Everett, Wash.
Published: Saturday, June 27, 2009

Jackson death probe focuses on drugs

Los Angeles Times

 LOS ANGELES -- With initial autopsy results inconclusive, the investigation into Michael Jackson's death focused Friday on whether the pop icon, who had struggled with painkiller addiction in the past, overdosed on prescription drugs.

"We know he was taking some prescription medication," said Craig Harvey, a spokesman for the Los Angeles County coroner's office, at a news conference announcing the completion of the autopsy. He said more tests, including a toxicology screen that would take four to six weeks, were required to determine the cause of Jackson's sudden cardiac arrest.

As the lab work began, detectives with the police department's robbery-homicide unit were seeking to question a physician who was in Jackson's Los Angeles mansion Thursday when the entertainer stopped breathing. Conrad Murray, a cardiologist with offices in Las Vegas and Houston, was identified by a Jackson adviser as the singer's personal doctor of three years and the man tapped to assure the 50-year-old performer's health during the comeback concert series planned for next month in London.

Investigators said Friday night that Murray had agreed to be interviewed in the presence of his lawyer. Earlier in the day, police had seized the BMW sedan Murray had driven to Jackson's rented residence.

"It may contain medications or other evidence that may assist the coroner in determining the cause of death," a police spokeswoman said.

Police officials said the doctor was not the target of a criminal investigation. Coroner's officials said the autopsy showed no evidence of foul play and police said there was nothing in the house indicating that Jackson had been injected with a drug.

Those close to Jackson's comeback shows -- make-or-break performances designed to return him to pop cultural relevancy and reduce his massive financial debt -- said there were no signs of drug use during the six-hour rehearsals or at lengthy meetings to discuss new business opportunities.

"I was not aware of him taking anything," said Tohme Tohme, a Jackson business adviser trained as an orthopedic surgeon. "As far as I know there weren't any" painkillers.

Jackson admitted prescription drug addiction in the 1990s. Randy Phillips, chief executive of AEG Live, Jackson's concert promoter, said this spring Jackson had passed a four-hour physical required to insure his London performances. Jackson was given a clean bill of health. Asked if the exam would have revealed drug abuse, Phillips replied, "Absolutely."

He said he had been around performers abusing drugs in his career and saw no signs of addiction in Jackson.

"I'm not a doctor, but I've had many, many meetings with him where he was incredibly lucid," Phillips said.

He also impressed two savvy billionaires -- AEG's Phil Anschutz and Colony Capital's Tom Barrack -- enough last year that they supported his comeback. But a former associate suggested that Jackson may have turned to narcotics to deal with the side effects of preparing his middle-aged body for his first tour in 12 years. The associate, who worked closely with Jackson in the 1980s and 1990s, said that, even as a young man, the singer experienced debilitating muscle cramps from the strenuous routines that were his signature and often pushed his physicians to give him Demerol, morphine or other drugs.

"He had a way of almost demanding it because he would say he couldn't perform and therefore a doctor would give it to him. He had taken a tremendous amount of narcotics and had a very high tolerance," said the associate. He acknowledged that he had not been in contact with Jackson in recent years.

When paramedics arrived at Jackson's house Thursday, Murray was performing CPR. In a call to 911 from inside the home, an unidentified man said Jackson was on a bed being tended to by his personal doctor.

"He's not breathing. He's not breathing," the man said. "We are trying to pump him."

Murray was at the University of California, Los Angeles, Medical Center with Jackson's advisers when the performer was pronounced dead.

"He was distraught. He could barely talk," Phillips recalled.

Licensed in California, Nevada and Texas, Murray was summoned to Los Angeles in the last two weeks at Jackson's request, said Tohme. Phillips said Jackson insisted on Murray as his personal physician even as the promoter suggested a London-based doctor made more financial and logistical sense. The singer, he said, "insisted emphatically" on Murray and told Phillips that the doctor was prepared to go on sabbatical from his practices.
© 2009The Daily Herald Co., Everett, WA