Michael Jackson's doctor was guilty of a string of failings leading to the pop icon's sudden death, prosecutors said as the physician appeared in court charged with manslaughter.
In a pre-trial hearing on Tuesday attended by Jackson's mother and his sister LaToya, Los Angeles deputy district attorney David Walgren said Dr. Conrad Murray failed to call 911 quickly enough as Jackson's life slipped away, and did not tell paramedics what he himself had done.
The doctor, accused of administering an overdose of powerful sedatives, also performed emergency resuscitation wrongly, said Mr. Walgren, who has suggested that Conrad's lawyers will try to claim Jackson injected himself with an overdose.
“In the opinion of our medical experts they will show an extreme deviation from expected standard of care,” Mr. Walgren told Los Angeles Superior Court at the start of a two-week hearing expected to hear from some 35 witnesses. Jackson's mother Katherine, sister LaToya and brother Jackie were all in court to hear the prosecution argue why Dr. Murray should go to a full trial for the King of Pop's death on June 25, 2009.
Mr. Walgren told the court that Dr. Murray gave Jackson the powerful sedative propofol every night for nearly two months to help him sleep, as he prepared for a string of comeback concerts in London. Among the first witnesses was Jackson's former personal assistant Michael Williams, who told how he received a voicemail at 12:13 pm from a “frantic” Dr. Murray, telling him to rush back to the estate Jackson was renting.
After ordering two security guards to return to the house as well, he described the heartbreaking moments when Jackson's children learned of their father's death. With Jackson's body still lying in bed, he quoted Jackson's manager Frank Dileo as telling the children: “Daddy had a heart attack and died,” to which Dr. Murray said: “Don't say that, we don't know.” Mr. Walgren then asked about a “strange request” from Dr. Murray to Mr. Williams. “Mr. Jackson had some cream in his room that he wouldn't want the world to know about. Can you ask one of the guys to go back to the house and go get it?” Mr. Williams testified.
He said it was strange because Jackson “had just passed and it's the last thing I was thinking about”.
Mr. Williams said he lied and said he didn't have his keys to avoid a confrontation with Dr. Murray, and that Dr. Murray later quietly slipped away from the gathering at the hospital and he didn't see him again.
