Michael Jackson physician Dr Conrad Murray 'misled' trauma doctor

Dr Conrad Murray, Michael Jackson's personal physician, misled an emergency-room doctor when the singer was rushed to hospital following a fatal overdose, a court heard.


Dr Murray was in the ambulance with his patient when they arrived at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Centre in Los Angeles.

As Michael Jackson was wheeled into the hospital Dr Murray was asked a series of questions by trauma doctor Richelle Cooper, including what medications the entertainer had taken.

Dr Murray replied that he had administered only two small 2mg doses of the sedative lorazepam.

In explaining what might have caused Jackson’s heart to stop Dr Murray said he had been “working very long hours” and might be suffering from dehydration.

The doctor did not mention that he had been giving his patient the powerful anaesthetic propofol, which was later found to have caused Jackson’s death.

He also told Dr Cooper that he had witnessed the moment the 50-year-old singer stopped breathing.

Prosecutors claim that, when that happened, Dr Murray had in fact left Jackson’s bedroom to make phone calls.

According to Dr Cooper there were “signs of a dying heart” when Jackson arrived in the ambulance.

She told the court: “He was clinically dead. He did not have a pulse.”
Dr Murray has pleaded not guilty to a charge of involuntary manslaughter over Jackson’s death on June 25, 2009.

Prosecutors have claimed there was a gap of at least 20 minutes between the time the doctor noticed his patient was unresponsive, to emergency services being called.

During that time Dr Murray allegedly tried to cover up what drugs he had been giving the singer by scooping up bottles from his bedroom and putting them in bags.

Bodyguard Alberto Alvarez, a key prosecution witness, told jurors that the doctor asked him to stash vials and observed a "milky white substance" in an IV bag.

"While I was standing at the foot of the bed, he reached over and grabbed a handful of vials, and then he reached out to me and said, 'here put these in a bag'," said Alvarez, who said Murray also asked him to stash an IV bag that seemingly contained propofol – the anaesthetic that has been labelled as what ultimately killed Jackson.

"I was able to notice that at the bottom of the bag, there was what appeared to me like a milky white substance."

Alvarez also described how Jackson's daughter Paris, who was 11 at the time, walked into Jackson’s bedroom as his physician Dr Conrad Murray was desperately trying to bring him round.

“I was walking towards the bed reaching for my phone in my pocket. Prince and Paris came behind me. I was coming in to the specific area and they were right behind me. Paris screamed out 'Daddy!'," Mr Alvarez said.

Paramedics, who responded to the emergency call within four minutes, described Jackson as looking like someone with a “chronic health problem".

A tube from his nose led to an oxygen bottle and an IV drip was attached to his leg.
He had already “flatlined” and his skin was turning blue by the time paramedics arrived.

Paramedic Richard Senneff said Dr Conrad Murray told him that he had only given Jackson the sedative lorazepam, and Murray had initially said Jackson was not suffering from any condition.

Murray appeared frantic when the paramedic arrived in the bedroom on the day of Jackson's death in June 2009, Mr Senneff said.

He had to ask Murray three times about what condition Jackson had before the doctor answered.
"He said, 'Nothing. He has nothing'," Mr Senneff said. "Simply, that did not add up to me."

Kia Chase, Michael Jackson's former chef, told the court that Jackson's physician, Dr Conrad Murray was acting frantically at the scene of his death.

Chase who was present at the Holmby Hills, the California mansion that Jackson was living in at the time, said at one point Dr Murray came downstairs in a panic, calling for her to summon security as well as Jackson's oldest son, Prince.

"I saw Dr Murray come down the stairs into the kitchen in a panic and frantic," she told the packed courtroom.

"His energy was very nervous and frantic and he was shouting 'get help, get security, get Prince', I dropped what I was doing and I ran to go get Prince," she added.