LOS ANGELES ? Prosecutors are expected to play for jurors a police interview conducted with the doctor charged in Michael Jackson's death, during which he lays out his version of events in the final hours of the singer's life.
The more-than two hour interview has never been played in public before, nor has a transcript of its contents been released. In it, Dr. Conrad Murray details his treatments on Jackson in the hours before the singer's death, including his administration of the anesthetic propofol.
The interview was conducted by two Los Angeles police detectives, one of whom, Scott Smith, will introduce the interview for jurors during the trial's ninth day on Friday, prosecutors have told a judge.
The interview will be played after defense attorney J. Michael Flanagan finishes cross examination of coroner's toxicologist Dan Anderson. On Thursday, Anderson told jurors that propofol was found in various parts of the singer's body, his blood and urine during an autopsy. The amounts found led coroner's officials to conclude that Jackson died from acute propofol intoxication, with other sedatives administered by Murray contributing to the singer's death.
Defense attorneys contend Jackson gave himself the lethal dose after Murray left the room. Flanagan attempted Thursday to get Anderson to say that high levels of the sedative lorazepam found in Jackson's stomach meant that he swallowed the drug himself. Anderson told jurors he couldn't determine that based on the information he had.
Murray has pleaded not guilty to involuntary manslaughter and faces up to four years behind bars and the loss of his medical license if convicted.
Murray's police interview two days after Jackson's death on June 25, 2009 is one of the last big pieces of evidence prosecutors have to present against Murray. According to search warrant affidavits, police said Murray detailed his treatments of propofol and other drugs to try to get Jackson to sleep.
The Houston-based cardiologist, who was accompanied by an attorney during the interview, told detectives that he had been trying to wean Jackson off propofol because he was afraid he was addicted. He told the police he had given the singer other sedatives, including lorazepam and midazolam, in the hours before Jackson's death, but that the singer couldn't fall asleep.
Murray told the police that he had only left Jackson alone for a couple minutes when he returned around 11 a.m. on June 25, 2009 to find the singer had stopped breathing. Murray's attorneys have disputed this portion of the timeline and say the doctor returned to find Jackson unresponsive around noon.
In the interview, the physician also told detectives that other doctors had given Jackson propofol as a sleep aid in the past. The singer called it his "milk," according to descriptions of the interview included in search warrant affidavits.
The doctor also told police during the question-and-answer session where vials of propofol that remained in Jackson's rented mansion could be found. The disclosure led police to search the singer's bedroom and closet two days after the interview and turned up an IV bag, several drugs and creams to treat vitiligo and bottles of propofol.
Lead defense attorney Ed Chernoff on Thursday attacked the credibility of a coroner's investigator who collected evidence at the house on the June 25 and June 29, 2009 searches of Jackson's home. Chernoff noted that investigator Elissa Fleak had moved items in the room and failed to note in a report until nearly two years after Jackson's death that she had found a bottle of propofol inside an IV bag.
Jackson's bodyguard Alberto Alvarez described the bottle in the IV bag during testimony last week and in January during a preliminary hearing, leading Chernoff to question whether Fleak had added the detail to match Alvarez's description. Fleak had photographed the bottle and IV bag together, but with the container placed outside the bag.
Fleak denied any wrongdoing, and denied Chernoff's contention that she had made "a substantial number of mistakes."
The investigator also acknowledged that she had handled a syringe without gloves, leaving a thumbprint on the item.
Walgren attempted to deflect the criticism, asking the investigator whether she had conducted a perfect investigation. No, she replied.
"Have you ever conducted a perfect investigation?" Walgren asked.
"No," Fleak said.
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AP Special Correspondent Linda Deutsch contributed to this report.
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