As the details surrounding Michael Jacksonís death continue to be pieced together one thing is becoming clearó whether he intended to or not, Jacksonís Doctor Conrad Murray played a part. The question is how big a part that was.
The search warrant affidavit unsealed in Houston, Texas on Aug. 24, quotes Los Angeles Police Department coroner, Dr. Lakshmanan Sathyavagiswaran saying, ìToxicology analysis shows Michael Jackson had lethal levels of Propofol in his blood.”
The Associated Press is quoting a single, anonymous law enforcement official as saying that the L.A. Police Department ruled Jacksonís death as a homicide. The credibility of this source has yet to be determined and the L.A. Police Department denies claim to this statement.
Murray administered 50 milligrams of the drug intravenously to Jackson, who had reportedly been suffered sleep deprivation, every night for six weeks and admitted to administering the drug on the morning of June 25, the day Jackson died.
Murphy established in the 32 page warrant, taken by authorities, that he believed Jackson was forming an addiction to the drug and attempted, unsuccessfully, to wean him off the drug.
Propofol is a strong anesthetic typically used in hospitals where the patient remains under the watch of an anesthesiologist.
In an effort to continue his efforts to wean Jacksonís dependency on the drug Murray gave Jackson a cocktail of milder sedatives throughout the course of the night. On the morning of June 25, Jackson received 10 mg of Valium orally at 1:30 a.m.; he was injected with 2 mg of Ativan at 2 a.m., 2 mg of Versed at 3 a.m., another 2 mg of Ativan at 5 a.m. and another 2 mg of Versed at 7:30 a.m.
When none of those drugs seemed to have an effect Murray administered 25 mg of Propofol at 10:40 a.m. causing the insomniac to immediately fall asleep.
The cardiologist told detectives that about 10 minutes after he administered the Propofol he left the room for a span of two minutes to use the rest room. It was in this time that Jackson went into cardiac arrest.
The doctor neglected to tell police that between 11:18 a.m. and 12:05 p.m. he spent 47 minutes making three different phone calls shortly after the time he reported discovering Jackson unresponsive.
The following statement raises many questions about the credibility of Conrad Murray. According to the Jackson familyís lawyer Londell McMillan the report ìreaffirms the very sad reality that there was a tragic and gross violation of duty and care for Michael Jackson.”
Jackson had five other doctors and a nurse practitioner working for him and refused to disclose his prescriptions from other doctors to Murray, which may have been a contributing factor to his death.
According to the affidavit, ìDetectives … believe that the miscellaneous prescriptions, from multiple doctors … could have contributed to his death.”
The affidavit states that, ìIt cannot be determined whether the cause of death is due to the actions of a single night and/or a single doctor, or the grossly negligent treatment of several doctors over an extended period of time.”
Until the details surrounding Jacksonís death have been smoothed out the L.A. coronerís office has delayed further autopsy reports indefinitely.
For now family representative Ken Sunshine has indicated that ìthe family looks forward to the day that justice can be served.”