LOS ANGELES – A judge has ordered Michael Jackson’s doctor to stand trial on a charge of involuntary manslaughter in the pop star’s drug overdose death and suspended the doctor’s California medical license.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Michael Pastor on Tuesday found that enough evidence exists to bring Dr Conrad Murray to trial for the Thrillersinger's death in June 2009, due principally to an overdose of the powerful anaesthetic propofol.
“I order the defendant be held to answer” for the crime, the judge said after six days of testimony in a preliminary hearing as Jackson’s sister, La Toya, and his brother, Randy, looked on.
Involuntary manslaughter is defined as an unintentional killing without malice and is a lesser charge than murder.
Dr Murray faces a maximum sentence of four years in prison if convicted.
He has pleaded not guilty to the charge.
During the hearing, prosecutors brought to the witness stand a Jackson employee who testified that Dr Murray ordered him to hide drug evidence the day the singer died on June 25th. Telephone records showed Dr Murray called his girlfriend shortly after giving Jackson propofol, instead of caring for the singer.
Coroners ruled Jackson died from propofol and the effect of sedatives including lorazepam, but the anaesthetic was the key drug. Propofol is most often used in hospitals, but Jackson took it as a sleep aid. Dr Murray has admitted giving the singer propofol.
Defence attorneys have suggested Jackson may have injected himself with the fatal dose, but a pair of medical experts testified on Tuesday that even if that were the case, Dr Murray was still responsible because he supplied the propofol.
“It’s like a heroin addict – you’re going to walk away from him with a syringe full of heroin next to him? It’s the same thing with propofol,” said Dr Richard Ruffalo, an anesthesiologist at California’s Hoag Clinic.
Defence attorneys also claimed Dr Murray was trying to get Jackson off drugs to help him.
“Why, all of a sudden on the day that Dr Conrad Murray is trying to wean off Michael Jackson trying anything else but propofol, would he suddenly be given a dosage that goes above that. That defies common sense,” defence attorney Joseph Low said in his summation on Tuesday.
Mr Low suggested Jackson’s drug use had riddled his body and, by age 50, it may have been his time to die.
Deputy district attorney David Walgren seized on that last point, saying: “the standard of care was breached, unfortunately and tragically, over and over again because of Dr Murray’s actions. That is why Michael Jackson is no longer here. Not because it was Michael Jackson’s time to go.”
Judge Pastor’s ruling largely had been expected because the burden of proof is low in a preliminary hearing. Dr Murray is due in court on January 25th, at which time a trial date could be set.
Outside the courthouse, Randy Jackson appeared pleased at the outcome. “I think the prosecutors, everyone, did a great job,” he told reporters as he was entering his car.