Michael Jackson’s doctor Conrad Murray ‘to hand himself in’
According to reports, Dr Conrad Murray will turn himself into police before he is taken to court near Los Angeles international airport to face a judge.
Prosecutors have declined to say whether they will charge Dr Murray, but sources have told news agencies including the celebrity website tmz.com and the Associated Press that prosecutors plan to charge the doctor with involuntary manslaughter.
The Los Angeles County district attorney’s spokeswoman, Sandi Gibbons, could “neither confirm nor deny” whether Dr Murray would appear at the airport courthouse tomorrow. She noted that the office policy was to file charges in the court district in which the alleged crime occurred.
Michael Jackson died June 25 at a rented mansion on the west side of Los Angeles, and the airport courthouse handles criminal cases in the western portion of LA.
Dr Murray met his lawyers yesterday to discuss his defence strategy in the event that he is charged in the singer’s death. He and his legal team had received no word from prosecutors about a decision from the district attorney, but Ed Chernoff, its lead lawyer, said that Dr Murray was ready to surrender to authorities in the event a charge is filed.
“We are prepared for whatever occurs,” Mr Chernoff said. “We have time to meet and strategise for possible scenarios, but in reality we’ve had eight months to do that.”
Jackson, 50, hired Dr Murray as personal physician during preparation for a strenuous series of comeback performances at the 02 centre in London.
His death in Los Angeles came after Dr Murray administered the powerful anaesthetic propofol and two other sedatives to help the chronic insomniac to sleep, according to the Los Angeles County coroner’s office, which ruled the death was homicide by drug overdose.
Propofol is supposed to be administered only by an anaesthesics professional in a medical setting. The patient requires constant monitoring because the drug depresses breathing and heart rate while also lowering blood pressure.
Dr Murray has maintained that nothing he gave the singer should have killed him. He admitted when questioned by police that he had given Jackson propofol, which the singer called his “milk”.
He told police that Jackson was dependent on propofol to sleep and that he was trying to wean him off the drug.
In November Dr Murray resumed seeing patients at his clinic in Houston because he needed to raise money for legal fees over the investigation into Jackson’s death.
He has not spoken publicly about the case, except for a brief video he posted on YouTube last August. “I have done all I could do, I told the truth, and I have faith the truth will prevail,” Dr Murray said in the video.
