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Jacko death investigation documents released

By | Published on Tuesday 25 August 2009

While the official coroner’s report remains sealed, documents relating to the previously reported search of Michael Jackson’s personal doctor Conrad Murray’s office have been released, revealing and clarifying some details about the singer’s death. In addition to this, an unnamed police source has come forward to tell the Associated Press that the coroner’s report has ruled that the singer’s death was a homicide, rather than accidental.

In the affidavit (the contents of which have been called into dispute by Murray’s lawyer) which originally requested a search warrant to be granted as part of a manslaughter investigation, police detective Orlando Martinez said that Los Angeles Chief Medical Examiner-Coroner, Dr Lakshmanan Sathyavagiswaran “had reviewed the preliminary toxicology results and his preliminary assessment of Jackson’s cause of death was due to lethal levels of propofol”.

Regarding Jacko’s propofol dependency and its role in the singer’s demise, Murray apparently claims that he had been attempting to wean Jackson off the powerful anaesthetic, which the singer referred to as his “milk”, prior to his death. The doc says he feared Jackson had become addicted to the drug after a six week course of 50 milligrams per night. He had lowered the dose to 25 milligrams and added sedatives lorazepam and midazolam into the mix on 23 Jun. The next night he cut the propofol altogether, just giving Jackson the two sedatives.

According to the affidavit, on 25 Jun, Murray seemingly provided the singer with 10 milligrams of Valium at around 1.30am, followed by two milligrams of lorazepam around half an hour later, two milligrams of midazolam at around 3am and repeats of both at 5am and 7.30am.

After “repeated demands” from Jackson, who was still failing to sleep properly, Murray administered a 25 milligram dose of propofol via an intravenous drip at 10.40am. Jackson finally fell asleep after this and Murray stayed by his side for around 10 minutes before leaving “to go to the restroom and relieve himself” and make phonecalls. When he returned, Jackson was no longer breathing. Murray attempted CPR, but failed to revive him.

In a statement, Murray’s lawyer Edward Chernoff said: “Much of what was in the search warrant affidavit is factual. However, unfortunately, much is police theory. Most egregiously, the timeline reported by law enforcement was not obtained through interviews with Dr Murray, as was implied by the affidavit. Dr Murray simply never told investigators that he found Michael Jackson at 11.00am not breathing. He also never said that he waited a mere ten minutes before leaving to make several phone calls. In fact, Dr Murray never said that he left Michael Jackson’s room to make phone calls at all”.

On the subject of the anonymous claims that Jackson’s death had been ruled a homicide, he said: “We will not comment on the ‘anonymous’ law enforcement source that claims that Michael Jackson’s death will be ruled a homicide. Most of the reports by ‘anonymous’ sources have been proven wrong. We will be happy to address the Coroner’s report when it is officially released”.



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