Got toast? Feds raid Dr. Murray's house

Dr. Conrad Murray waving goodbye. He's toast!

Note: I'm in a rush, so I'm posting ABC News' story on the raid as is because it contains details and background information.

Federal and local investigators are searching the Las Vegas home and offices of Dr. Conrad Murray, Michael Jackson's physician, who authorities believe may have injected the singer with a lethal dose of anesthesia the day he died, law enforcement sources told ABC News.

Murray has become the primary focus of the inquest into Jackson's June 25 death. Investigators believe Murray injected the pop icon with propofol around midnight and left him unattended, according to The Associated Press.

Murray topped a shortlist of doctors who have been questioned by police in the weeks since the singer's death because they are believed to have supplied Jackson with countless prescription drugs over the years.

DEA agents and local police were at the scene of the raid on Murray's home.The house was occupied at the time of the raid, but Murray is not beleived to have been at home.

Murray, whose Houston office was raided by local and federal authorities last week, has already been named in court papers as the subject of a manslaughter investigation.

"This doctor is in serious trouble," criminal defense attorney Roy Black told "Good Morning America" today.

New details have emerged about the scene paramedics discovered on the afternoon they were called to Jackson's Los Angeles rental home.

They reportedly found a chaotic scene inside the singer's bedroom, with clothes strewn around the stifling hot room, handwritten notes papering the walls and a porcelain doll on his bed.

Toxicology reports are due to be released this week, and it seems the net is tightening on Murray, who remains secluded in his Las Vegas home.

ABC News has confirmed Jackson's body had track marks on it, consistent with IV drug use, and authorities said he was addicted to the painkillers OxyContin and Demerol.

"Everyone needs to take a breath and wait for these long-delayed toxicology results," Murray's lawyer, Ed Chernoff, said in a statement released Monday night. "Things tend to shake out when all the facts are made known, and I'm sure that will happen here as well."

But Chernoff has already admitted that Murray didn't call 911 for 30 minutes after he found Jackson unresponsive. And the doctor, who had been hired to monitor Jackson for his planned "This Is It" tour, initially performed CPR while Jackson was lying on a bed, not on a hard surface as is proper protocol.

Black told "Good Morning America" that if Murray is charged it will be up to his defense to prove there was a sound medical reason why he prescribed and administered the off-label use of a drug that is meant for use in the operating room.

"They're going to say there's not legitimate reason to prescribe this drug for use in the home," he said. "It certainly should not be used for insomnia."

An official close to the investigation told The Associated Press that Jackson relied on propofol like an alarm clock, instructing doctors to stop the IV when he wanted to wake up. It's a drug authorities believe he may have been using for two years.

Was anyone monitoring his vital signs?

Murray's lawyers have maintained for weeks that the doctor was simply a witness in Jackson's death and had nothing to do with it.

Chernoff has repeatedly said the doctor did not administer any drug that should have killed Jackson. While he has specifically denied prescribing OxyContin and Demerol, he has not made the same assurances about propofol.

Black said that, as Jackson's physician, Murray should have known what other drugs the entertainer was taking and how they could have interacted.

As for the propofol itself, Black said, Murray is "going to have a very tough time proving you can do this at home."

It's unclear if Murray or anyone else was monitoring Jackson's vital signs while he was hooked up to the IV.

On June 29, five days after Jackson's death, Chernoff told ABC News that it was "sometime before noon" when Murray went to check on his patient.

"He noticed that he wasn't breathing, and he went over to him, felt his body, his body was warm, he checked for a pulse, he found one, a very weak pulse and he immediately started applying CPR," Chernoff said then.

TMZ has reported that paramedics found Jackson dead upon arrival with an IV in his arm and three oxygen tanks nearby, yet Murray insisted Jackson be transported to the hospital where he continued to try to revive him even after other doctors had given up.

Three tanks of oxygen were in the room where Jackson slept and 15 more oxygen tanks were in a security guard's shack, an official told The Associated Press.

Nurse refused him Diprivan

Cherilyn Lee, a registered nurse and nutritionist who worked for Jackson, said the singer begged her to give him propofol in the days before his death. She refused to help him obtain it.

Lee told ABC News the pop star had often complained of not being able to sleep more than a few hours at a time.

"The problem with you telling me you want to be knocked out," Lee said she told him, is "you might not wake up the next morning. You don't want that."

When investigators searched Murray's Texas office earlier this month, among the items seized were a vial containing 27 tablets of the weight loss drug phentermine, a vial containing a tablet of the muscle relaxant clonazepam, a photocopy picture of Murray, Rolodex cards, public storage receipts, and a receipt for a "Cricket" phone, according to the search warrant.

Other items seized from his storage unit, according to the court records, included two computer hard drives and a "Texas Department of Public Safety controlled substance registration." Authorities also obtained a suspension notice from a Houston hospital.

The search warrants specifically directed officers to "seize and examine all items, including but not limited to, billing records, medication orders, transport receipts, billing receipts, medical records and computerized medical records, for implements and instruments used in the commission of a crime."

The warrants told police they were "commanded to search ... for property or items constituting evidence of the offense of manslaughter that tend to show that Dr. Conrad Murray committed the said criminal offense" and ship any evidence found to officials in California.

Addictions to Diprivan, Demerol, OxyContin

In the aftermath of his death, Jackson's addiction to a variety of drugs was revealed, including propofol (trade name Diprivan), the analgesic Demerol and the painkiller OxyContin. Track marks found on his arms support the theory that he was addicted to propofol.

Prescription medications found inside Jackson's $100,000 per month rental home included ones in his name and ones in other names, including ones that appeared to investigators to be aliases. The medications had been prescribed by multiple doctors.

Methadone, Fentanyl, Percocet, Dilaudid and Vicodin were among the 20 drugs also found in Jackson's rental home.

Medical experts contacted by the ABC News medical unit said that the amount of medications reportedly found in Jackson's rented home was "jaw-dropping" and "amazing."

"That list is enough to put down a swarm of zombies," said Richard Bradley, chief of the Division of EMS and Disaster Medicine at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston.

"The list ... would be typical for an anesthesia cart in an operating room or what you might find in a recovery room, ICU, ED, etc. Definitely not what you'd expect to find in a home," said Joseph Ornato, chair of the department of medicine at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Murray is not the only doctor who has been eyed by law enforcement in the wake of the pop star's death. Law enforcement sources confirmed to ABC News earlier this month that a small group of coctors who treated Jackson before his death are being questioned as to their involvement with Jackson's alleged drug use.

On July 15, California Attorney General Jerry Brown said his office was running several doctors' names and several potential aliases through its prescription drug database to aid police investigating Jackson's death.

Sources: ABC News
Copyright © 2009, Primetime Oracle
All Rights Reserved

Michael Jackson: accident, murder or slow suicide?

La Toya Jackson is convinced her brother was murdered by opportunists who were just after his money. "Those people around him didn’t care about Michael the man. They were interested in Michael the cash cow," she says. (Coleman-Rayner)


It's always someone else's fault.

La Toya Jackson, one of Michael Jackson's grieving sisters who allegedly was closer to him than anyone else, is telling the world the King of Pop was murdered by an entourage of manipulative leashes.

In an incredible interview with U.K.-based Daily Mail, La Toya says "they" were the reason Michael was cut off from his family and friends; "they" forced him (how?) to sign up for a gruelling--even for a younger, healthier person--50 concerts at London’s O2 arena; "they" fed him addictive drugs; "they" wanted to control his moods; "they" exploited him; "they" all but killed him.

What about Michael? Did he have nothing to do with what happened to him? Did Michael Jackson have no will of his own, even if it was under the influence of an addiction? Did he not knowingly risk his life misusing dangerous drugs?

Listening to La Toya and a medley of media reports focusing on the so-called "enablers," Michael Jackson had nothing to do with anything that happened to him--he was just a victim. "They" should be held accountable for his death, not him. WTF?

Drugs, death and murder

Michael died at 50-years-old on June 25 after going into cardiac arrest. An autopsy revealed no disease or foul play as a cause of death; however, toxicology tests are still in the works, and results won't be ready for weeks.

Michael Jackson's body was taken from UCLA Medical Center to the city's coroner's office by helicopter.

After his death, celebrity-wanna-be Deepak Chopra said (over and over again) years ago Michael had begged him to write him a prescription for the painkiller Demerol. Then, a nurse who treated Michael's kids earlier this year, revealed that the pop star had begged her for Diprivan, a drug administered intravenously in operating rooms to anesthetize patients during surgery, claiming he couldn't sleep without it. Both Chopra and the nurse claim that they did not give in to Michael's demands for the meds and that they urged him not to take them, explaining he could die. This last week, reports surfaced that he was also taking the anti-anxiety drug Xanax, which he allegedly swallowed like M&Ms.

La Toya admits her brother had a prescription drug problem that the family believes began after he hurt his back in an on-stage accident during the Jacksons’ 1984 Victory tour. But she insists cleaned up for the O2 shows. "He had just been to England on a cleanse and he was drinking juices and being pure. He had cleaned everything out of his system ready to do the concerts in London," she said.

I'm sorry, but there's simply no way that a person abusing these drugs as much as Michael reportedly was could "clean up" in a matter of weeks, even months.

After the drug abuse made the news, police went back to Michael's house and removed bagfuls of prescription drugs reportedly filled under various aliases at pharmacies in different U.S. states.

Since then, nearly everyone with access to a medium capable of disseminating information is speculating about his use or abuse of prescription drugs, a possible overdose, the impending crucifixion of the enablers--doctors, employees, friends, etc.--and the huge problem these medications present, neglecting to mention the many lives they save or improve vs. the lives they ruin because of those who abuse them.

The toxicology tests are being anxiously awaited by more people than the second coming of Christ, if you ask me.

Normally, medical examiners are more concerned with excessive levels--that is, anything above normal--of chemicals or drugs present in the body at the time of death. But I think in Michael's case just the detection of any habit-forming or dangerous drug will be enough for the shit to hit the fan.

Meanwhile, La Toya had a private autopsy conducted, and according to the results she received Friday, Michael had four fresh needle marks on his neck and arms.

"I believe Michael was murdered. I felt that from the start," said La Toya, who at 53 was three years older than Michael.

"Not just one person was involved, rather it was a conspiracy of people. He was surrounded by a bad circle. Michael was a very meek, quiet, loving person. People took advantage of that. People fought to be close to him, people who weren’t always on his side," she told the Daily Mail.

"Less than a month ago, I said I thought Michael was going to die before the London shows because he was surrounded by people who didn’t have his best interests at heart," continued La Toya. "Michael was worth more than a billion dollars. When anyone is worth that much money, there are always greedy people around them. I said to my family a month ago, 'He’s never going to make it to London'." He was worth more dead than alive."

La Toya said that Michael believed he would never live to be an old man and feared he would die in his fifties, echoing what Lisa Marie Presley, Michael's wife from May 1994 to January 1996, said about the King of Pop's fear that he would end up like the King (Elvis Presley)--dying relatively young from a drug overdose.

"By the end, Michael was isolated from his family. He had no real friends. He was the loneliest man in the world," La Toya said. "I knew something terrible was going to happen."

Last week, Los Angeles Police Chief William Bratton confirmed that investigators have not ruled out homicide as a possible cause of death. The investigation is ongoing and will likely culminate in the arrests of some of the enablers, particularly any doctors who wrote illegal prescriptions.

Doctors, nurses, assistants...all toast

La Toya said Michael was not found on his bed but inside the bedroom a personal physician who lived in the house. There was an intravenous drip stand next to the bed and oxygen canisters lining the walls, she said.

La Toya Jackson leaving the UCLA Medical Center following the death of her brother, Michael Jackson, last month. (Ralston/Getty)

Dr. Conrad Murray, whom Michael was paying (a ridiculous) $150,000 a month "disappeared" from the hospital when La Toya began questioning him about what happened. She said he didn't tell anyone who he was until Michael's daughter, 11-year-old Paris, referred to him as "the best cardiologist in the world."

Given the scene at the house and Michael's sudden death, no wonder Murray ran off and did not say a word until days later, after he had retained a team of lawyers who, of course, deny any wrongdoing.

La Toya says Michael walked from his room to Dr. Murray’s room sometime before he died. "What happened in there we don’t know. He ended up alone in the room with the doctor," she said.

Many have questioned the fact that Murray was giving Michael CPR on the bed instead of on a hard surface, as it should be done, until the 911 operator said to put him on the floor. Murray should've known better.

"Why, if this man was a cardiologist, was my brother on the bed?" La Toya says.

Dermatologist Dr. Arnold Klein, who knew Michael well and was his doctor for over 20 years, is trying to put his best foot forward.

He told Larry King last week that as far as he knows (this guy is all about "as far as I know...") Michael wasn't hooked on anything, that he looked good--thin but muscular and in a great mood--just days before he died, that he didn't see any marks on Michael's skin and, most importantly, that he did not help Michael get meds, noting that he wrote prescriptions only a handful of times after the pop star, whom he diagnosed with vitiligo and discoid lupus, underwent procedures in his office.

Klein said he had not been contacted by the LAPD and that "as far as he knows" he's not on the list of doctors being investigated.

The LAPD has subpoenaed Michael's medical records, and Klein's name is on the list of doctors under investigation, most likely right at the top given his long-time friendship with the late star.

Murray is toast. Klein is toast. Burnt toast, if you ask me.

Who's fault it is?

So, at what point is the person taking the meds, drugs, whatever, held accountable for his actions?

It seems to me most people talking about this case are pointing the finger at everyone--doctors, employees, relatives, "friends"--but Michael himself for his drug use. His drug use.

And I'll tell you why: it's a sexier story.

The media and its just-wanna-be-on-TV-and-be-famous "experts" are setting the stage for a much bigger story involving a plethora of characters including entertainers, doctors, nurses, lawyers, addiction experts, psychologists, book authors, junkies, domestic staff, security personnel, show promoters, anyone and everyone who ever came in contact with Michael Jackson.

Yes, there is an element of truth in the fact that someone (likely more than one person) facilitated the drugs or assisted Michael in getting them; however, that's only one side of the story.

Michael was not a minor, regardless of what he looked like and how he acted. He was an adult who exercised his free will. Even when addiction took over his free will, it was still his addiction. That those who fed it must share in the responsibility if in feeding it they broke the law is not what I'm debating.

Those who engaged in criminal activity while enabling Jackson will have to face the consequences of their actions in a court of law. But there are those who just enabled him to do whatever he was determined on doing without breaking the law, trapped like millions of people in a cycle of endless interventions and enabling.

Yes, there are evil bullies who make a living using and abusing the weak and the naive. They harm people, even ruin lives. And I'm 100% in favor of impaling them with wide, hot, spiked metal rods. All I'm saying is that La Toya and others seem to be overlooking the concept of personal responsibility.

"They"--vultures or business as usual?

La Toya insists that Michael never wanted to do 50 shows. I don't doubt it; he didn't look strong enough for that. But why did he agree to do it? She claims he agreed to do 10 and "they" added more and more shows because they were selling out.

"They worked him so hard. There was no breathing room," she said about his schedule. "Every hour was packed with costume fittings, vocal lessons, rehearsals.... When someone is fragile you can’t keep them going like that. A lot of people are responsible for this, directly or indirectly. They told him, 'The shows are booked, the tickets are sold.' And Michael being Michael, he didn’t want to let down his fans."

Michael being Michael...isn't that his problem?

Even if Michael was being pressured by those seeking to profit from him--nothing new in the entertainment business--was he mute? Did Michael Jackson, known for being a pushy perfectionist used to getting his way, suddenly lose the ability to say "no"?

Unless someone had a gun to his head or was blackmailing him about his kids or the drugs, if he was indeed addicted, then I don't see how anyone could literally force him to do something he didn't want to do. Even if he was manipulated, he allowed himself to be manipulated--didn't he?

La Toya said the family wanted to stage an intervention, "but we couldn’t get near Michael," she said, noting that Michael's staff was given strict instructions (by whom?) to block any attempt the family made to contact him. "I knew something terrible was going to happen."

Michael Jackson's body awaits to be buried while the family argues the pros and cons of buring him in his Neverland ranch vs a reknown Los Angeles cemetery. The photo shows his brothers wheeleing the luxurious coffin into the Staples Center July 7 for a massive memorial that was viewed by some 31 million people throughout the world. (EPA)

She says "they" got him hooked on drugs. "He was pure and clean and then drugs came back into his system. I think it shocked his system so much it killed him."

Um...is it possible that La Toya, who like Michael overdid it with the plastic surgeries to the point of making a caricature of herself and who had a reputation for being as normal as her brother, was deluded about Michael's character and behavior as her brother?

She alienated her family 20 years ago with a memoir in which she described Michael as a paedophile and her father as abuser, but now describes her role in the family as "the glue that holds it all together." From the scissors that tore the fabric of the family apart, to the glue that now holds it together...that's a big leap--don't you think?

La Toya said the family will file civil lawsuits against "those responsible" and push for criminal charges. Fine, but are they going to sue Michael, too? If drugs were the cause and he took them willingly, then he was as responsible as anyone else, and he broke a bunch of laws as well. I'm just sayin'...you know...to illustrate a point.

"I am not going to stop until I find out who is responsible," she said. "Why did they keep the family away? It’s not about money. I want justice for Michael. I won’t rest until I find out what--and who--killed my brother."

"It will all come out. You will be shocked."

I'm already shocked.

Sources: UK's Daily Mail, US magazine, CNN, The Associated Press
Copyright © 2009, Primetime Oracle
All Rights Reserved

Michael Jackson -- What the doctor ordered?

There's a lot of speculation surrounding Michael Jackson's death, and I think it's going to be a while before we get some answers.

I for one can't wait to find out why a cardiologist--a cardiologist, for crying out loud!--did not have Michael Jackson on the floor receiving CPR. Chest compressions cannot and should not be administered on a bed. Dr. Conrad Robert Murray should've known better--right? And did he really live in the house?

I wonder how much Demerol was in the injection he reportedly received an hour before collapsing. I wonder what else he had taken that day or was taking daily. I wonder how long they (whoever "they" are) waited to call 911.

Tonight, the Los Angeles Times reported that a private pathologist hired by the family has completed a second, independent autopsy on Michael Jackson's body. No word yet on when the results will be announced...if at all.

After an interview with the LAPD, a lawyer for the doctor s aid he's "in no way a suspect." Well, that's what any lawyer would say. The issue, however, is what medications and at what doses he was prescribing for or giving Michael, and how he handled the emergency. If it turns out Michael was overmedicated, as alleged by several people who knew him well, then whoever facilitated those medications is going to be investigated.

Someone's tail must be so far up his/her ass right now, it might never again see the light of day, if you ask me.

It's a shame that medications that help people cope with a myriad of ailments get bad press at the drop of a hat because of incidents such as this one in which they are abused or improperly administered or combined. Where's the press about the millions of people who benefit from these drugs?

With Ana Nicole Smith and Heath Ledger dying suddenly and tragically within the last couple of years after evidently self-destructing with drugs, tougher regulations for these medications--already highly controlled--might be underway. But these could end up doing more damage than good for those who need them and take them responsibly.

I'm not condoning addiction, which is not the same as physical dependency. Opiates and benzos affect the body in such a way that some degree of physical dependency is all but certain as drug tolerance increases. Addiction, on the other hand, involves a psychological dependency, a compulsive need for the substance. So while I don't condone addiction of any kind, I'm sick and tired of hearing the likes of Deepak Chopra--who believes that anything and everything can be solved with a mind-over-matter approach-- demonizing meds, claiming there are "other ways to manage pain." Well, not always. Anyone who preaches there's always another way has never experienced true, debilitating, untreatable, intolerable pain.

When debating gun control, some of those defending the right to bear arms say "it's not the guns, it's the people." Well, then following that logic, it's not the meds, it's the people.

Michael had a problem with substance abuse, one for which he cancelled a tour to go to rehab in 1993. In 2007, a Beverly Hills pharmacist sued him for $100,000 in unpaid meds accumulated in about two years. That's a lot of meds... In addition, since his death two days ago, people relatively close to him are saying he was overmedicating with narcotics.

It all points in one direction, but we'll have to wait weeks, usually six to eight, for the toxicology results.

Meanwhile, I have a bone to pick (well, another one). Why, oh, why do reverends Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton always end up in the middle of any issue involving any African American, speaking for them often as unauthorized spokesmen? I can't help but think that sometimes they show up only to use the events as springboards to advance their own agendas. If I'm way off, I apologize.

Anyway...

I think the 50-show "This Is It" European tour scheduled to start this summer was the straw that broke the camel's back. There was simply no way that someone as frail and ill as Michael would've had the stamina for such a tour. He probably knew it. And if his mind didn't know it or want to accept it, his body did.

While the mind can jump though hoops to rationalize just about anything and push the body to the brink, the body knows best. I think his body took over in the end.

Copyright © 2009, Primetime Oracle
All Rights Reserved

FLASH NEWS: Iran election, Michael's death, SC Gov.

- Iran is to set up a special commission, including representatives of defeated candidates, to draft a report on the presidential poll, AFP reported. And who will be in that committe, the same dudes insisting there were no irregularities, calling for protesters to be severely punished, and making them confess "the West made me do it" on national TV?

- A hardline Iranian cleric during Friday prayers today demanded the punishment of opposition leaders, blaming the U.S. for their actions, CNN reported. He also said that the demonstrators themselves killed Neda to attract international sympathy. Ugh.

- Michael Jackson received a daily injection of Demerol at 11:30 a.m. yesterday, TMZ reported. Family members are saying the dosage was "too much" and that's what caused his death. Police is interviewing a doctor, Dr. Conrad Robert Murray, who lived at Michael's home. His car reportedly was impounded because it might have "medications pertinent to the investigation," LAPD said. That was quick.

- As expected, more people are coming forward to reveal (not much of a revelation) that Michael had a 20-plus-year addiction to prescription drugs. He was hooked on Oxycontin and received daily injections of Demerol (a drug that like morphine is a highly addictive opioid), LAPD said. The coroner is about to give press conference about the autopsy; however, BNO reported no findings would be announced . The toxicology results will be interesting, to say the least; unfortunately, we'll have to wait six to eight weeks for those results.

- Debbie Rowe, the biological mother of Michael's children, would be the one to get custody of the children because though she tried to terminate her parental rights in 2005, the judge did not grant that because a parental fitness investigation was never conducted. Issues regarding Michael's estate and his kids are likely to be extremely complicated. I don't envy the lawyers.

- People throughout the world are both mourning the death and celebrating the life of the King of Pop. Crowds gather in cities in many countries. U.S. House of Representatives held a moment of silence in honor of Michael Jackson.

- Actress Elizabeth Taylor physically collapsed when hearing that longtime friend Michael had died. "My heart...my mind...are broken. I loved Michael with all my soul and I can't imagine life without him," she said on Twitter.

- Pop icon Madonna (up there with MJ) says, "I can't stop crying."

- Calls for South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford to resign gain momentum. Nah...really?

Sources: BNO, TMZ, CBS