Jacko doctor's home and office raided
The home and office of Michael Jackson’s doctor were raided yesterday by federal agents investigating whether the administration of a powerful sedative may have caused the singer’s death.
Officials from the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) spent hours at Dr Conrad Murray’s house and his clinic in Las Vegas looking for evidence as part of a potential manslaughter investigation.
It follows reports that police think the physician gave the pop star propofol to help him sleep shortly before he died.
Officers are working on the theory that the powerful sedative caused his heart to stop, it has been suggested.
Los Angeles police accompanied DEA agents as they entered Dr Murray’s home in a gated community with a search warrant.
They emerged with five or six plastic containers full of documents. Dr Murray was present during the search and assisted officers who seized mobile phones and a computer hard drive, the physician’s attorney said.
Meanwhile, a separate raid took place across town at the doctor’s offices.
Edward Chernoff, Dr Murray’s lawyer, said that investigators were looking for “medical records relating to Michael Jackson and all of his reported aliases”.
The latest raids followed that on the doctor’s clinic in Houston, Texas, last week.
On that occasion, agents spent two-and-a-half hours at the site, leaving with 21 documents and a “forensic image” of a computer hard drive.
The investigation is increasingly focusing on the role of Dr Murray, Jackson’s personal physician, who was with him when he died.
The doctor has been quizzed twice by police in Los Angeles as part of their probe, with a third interview planned.
He has not been named as a suspect but court records have identified the 51-year-old physician as the subject of a manslaughter investigation.
On Monday an official told the Associated Press that Jackson enlisted a number of doctors – including Dr Murray – to administer propofol via an intravenous drip.
The law enforcement source added that on June 25, the day the singer died, Dr Murray gave him the drug sometime after midnight.
The drug he allegedly administered, propofol, lowers the recipient’s heart rate and blood pressure.
It is usually only used in hospitals because of the risks involved.
A safety warning on the drug’s label states that the patient must be monitored at all times.
Furthermore, equipment to aid breathing and provide artificial ventilation and oxygen “must be immediately available”.
Mr Chernoff has publicly stated that his client “didn’t prescribe or administer anything that should have killed Michael Jackson”.
In a statement on the latest allegations over propofol, Mr Chernoff said: “It’s a waste of time responding to all these timed ’leaks’ from ’anonymous’ sources. I feel like a horse swatting flies.
“Everyone needs to take a breath and wait for these long delayed toxicology results. I have no doubt they want to make a case – for goodness sakes, it’s Michael Jackson.
“But things tend to shake out when all the facts are made known, and I’m sure that will happen here as well.”
Toxicology reports are pending, with reports suggesting that they could be made public as early as the end of this week.
