Jackson family in court as doctor accused over death

Michael Jackson’s doctor was guilty of a string of failings leading to the pop icon’s sudden death, prosecutors said on Tuesday night as the physician appeared in court charged with manslaughter.

In a pre-trial hearing attended by Michael Jackson’s mother Katherine and sister LaToya, LA deputy district attorney David Walgren said Conrad Murray failed to call 911 quickly enough and did not tell paramedics what he had done.

The doctor, accused of administering an overdose of powerful sedatives, also performed emergency resuscitation wrongly, said Mr Walgren, who has suggested that Dr Conrad’s lawyers will try to claim the singer 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 the Los Angeles Superior Court at the start of a two-week hearing expected to hear from some 35 witnesses.

Katherine Jackson, his 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 late King of Pop’s death on June 25, 2009.

Mr Walgren told the court that Dr Murray gave Michael 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 Michael Jackson’s former personal assistant Michael Williams, who told how he received a voicemail at 12.13 p.m. from a “frantic” Dr Murray, telling him to rush back to the estate Michael Jackson was renting.

After ordering two security guards to return to the house as well, he described the heartbreaking moments when the singer’s children learned of their father’s death.

With Michael Jackson’s body still lying in bed, he quoted Michael 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 Michael 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 over the request, and that Dr Murray later quietly slipped away from the gathering at the hospital and he didn’t see him again.

Dr Murray, a cardiologist, is accused of administering a potent cocktail of sedatives and painkillers to help Micheal Jackson sleep. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Mr Walgren claimed last week that defence lawyers will say the singer woke up that fateful night at his Beverly Hills mansion and injected himself with an overdose while Dr Murray was out of the room.

“I do think it’s clear the defence is operating under the theory that the victim, Michael Jackson, killed himself,” he said.

It was unclear whether any of the Jackson family would testify at the hearings in the Los Angeles Superior Court, or simply watch the proceedings. Dr Murray avoided the press by arriving in court via an underground parking lot.

At the preliminary hearing, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Michael Pastor will decide whether there is enough evidence to try Dr Murray, 57, on charges of involuntary manslaughter – essentially, a killing done without malice.