatment.

"Had Dr. Murray told you he had given 25 mg of propofol at 10:30, would it have altered your treatment of Michael Jackson?" asked defense attorney Michael Flanagan at the second week of Murray's trial for involuntary manslaughter in Jackson's overdose death on June 25, 2009.
"No," answered the doctor, Richelle Cooper, who was on duty at a UCLA hospital emergency room the night Jackson died.
"Would that have altered the result that happened to Michael Jackson?" Flanagan asked.
"As I said, Mr. Jackson died long before he became my patient," Cooper answered. "Knowing more, it's still unlikely I could have done something different to him."
Murray told Cooper that he was treating the singer for dehydration and that Jackson had no history of health problems, witnesses have testified.
On Friday, Cooper and paramedics who responded to a lifeless Michael Jackson said Murray did not tell them that Jackson was taking the powerful anesthetic propofol to sleep.
Richelle Cooper, an emergency room physician, testifies in the Conrad Murray involuntary manslaughter trial at the Los Angeles Superior Court, Sept. 30, 2011 in downtown Los Angeles.
Murray told Cooper that the only medications that Jackson took regularly were valium, an anti-anxiety medication, and Flomax, which is used to treat an enlarged prostate or someone suffering from a kidney stone, according to testimony at the trial.

Murray's defense team now admits that Murray gave Jackson 25 mg of the creamy anesthetic propofol but argues that Jackson himself took an additional dose of propofol and a sedative without his doctor's knowledge, leading to his death. Propofol is typically administered in a hospital setting.

Cooper testified today that in a routine administration of propfol, or any sedative, she would have an additional person in the room as a monitor to keep track of the patient's vital signs.
Cooper did not recall Murray's demeanor on the day of Jackson's death or whether he was particularly "frantic," as Flanagan suggested.
"I recall speaking to him, and I assumed when I was speaking to him [that] I was getting honest and truthful answers," Cooper said.
Cooper declared Jackson dead after an hour and 13 minutes of attempted resuscitation "failed and seemed to be futile."

The fifth day of the trial marked the first time that Jackson's parents, Katherine and Joe Jackson, and his sister LaToya were not in court. Katherine Jackson reportedly left Los Angeles over the weekend with Michael Jackson's three children to attend the Canadian premiere of Cirque du Soleil's new show, "Michael Jackson: The Immortal World Tour."

Michael Jackson siblings Janet, Randy, Rebe and Jermaine, and Jermaine's wife, were in the courtroom today.

Also expected to testifying were three of Murray's girlfriends, including Sade Anding, who spoke to Murray on the phone right before Jackson's death.

A coroner ruled that Jackson died of "acute propofol intoxication" in combination with sedatives.
Prosecutors argue that Murray is criminally responsible for Jackson's death for administering propfol, a surgical anesthetic, to help Jackson sleep. They are accusing Murray of medical negligence and reckless use of the drug.

The defense argues that Jackson caused his own death by taking eight pills of lorazepam and orally taking propofol while Murray was out of the room.

Murray is charged with involuntary manslaughter and faces up to four years in prison if convicted.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/michael-jackson-death-trial-er-doctor-propofol-details/story?id=14655502


L.A. NOW
Southern California -- this just in
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Conrad Murray: ER doctor says she never had chance to save Jackson
October 3, 2011 | 10:31 am
The trial of Michael Jackson&#8217;s personal physician began its second week of testimony Monday with an emergency room doctor telling jurors that in retrospect she and her hospital team never had any chance of saving the singer.
&#8220;Mr. Jackson died long before he became a patient,&#8221; Dr. Richelle Cooper said.
The Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center doctor pronounced Jackson dead twice on June 25, 2009 -- once over the phone after paramedics had failed to revive him in his home and a second time at the hospital where his personal physician, Dr. Conrad Murray, had insisted he be brought for further treatment.

Prosecutors highlighted on Friday Murray&#8217;s failure to mention to Cooper that he had administered the anesthetic propofol to his famous patient.

On cross-examination Monday, a defense attorney pressed her on whether the omission had any effect on the care she gave.
&#8220;The minute he comes in the hospital, there&#8217;s no chance?&#8221; asked attorney J. Michael Flanagan.
&#8220;Knowing everything I know now, that would be correct,&#8221; Cooper said.

Murray told her he had given the singer small doses of a sedative, lorazepam, she said.
Flanagan suggested that Murray may have left out propofol because he believed it had worn off earlier in the day and was not the cause of his cardiac arrest.

Cooper agreed the amount Murray later told police he had given Jackson -- 25 miligrams -- was small. She said she used more than twice that amount to sedate patients and questioned whether it would have knocked the singer out at all.
&#8220;I wouldn&#8217;t expect that to produce any levels of sedation,&#8221; she said.
If it did, she added, &#8220;[In] seven to 10 minutes, it would probably be worn off.&#8221;
A prosecutor questioned Cooper briefly about her dealings with the singer&#8217;s children, whom she went to see after she had pronounced Jackson dead the second time.
&#8220;They were crying. They were fairly hysterical,&#8221; she recalled.

Murray, 58, is charged with involuntary manslaughter.
He contends Jackson self-administered a lethal amount of propofol when he was out of the room.
If convicted, Murray faces a maximum of four years in prison and the loss of his medical license

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lan...never-had-chance-to-save-michael-jackson.html
 
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Michael Jackson fans vie for public seats at Conrad Murray trial
October 3, 2011 | 9:33 am 013 Hoping to get into the Conrad Murray trial, Mosako Shelton and five family members waited patiently at the top of the line outside the Los Angeles County courthouse early Monday morning.

"We got here way before 7 this morning just to come here," said Shelton, a Fullerton resident.

A security official standing on the other side of the yellow tape told them they had the best vantage point -- and would definitely get an up-close view of the Jackson family as they enter the courthouse.

The court allocates six public seats, with four additional spots as stand-by if there is room. Each morning a lottery is held at the Temple Street entrance to the courthouse.

"We all love Michael," said Shelton's sister, Itaska, pointing to their four kids &#8212; Joshua, Etelvina, Antoinette and Nesha &#8212; sleepy-eyed and shyly standing behind them.
"The kids are here because I needed them to come with me," Mosako said.
Mosako and Itaska, from Fullerton, followed the trial closely in the news last week but decided to come to downtown L.A. Monday for the second week.

"Is that all you got?" Itaska asked a younger man carrying a small "Justice for Michael Jackson" sign. She took the sign and playfully slapped him with it. She proudly showed him all three of the more colorful handmade posters in her hand.

The man, from Anaheim, introduced himself as Louie G and said he tried to get into the trial a few times last week. Standing behind the others in line, he said he was confident he would have better luck.
"Every day it's just something new," he said. "Last week it was the paramedics, I can't wait to see who's next. The cupcake baker? The pool guy?"
"It's been crazy meeting fellow Jackson supporters from all over, as well as Conrad Murray supporters," Louie said. And hearing the trial details from both sides, it makes you really think about how fair everything is."
Louie said he has never cried over the death of an artist before, "but Michael Jackson's death was just so shocking. Especially with all the hype about him coming back. I was so excited to see his show."
"You know what it is? It gave a younger generation hope to see him live," he said, motioning to the four kids at the front of the line, "Especially for me, at least."

-- Rosanna Xia at Los Angeles County Superior Court

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lan...n-fans-vie-for-public-seats-in-courtroom.html
 
October 3, 2011
What to expect in the Dr. Conrad Murray trial today

emergency room doctors who attempted to revive Michael Jackson before declaring him dead are expected to testify Monday. During the afternoon on Monday, prosecutors could call Dr. Conrad Murray&#8217;s girlfriends to the stand to discuss phone calls Dr. Murray placed around the time the pop star stopped breathing.

The judge issued a gag order preventing the attorneys from speaking to the media. The judge also told them to not disclose their witness list, but it seems prosecutors are closely following the same list they used in a preliminary hearing in January.

One of Dr. Murray&#8217;s girlfriends, Sade Anding, will likely testify about a phone call she had with Dr. Murray the day Jackson died. During an earlier hearing, Anding said she was on the phone with Dr. Murray when he suddenly stopped talking to her just before noon. That&#8217;s around the time Jackson may have stopped breathing.
"I didn't hear him on the phone anymore," Anding said. "I heard commotion as if the phone was in a pocket and I heard coughing and I heard a mumbling of voices."

Complete coverage of the Conrad Murray trial live on HLN from gavel to gavel and on In Session from 9a to 3p ET every week day.
Posted by: In Session's Graham Winch
http://insession.blogs.cnn.com/2011/10/03/what-to-expect-in-the-dr-conrad-murray-trial-today/
 
mccartneyAP Anthony McCartney
Next witness is Edward Dixon, an AT&T worker (here to testify abt Murray's cell records.)

mccartneyAP Anthony McCartney
AT&T rep Dixon done after 43 minutes.

mccartneyAP Anthony McCartney
Next witness is Jeff Strohm, a Sprint/Nextel custodian of records.

mccartneyAP Anthony McCartney
Strohm done - only a minute of cross examination.

InSession In Session
Prosecutors are now questioning Dr. Thao Nguyen, a UCLA Cardiologist

abc7MurrayTrial ABC7 Murray Trial
Dr. Nguyen: Dr. #conradmurray said he had given 4 mg of Ativan (the other name of Lorazepam). And nothing else.

mccartneyAP Anthony McCartney
Nguyen says treatment options were complicated because Murray had "no concept of time"

MJJNews Michael Jackson Love
New witness called to the stand: Dr. Joanne Prashad, physician in a hospital in Houston, Texas


mccartneyAP Anthony McCartney
MT @BargarLM: @mccartneyAP http://extratv.warnerbros.com/images/news/0625hospital.jpg photo going round, showing CM wearing watch on left hand as he enters hospital june 25&#8221;

MJJNews Michael Jackson Love
Court resumes. Prosecution calls the next witness to the stand: Antoinette Gill.


CEThomson Charles Thomson
Antoinette Gill on the stand. From Las Vegas, Nevada. Known Murray for over 10 years. Referred to him by a client. Is a patient of his.

abc7MurrayTrial ABC7 Murray Trial
Gill called #ConradMurray's cell phone and talked to him briefly on 6/25 at 8:49am

mccartneyAP Anthony McCartney
Now we're back ... Witness is Consuelo Ng.

mccartneyAP Anthony McCartney
Her grandmother was Murray's patient; then went on to volunteer in Murray's medical office.

MJJNews Michael Jackson
Consuelo Ng stepped down. Next witness: Bridgette Morgan, a friend of Conrad Murray who called him in the morning of June 25
 
Last edited:
L.A. NOW
Southern California -- this just in

Conrad Murray talking, texting before Jackson&#8217;s cardiac arrest
October 3, 2011 | 12:28 pm

Dr. Conrad Murray was talking on the phone and texting in the hours and minutes leading up to Michael Jackson's cardiac arrest, according to phone records introduced Monday at the doctor's manslaughter trial.
The records presented by prosecutors indicate that two cellphones registered to Murray were in frequent use during a period he was supposed to be tending to the singer. In the hour before Murray discovered Jackson in bed, records show calls totaling 46 minutes, including a half-hour conversation with his office and a social call to a Houston waitress.
That woman testified at a January hearing that Murray abruptly stopped responding to her during the call and that she heard sounds of a disturbance in the background.

Jurors also heard from a second emergency room doctor, Thao Nguyen, who said she tried to get information from Murray as she worked to revive him. Nguyen, a cardiologist, said Murray never mentioned propofol, the anesthetic blamed for Jackson's death, and said he had just administered a sedative to the pop star. She testified that when she pressed him for the time he had given the drug, he said he didn't know.

"He said he did not have a watch," Nguyen said.
Murray, 58, faces a maximum sentence of four years in prison if convicted. He maintains that Jackson self-administered the fatal dose of the anesthetic.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lan...g-texting-before-jacksons-cardiac-arrest.html
 
Re: Murray Trial_ All media reports/articles - Merged - No discussion September 30th

Prosecutors Keep Jury Focused on Conrad Murray's Phone Records

Published October 04, 2011
| Associated Press
  • Prosecutors in the manslaughter trial against Michael Jackson's personal physician are keeping jurors focused on the doctor's phone records from the day the King of Pop died, attempting to show that Dr. Conrad Murray was trying to juggle his medical practice, personal life and superstar patient all at the same time.

  • Testimony Monday was heavily centered on the calls Murray made and received on June 25, 2009, with witnesses ranging from the Houston-based cardiologist's patients, a doctor seeking advice and a woman who had dated Murray.


    To this point, witnesses have been relatively brief, filling in prosecutors' timeline of the hours leading up to Jackson's death. Two people who phoned Murray that morning offered glowing appraisals of the doctor accused of involuntary manslaughter in connection with Jackson's death.

  • Jurors have yet to hear from two other women with whom Murray was romantically involved, though both could testify as early as Tuesday. Sade Anding has previously said she was on the phone with Murray shortly before noon when he became distracted and put the phone down without hanging up. Prosecutors are expected to also call Nicole Alvarez, who had a child with Murray and whose apartment he used to ship orders of the anesthetic propofol.

  • Phone records displayed in court Monday showed Murray called Alvarez four times the afternoon of Jacksons' death, including once while he was in the ambulance with Jackson's lifeless body on the way to the hospital.
  • Murray has pleaded not guilty. Authorities contend he gave the singer a lethal dose of propofol and other sedatives. Murray's attorneys claim Jackson gave himself the fatal dose. If convicted, Murray faces four years behind bars and the loss of his medical license.

  • The phone records have revealed the special relationship Murray kept with his patients. Houston-based Dr. Joanne Prashad told jurors she called Murray the morning of Jackson's death to inquire whether it would be safe to operate on a patient whom Murray had treated. Prashad said she was surprised that Murray remembered the patient and the exact dosage of medicine that he was taking.

  • Murray's lead defense attorney Ed Chernoff asked Prashad whether Murray's recall was unusual for a doctor.

  • She said yes. "I was impressed," Prashad said.

  • Another patient, Antoinette Gill, told jurors she had called Murray's cell phone for a referral on June 25, 2009, but didn't reach him.
  • Neither did Bridgette Morgan, a former lover who, according to court documents, called Murray to follow up on his promise to purchase her a plane ticket for her birthday. Her relationship with Murray was not discussed in front of jurors. Superior Court Judge Michael Pastor ruled earlier this year that prosecutors could not describe the relationship Murray had with certain women or how he met them.

  • The records overall reveal a doctor who was on his phone a lot in the hours before Jackson's death. Another former patient, Robert Russell, testified that the doctor had returned a phone message to him at 11:49 a.m. -- just 15 minutes or so before he emerged from Jackson's bedroom frantically seeking help.
  • He had been on the phone with his medical practice for 32 minutes before that, and was also sending emails about his $150,000 a month contract to serve as Jackson's personal physician during a planned series of comeback concerts.

  • Five of the eight witnesses called Monday testified about Murray's phone records.
    Jurors also heard from two emergency room doctors who interacted with Murray after Jackson was taken to Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.

  • Both doctors said Murray never mentioned giving Jackson propofol.

  • Cardiologist Dr. Thao Nguyen said Murray didn't provide much information about his treatment of Jackson, but urged doctors to try everything they could to revive him.
    "Dr. Murray asked that we not give up easily and try to save Michael Jackson's life," she said. "... In Dr. Murray's mind, if we called it quits, we would be giving up easily."
    In the end, Nguyen and colleague Dr. Richelle Cooper told jurors, Jackson was dead by the time he arrived in the emergency room and nothing more could be done.




    Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/entertainmen...n-conrad-murrays-phone-records/#ixzz1ZneBzazP
 
Re: Murray Trial_ All media reports/articles - Merged - No discussion September 30th

Conrad Murray
The Prosecutors are Dishonest!

Conrad Murray spilled his guts to his barber over the weekend, complaining the prosecutor in his manslaughter trial is intentionally deceiving the jury.

Murray's barber, Maurice from M Barbering, tells TMZ ... Murray was griping that prosecutors have said the Doc delayed calling 911. Murray told the clipper ... he told bodyguard Alberto Alvarez to immediately call 911.

And on the subject of Alvarez ... Murray is pissed at the accusation he told the bodyguard to bring Michael Jackson's two oldest kids to Jackson's bedroom. Doc Murray says he actually told Alvarez to keep them away.

Murray was telling his barber he thinks the prosecutors are more interested in convicting him than being honest.

And if you're wondering, Murray's cut cost $25 ... and he left a 5 dollar tip.

http://www.tmz.com/2011/10/03/conra...tion-m-barbering-alberto-alvarez-911-haircut/
 
Re: Murray Trial_ All media reports/articles - Merged - No discussion September 30th

More girlfriends, investigators next in trial of Michael Jackson's doctor

By Alan Duke, CNN
October 4, 2011 -- Updated 0832 GMT (1632 HKT)


STORY HIGHLIGHTS
  • Murray's girlfriends testify about calls the day Jackson died
  • Testimony from the lead LAPD detective and coroner's investigator are expected soon
  • Nothing could have save Jackson at the hospital, two doctors testify
Los Angeles (CNN) -- Two more girlfriends of Conrad Murray are expected to testify in the doctor's involuntary manslaughter trial Tuesday, but questions about their personal relationships with Murray will likely to be limited.

Jurors heard from another Murray girlfriend Monday, but the judge stopped the prosecutor letting the jury know about her relationship to Michael Jackson's personal physician.

The women's testimony is important since their phone calls to Murray help establish the timeline of what he was doing before Jackson's death, and because the surgical anesthetic propofol the prosecution says killed him were shipped to one of their homes.

Prosecutors argue that Murray, who was Jackson's personal physician as he prepared for planned comeback concerts, is criminally responsible for the singer's death because of medical negligence and his reckless use of propofol to help Jackson sleep.

The coroner ruled that Jackson's June 25, 2009, death was the result of "acute propofol intoxication" in combination with sedatives.

Murray's defense lawyers contend Jackson caused his own death by swallowing eight lorazepam pills and orally ingesting propofol while Murray was out of the room.

Bridgette Morgan, who met Murray in a Las Vegas night club eight years ago, testified Monday that she placed an unanswered phone call to Murray about 30 minutes before the time prosecutors suggest Murray realized there was a problem with Jackson.

Sade Anding, a cocktail waitress who met Murray when she was working at a Houston steakhouse, is likely to be one of the first witnesses Tuesday. Anding testified at the preliminary hearing in January that she was on the phone with Murray when he suddenly stopped responding to her.

That moment, 11:57 p.m., is when prosecutors contend Murray first realized that Jackson had stopped breathing.

"I didn't hear him on the phone any more," Anding said. "I heard commotion as if the phone was in a pocket and I heard coughing and I heard a mumbling of voices."

Anding said she stayed on the phone for another five minutes, listening and wondering why the man she sometimes dated wasn't responding.

"Hello, hello, are you there?" she testified she said.

Testimony from Nicole Alvarez, the mother of Murray's youngest child, is important because the propofol Murray used on Jackson was shipped to her Santa Monica, California, apartment.
Alvarez, 29, who met Murray around 2005 in a Las Vegas gentlemen's club, made it clear when she previously testified that she knew little about the doctor's activities.

"Dr. Murray and I were on a need-to-know basis, and I just know my place and my position in his life," Alvarez said.

Murray called Alvarez from the ambulance as he accompanied Jackson to the hospital, according to testimony in the preliminary hearing.

The judge ordered lawyers not to disclose to reporters ahead of time who they will call as witnesses, but they've been closely following the order used in the preliminary hearing.

Los Angeles Police Homicide Detective Dan Myers, who led the Los Angeles Police Department investigation of Jackson's death, and Coroner Investigator Elissa Fleak will probably testify Tuesday or Wednesday, based on that pattern.

On Monday, the emergency room doctor who declared Jackson dead testified that there was no way doctors could have revived the pop icon after he arrived at the hospital.

Dr. Richelle Cooper said Murray never told her that he had given Jackson propofol before he stopped breathing, but it would not have made a difference if he had because Jackson "had died long before."

"It is unlikely with that information that I would have been able to do something different that would have changed the outcome," Cooper said.

Prosecutors argue that Murray's failure to tell paramedics and doctors trying to resuscitate Jackson about the propofol is one of the negligent acts that make him criminally responsible for Jackson's death.

Another doctor testified Monday that the decision to place an aortic balloon pump in Jackson's heart was "a desperate attempt, even though very much futile" effort intended "to prepare Dr. Murray mentally to accept the fact that Mr. Jackson could not be rescued and would allow Mr. Jackson to depart in peace and dignity."

Dr. Thao Nguyen said Murray asked that "we not to give up easily and try to save Mr. Michael Jackson's life," Nguyen said, even though it seemed hopeless.

They placed a balloon pump in Jackson's aorta in an unsuccessful effort to restart his heart, she said. "It's not a case of too little, too late, but a case of too late," Nguyen said.

Cooper had recommended at 12:57 p.m., when Jackson was still at his home, that paramedics stop resuscitation efforts and declare him dead. Jackson was the first patient she had ever treated in the emergency room after having made such a recommendation to paramedics in the field, she said.

"I have never given a time of death in the field and then have that patient brought to me," she said.

She said this exception was not because Jackson was a celebrity, but because the patient had a physician with him who did not want them to give up.

Prosecutors have criticized Murray, who is a cardiologist, for using propofol on Jackson, contending it should be used only by anesthesiologists who have proper monitoring equipment.
Cooper, a prosecution witness, acknowledged under questioning by defense lawyer Michael Flanagan that she uses it regularly as an emergency room doctor.

If convicted of involuntary manslaughter, Murray could spend four years in a California prison and lose his medical license.

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/10/04/j...ad-murray-trial/index.html?section=cnn_latest
 
  • Conrad Murray's pleas not to give up on Michael Jackson


    By PETE SAMSON US Editor
    Published: Today


    MICHAEL Jackson's doctor Conrad Murray begged medics not to give up on trying to revive the lifeless star, a court heard yesterday.

    Cardiologist Dr Thao Nguyen said: "Dr Murray did ask me one thing — that we do not give up easily and try to save Michael Jackson's life."

    But Jacko had already been unresponsive for some time and Dr Nguyen said: "It's not a case of too little, too late — it's a case of too late."

    At the fifth day of the trial at Los Angeles Superior Court, Dr Nguyen said Dr Murray failed to mention the powerful sedative propofol when asked what drugs the star had taken. Instead he said he had given Jackson the weaker drug lorazepam.

    Dr Richelle Cooper, who tried in vain to save the singer's life, claimed the 25mg dose of propofol Murray, 58, has since admitted giving his patient may not have been enough to sedate him. She said: "In seven to ten minutes, it would probably be worn off."

    The defence are expected to argue that Murray did not mention the drug because he thought the dose was out of Jackson's system.
Dr Cooper said she had suggested Jackson, 50, be pronounced dead at his LA home at 12.57pm on June 25, 2009, but Murray demanded the singer be rushed to hospital.
He was finally pronounced dead at 2.26pm.

Murray is accused of killing the star with a lethal dose of propofol. His lawyers claim Jackson caused his own death self-medicating without his doctor's knowledge.

Murray denies involuntary manslaughter.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepag...-pleas-not-to-give-up-on-Michael-Jackson.html
 
Re: Murray Trial_ All media reports/articles - Merged - No discussion September 30th

Michael Jackson Death Timeline in Question

Published : Monday, 03 Oct 2011, 11:42 PM PDT
  • Los Angeles - One of the big questions that remains unanswered is when exactly did Michael Jackson die? Hal Eisner talked with our team of legal experts to find out how important that might be.
J. Michael Flanagan:
What is your best estimate of the time of death?

Richelle Cooper:
"I don't know."

UCLA emergency room Dr. Richelle Cooper says she doesn't know because Dr. Murray didn't tell her, didn't give her any records about drugs or dosages, and... she didn't ask.
Nobody knows exactly what time he died. Nobody knows.

Steve Cron:
"We don't know. There's no way of telling. We don't know how long the propofol was in his system. If he was dead on arrival or dead at the hospital."

Leo Terrell:
"We don't know if its when Murray was in the room, if he was on the phone, if he was out of the room, if Jackson injected the propofol by himself. We don't know."

Leo Terrell, Steve Cron, Meline Mkrtchian and Mike Kraut are analyzing it all for us.

Mike Kraut:
"They found too many pills in his stomach. Possibly propofol in the stomach. We know the doctor didn't administer propofol by his stomach as to what happened."

Meline Mkrtchian:
"Prosecution is just laying the groundwork for what happened at this time and that time."

Steve Cron:
"I don't think the time of death is critical. What the prosecution is going to say is we don't have a time of death because Dr. Murray was in charge."

Leo Terrell:
"Timeline is critical and if that can not be answered in that jury room that's going to cut in favor of Dr. Murray."

Mike Kraut:
"This would not be the first case that a doctor got duped by a client when the user went behind his back, self-medicated and hurt themselves."

Testimony and evidence are what will either prove the case or create a shadow of doubt.
Was the doctor responsible for the singer's death or did Jackson play a role? Only time and an accurate timeline -- including exactly when he died -- will tell.





Read more: http://www.myfoxla.com/dpp/jackson_...h-timeline-in-question-20111003#ixzz1ZnjDVblu
 
Re: Murray Trial_ All media reports/articles - Merged - No discussion September 30th

Conrad Murray Trial, Day 6: Did Murray's Relationships Factor Into MJ's Care?
By Kimberly Potts at TheWrap
Tue Oct 4, 2011 3:55am EDT

Day six of Conrad Murray's involuntary manslaughter trial gets underway today in Los Angeles, with Dr. Murray's former girlfriends on the list of potential witnesses.

CNN.com reports that, despite Judge Michael Pastor's insistence that neither Michael Jackson nor Conrad Murray's personal lives should take center stage, the prosecution will call three of Murray's girlfriends to the witness stand.
Prosecutors reportedly believe the womens' testimonies are key to proving their assertion that Murray did not provide the kind of attentive care a patient requires when using a powerful drug like propofol, which killed Jackson.

Bridgette Morgan, one of Murray's female friends, was the last witness on the stand yesterday, and is expected to begin proceedings today. She testified in a January preliminary hearing that she spoke to Murray on the phone about 30 minutes before Michael Jackson's medical emergency began on June 25, 2009.

Meanwhile, Nicole Alvarez, the mother of Murray's youngest child, is expected to testify that her Santa Monica address was used to receive shipments of propofol Murray had ordered for Jackson. Houston cocktail waitress Sade Anding is expected to testify she was on a phone call with Murray shortly before Jackson died.

Anding testified during a preliminary hearing in January that she had been talking to Murray when he suddenly stopped responding to her. "I didn't hear him on the phone anymore," Anding said. "I heard commotion as if the phone was in a pocket and I heard coughing, and I heard a mumbling of voices."

Prosecutors believe this may have been the moment when Murray first realized Jackson had stopped breathing, and it fits into their timeline of how Jackson's death unfolded.
The coroner ruled Jackson died of "acute propofol intoxication," and that sedatives were also a factor. Prosecutors contend Murray is criminally liable for Jackson's death because he recklessly administered the propofol and was negligent in properly monitoring Jackson during his use of the surgical anesthetic.

In courtroom testimony on Monday, emergency room doctor Richelle Cooper, who officially pronounced Jackson dead, said Murray had not informed her that Jackson was taking propofol.
But she also said the information wouldn't have changed the outcome, because Jackson "had died long before" arriving at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center on June 25, 2009.
Her ER colleague, Dr. Thao Nguyen, testified that Murray had pleaded with the ER staff not to give up on trying to resuscitate Jackson. The doctors placed a balloon pump in Jackson's aorta, but were unable to restart his heart.
"It's not a case of too little, too late, but a case of too late," Nguyen said.
The trial is expected to last at least four more weeks.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/04/idUS208405115820111004
 
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Re: Murray Trial_ All media reports/articles - Merged - No discussion September 30th

mccartneyAP Anthony McCartney
First witness will be Stacey Ruggles, Murray's office manager.

MJJNews Michael Jackson Love
Stacey Ruggles stepped down. New witness: Michelle Bella.

mccartneyAP Anthony McCartney
Murray's girlfriend Nicole Alvarez is now on the stand.
 
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Woman says call with Jackson doc interrupted
LOS ANGELES &#8212; A woman who was speaking on the phone with the doctor charged in Michael Jackson's death the day the singer died says the call was interrupted and the physician was no longer paying attention to her.
Sade Anding says she heard voices, coughing and mumbling on Dr. Conrad Murray's end of the line. She told jurors in Murray's involuntary manslaughter case that it sounded like his cell phone was in his pocket.
Anding says Murray called her at 11:51 a.m. on June 25, 2009. About five or six minutes into their call is when she noticed Murray was no longer paying attention.

Prosecutors also called Nicole Alvarez, who had a child with Murray and whose apartment he used to ship orders of the anesthetic propofol

Murray has pleaded not guilty. Authorities are focusing on his phone records to try to show he was distracted when he should have been caring for Jackson.
Testimony Monday was heavily centered on the calls Murray made and received on June 25, 2009, with witnesses ranging from the Houston-based cardiologist's patients, a doctor seeking advice and a woman who had dated Murray.

To this point, witnesses have been relatively brief, filling in prosecutors' timeline of the hours leading up to Jackson's death. Two people who phoned Murray that morning offered glowing appraisals of the doctor accused of involuntary manslaughter in connection with Jackson's death.
Phone records displayed in court Monday showed Murray called Alvarez four times the afternoon of Jacksons' death, including once while he was in the ambulance with Jackson's lifeless body on the way to the hospital.

Authorities contend he gave the singer a lethal dose of propofol and other sedatives. Murray's attorneys claim Jackson gave himself the fatal dose. If convicted, Murray faces four years behind bars and the loss of his medical license.
The phone records have revealed the special relationship Murray kept with his patients. Houston-based Dr. Joanne Prashad told jurors she called Murray the morning of Jackson's death to inquire whether it would be safe to operate on a patient whom Murray had treated. Prashad said she was surprised that Murray remembered the patient and the exact dosage of medicine that he was taking.

Murray's lead defense attorney Ed Chernoff asked Prashad whether Murray's recall was unusual for a doctor.
She said yes. "I was impressed," Prashad said.

Another patient, Antoinette Gill, told jurors she had called Murray's cell phone for a referral on June 25, 2009, but didn't reach him.

Neither did Bridgette Morgan, a former lover who, according to court documents, called Murray to follow up on his promise to purchase her a plane ticket for her birthday. Her relationship with Murray was not discussed in front of jurors. Superior Court Judge Michael Pastor ruled earlier this year that prosecutors could not describe the relationship Murray had with certain women or how he met them.

The records overall reveal a doctor who was on his phone a lot in the hours before Jackson's death. Another former patient, Robert Russell, testified that the doctor had returned a phone message to him at 11:49 a.m. &#8212; just 15 minutes or so before he emerged from Jackson's bedroom frantically seeking help.

He had been on the phone with his medical practice for 32 minutes before that, and was also sending emails about his $150,000 a month contract to serve as Jackson's personal physician during a planned series of comeback concerts.

Five of the eight witnesses called Monday testified about Murray's phone records.

Jurors also heard from two emergency room doctors who interacted with Murray after Jackson was taken to Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead. Both doctors said Murray never mentioned giving Jackson propofol.
Cardiologist Dr. Thao Nguyen said Murray didn't provide much information about his treatment
of Jackson, but urged doctors to try everything they could to revive him.
"Dr. Murray asked that we not give up easily and try to save Michael Jackson's life," she said. "... In Dr. Murray's mind, if we called it quits, we would be giving up easily."

In the end, Nguyen and colleague Dr. Richelle Cooper told jurors, Jackson was dead by the time he arrived in the emergency room and nothing more could be done.

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/44771...cksons-doctor-was-juggling-job-personal-life/


L.A. NOW
Southern California -- this just in

Cocktail waitress on phone with Conrad Murray as Jackson dyingOctober 4, 2011 | 10:41 am

A Houston cocktail waitress and girlfriend of Dr. Conrad Murray's told jurors Tuesday about the phone call during which prosecutors say the physician first realized Michael Jackson had stopped breathing.

Sade Anding, who was working as a waitress at a Houston steakhouse and bar when she met Murray, testified that she got a call from the physician at 11:51 a.m. on the morning of Jackson's death. About five to six minutes into the call, Murray disappeared from the other end of the line, she recalled.
"I started telling him about my day, and that's when I realized he was no longer on the phone," Anding said. "I was just talking, and the next thing, I said 'Hello hello,' and then I didn't hear anything."

A second woman, Michelle Bella, testified that she received a text message from the doctor the morning of June 25, 2009. Deputy Dist. Atty. Deborah Brazil tried to ask Bella about a voicemail the woman received from Murray on June 16, in which the doctor mentioned going on tour with Jackson, but she was barred by the judge.

An employee who worked for Murray also briefly took the stand Tuesday to testify about calls she exchanged with the doctor in the final hours of Jackson's life.

During cross-examination by Murray's attorney, Ed Chernoff, Stacey Ruggles talked of a practice the doctor set up in Houston for the poor. The office was bringing in a "very minimal amount of income," she said.

"Most of them were indigent, on fixed incomes, and were unable to afford a physician," Ruggles said.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2011/10/conrad-murray-cocktail-waitress.html
 
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