LOS ANGELES – Prosecutors charged Michael Jackson’s personal doctor yesterday with involuntary manslaughter in the singer’s death last year.
Dr Conrad Murray has been a focus of investigations for months, since the coroner’s office ruled that Jackson’s June 25th death was a homicide by drug overdose.
Murray was at Jackson’s rented Los Angeles house at the time of his death and was the man who, according to police affidavits, admitted administering the powerful anaesthetic propofol to the 50-year-old singer to help him sleep.
The coroner’s report in August said Jackson’s death was caused principally by propofol and the sedative lorazepam. Other painkillers, sedatives and a stimulant were also found in his body.
The charge of involuntary manslaughter alleges Dr Murray “did unlawfully, and without malice, kill Michael Joseph Jackson”, said a statement from the Los Angeles district attorney’s office.
Dr Murray is expected to make an initial appearance in court in Los Angeles later on Monday.
He could face up to four years in prison if convicted, the district attorney’s office said.
The doctor has repeatedly insisted he did nothing wrong and has told investigators he was not the first doctor to give Jackson propofol, according to court records.
A cardiologist, Dr Murray was hired in May 2009 to care for Jackson while the entertainer prepared in London for a series of 50 comeback concerts aimed at reviving a career sidelined by his humiliating 2005 trial and acquittal on charges of molesting a 13-year-old boy.
The self-styled King of Pop died of sudden cardiac arrest after a late-night rehearsal in Los Angeles for the planned concerts.
His death prompted a worldwide outpouring of grief for the singer, who started his career as a child and whose 1982 album Thrillerremains the world's best-selling album.
Dr Murray was an immediate focus of police investigations into Jackson’s death. Authorities found bottles of propofol in his doctor’s bag and on the bedside table of Jackson’s home, according to court records unsealed last year.
They also searched his offices in Las Vegas and Houston, Texas.
Propofol, also known by the trade name Diprivan, is used to sedate patients on breathing machines or before procedures such as colonoscopies. Given properly, it does not render them unconscious but they usually cannot remember the procedure.
The American Society of Anesthesiologists says propofol should “never be used outside of a controlled and monitored medical setting”. Lorazepam is one of a class of drugs known as benzodiazepines, which include Valium, and are often used to allay anxiety. – (Reuters)