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As Michael Jackson's doctor Conrad Murray faces a homicide trial, evidence grows the drug-addled singer was the only one to blameBy David Jones
Last updated at 1:09 PM on 29th August 2009
Add to My Stories Fall guy: Criminal charges are likely to be filed against Dr Conrad Murray, who was with the pop star when he died
The circus will be staged in the same vast, unprepossessing venue — the 21-storey concrete-and-glass superior court building in downtown Los Angeles.
Perhaps it will even take place in the same airless room, and before the same punctilious little Japanese-American judge.
Since technology has moved on apace during the past 14 years, the only difference this time will be that the watching world will have more instantaneous access to the proceedings, with Twitter and YouTube relaying every twist and turn, as well as live TV.
Back in 1995, when the O.J. Simpson murder trial held tens of millions spellbound, the pundits said we would never witness another court case like it.
On the celebrity-obsessed West Coast of America, however, sensations and superlatives exist only to be surpassed — and so the scene is set for the latest ‘trial of the century’: the State of California versus Michael Jackson’s doctors.
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The hoopla could begin any day now, for U.S. legal experts are sure it is only a matter of time before the first defendant is charged. He is the singer’s personal physician, Dr Conrad Murray, the 56-year-old Grenada-born cardiologist who was at Jackson’s bedside on the morning he died, and having admitted that he pumped him with a cocktail of drugs — including a powerful anaesthetic normally used only in hospitals — is clearly the prosecution’s prime target.
He will probably be accused of homicide by involuntary manslaughter, at the very least; an offence which carries a maximum jail sentence of four years.
Michael Jackson, pictured while rehearsing for his planned London shows, had been a junkie for many years
But as a newly-released police affidavit, submitted in support of a search warrant application, revealed this week, Murray is by no means the only well-heeled Hollywood specialist for whom the courtroom appears to beckon.
Jackson’s medical retinue was sufficient to staff a cottage hospital, and other names mentioned in the damning court document — seen in its entirety by the Daily Mail — include his dermatologist, Dr Arnold Klein, long-time Jackson family GP Dr Allan Metzger, plastic surgeon Dr Larry Koplin, anaesthetists Dr David Adams and Dr Randy Rosen, and nurse practitioner Cherilyn Lee.
A trial over Michael Jackson's death would be even more of a circus than the O.J. Simpson murder trial of 1995
At this stage, it is not clear which — if any — of these elite medical gurus (all of whom fiercely deny any wrongdoing) might join Murray in the dock.
Yet the investigating detectives clearly suspect they have something to hide. They have applied for permission to search their offices, computers, professional records, and even their exclusive homes and sleek limousines, in an attempt to ascertain whether they illegally supplied Jackson with prescription drugs, and thereby ‘contributed to his death’. For the global audience, the cast of likely prosecution witnesses promises to be no less fascinating. And if the toe-curling memorial service in the Staples Center is anything to go by, we can count on suitably tearful and melodramatic cameos from Jackson’s parents, Katherine and Joe, and his siblings.
The star’s most intimate secrets will inevitably be laid bare by his inner circle, including personal assistant Michael Amir Williams Muhammad, and the phalanx of devout Muslims with whom he had surrounded himself in his final days at his Holmby Hills mansion. And we will hear for the first time from Alberto Alvarez, the young Mexican security guard who was dispatched to Jackson’s quarters as he lay dying (or dead?) and made that extraordinarily courteous and unflappable 911 call. Like many of the key players in this case, Jackson’s favourite ‘heavy’ has since gone to ground. However, when I tracked him down, a few days after the death, he told me pointedly that he had seen something of crucial importance to the police investigation.
Police have been told that Prince Michael Jackson I, pictured at right with his sister Paris and brother Prince Michael Jackson II at their father's memorial service, was present during the singer's last momentsNow we will find out what he meant. But the most compelling testimony may come from Jackson’s eldest son, Prince. For, bizarrely, it is claimed at least one Jackson staff member apparently told the police that Murray summoned the 12-year-old to watch his futile attempts to revive him by CPR, something Murray strenuously denies.
The doctor insists Prince was not present during his father’s last moments. Whatever the truth, however, if and when Jackson’s son mounts the witness stand, it will surely make more prurient viewing than anything we saw in the OJ trial.
As millions of dollars of public money are poured into the investigation, a growing number of American onlookers are beginning to question the purpose of it all.
If, as the police believe, Jackson’s sordid death really was caused, or hastened, by ‘enablers’ among his high-powered medical team, then few would dispute that they should answer for their grasping and unethical behaviour.
By the same token, the abuse of prescription drugs has reached near epidemic proportions in the U.S. and claims countless lives each year.
This great unspoken vice is facilitated by dozens of greedy doctors and drugstore owners, but seldom is anyone brought to account. But this is the King of Pop and for him different rules apply.
Michael Jackson's casket on display during his memorial service at the Staples Center in Los Angeles
Then there is Jackson himself. Thumbing through the police affidavit, it becomes clear that he had been a hardened and devious junkie for many years. His body resembled a pin-cushion with needle-marks everywhere — even between his toes — and he seems to have known as much about chemicals as choreography.
He described the anaesthetic he used nightly to put him to sleep as his ‘milk’. He had also invented an entire cast of aliases to moonwalk into his local chemist’s and collect his heavy-duty prescriptions. Fernand Diaz, Peter Madonie, Omar Arnold and Josephine Baker were just some of the bizarre names he used.
This being the case, is it really right to persecute one doctor for his death? As Miranda Sevcik, the spokesman for Dr Murray’s legal team, told me this week: ‘He is being made the convenient scapegoat here. Unfortunately, there’s only one person to blame for Michael Jackson’s death — and he is no longer with us.’
In a carbon copy of the Michael Jackson case, Elvis Presley's doctor was blamed for the death of the first "King"
If and when Murray is charged, his defence will be that he had been Jackson’s doctor for only a few weeks and was trying to wean him off dangerous drugs — and particularly propofol, the anaesthetic which the corner believes killed him.
This is precisely the claim that was made by Elvis Presley’s ‘tame’ doctor, George Nichopoulos, when he faced trial for criminally over-prescribing drugs to the first ‘King’, whose death was almost a carbon-copy of Michael Jackson’s.
Blamed and hounded in much the same way as Dr Murray (who now requires round-the-clock protection), ‘Dr Nick’ survived an outraged Elvis fan’s assassination attempt while watching a football game, but was acquitted by a Memphis jury and still protests his innocence.
However, his medical licence was subsequently suspended and his career ruined so thoroughly that he took a job with a mail delivery company. Now 82 and writing a book about his experiences, he told me: ‘It cost me my practice and ruined my life, and maybe Dr Murray will have the same happen to him.
‘We don’t yet know all the facts of this case, but I doubt this is all about one doctor — there were probably a whole bunch of them down the years. Anyway, people like Elvis and Michael Jackson will always find someone to give them what they want.’
Unsurprisingly, the Jackson family take a very different view. Encamped in their mansion in Encino, California, they are delighted that the police are pursuing the case with such vigour, and rubbing their hands at the prospect of a huge show trial.
La Toya Jackson, pictured arriving at the Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Los Angeles on July 6, says she is looking forward to the day justice is served
This much was evident this week, when the affidavit — describing in minute-by-minute detail how Dr Murray drip-fed the anaesthetic and a cocktail of other drugs to Jackson — was released.
‘I’m thankful to the investigators for uncovering the truth to the world,’ his 53-year-old sister, La Toya, pronounced triumphantly. ‘I look forward to the day justice will be served to all the parties involved in my brother’s homicide.’
Perhaps so, but even the least cynical observer might note that if Jackson is proved to have been the victim of homicide, his relatives stand to gain a good deal more than mere closure.
With his body still in deep freeze (the funeral is finally expected to take place at Forest Lawn cemetery next Wednesday) they and the sharp-suited attorneys who control his estate are cashing in on his name with what looks like indecent haste.
In October, London’s O2 Arena will host a display of Jackson’s mothballed memorabilia; there are plans for a lavish tribute concert in Vienna next year and the release of a film documenting his final rehearsals for the 50 London shows that never were; and a £90 coffee table book will be published, complete with photographs and private letters.
Yet this is only the beginning. Within hours of Jackson’s body being removed, his family hoovered up everything they could get from his rented house, including, it is said, the lyrics and master-tapes for dozens of previously unheard songs.
In the 50 days following his death, Jackson’s estate netted a cool £60 million, an amount expected to double by the year’s end. But if these new Jackson records are released, that amount will multiply many times.
The Neverland Ranch, which Jackson was desperate to sell, will be reopened as the new Graceland
And then, of course, there is Neverland, the theme-park folly which Jackson came to despise, and was desperate to sell, because it was the place where he was said to have sexually abused children.
All this will doubtlessly be forgotten when it reopens as a new Graceland, raking billions into the estate, of which Jackson’s mother, Katherine, has applied to be made a co-executor. It will surely one day fall under the family’s full control.
How much more marketable — and how much more alluring — the legend of Michael Jackson will be, if it transpires he was not responsible for his own squalid demise.
He could be portrayed as a vulnerable genius, callously preyed upon by his greedy quack. It is a point that has been noted by at least one former Jackson associate — a member of the legal team that successfully defended him during his 2005 trial on child sex charges.
The Jackson family - Rebbie, Janet, Randy, Tito, Marlon, Jackie and Jermaine, pictured at Michael's public memorial service - has been accused of deserting the star in his hour of need
At that time, though his stake in The Beatles’ back catalogue made him very wealthy on paper, Jackson — whose drug habit cost him about £30,000 a month and who frittered money away on a whim — was down to his last £400,000.
And with his reputation at an all-time low and his health failing, there seemed little prospect of him ever again becoming his family’s prized cash-cow, a role he had fulfilled from his earliest years.
To fight the paedophile case, he desperately needed help to pay his legal bills and went to his siblings, cap-in-hand. ‘Not one of them lifted a finger to help him then,’ the source told me this week.
‘Michael just wanted about $150,000 (£100,000) towards his legal costs, but not one of them came forward to help him. None of the brothers, and not Janet, who I’m sure could have afforded it.
Michael Jackson's estate made £60 million in the 50 days following his death
‘The only member of his family who was close to Michael then was his mother, Katherine. She was concerned for him and seemed very genuine. It has sickened me to see all the brothers and sisters on television, crying over Michael.
‘They weren’t there for him when he most needed them. They just leeched off him when times were good.’
Now, he infers, they are leeching off him again. It is a damning indictment, but if it is true they are hardly alone. In recent days, all manner of dubious characters have come out of the woodwork in search of vicarious fame — and money — giving the unedifying Jackson circus a momentum which now seems unstoppable and will doubtless roll on for years.
Among the most questionable are the doctor from Luton who claims Jackson (whom many believe to have died a frigid virgin) ‘begged’ her to have his babies, and the dermatologist’s assistant who says they had a gay fling.
Then, of course, there is Mark Lester, once the child star of the film musical Oliver! and now an obscure osteopath, who has placed himself back in the spotlight by surmising that he might be the father of Jackson’s children.
This week, a new comedy play — Michael Jackson At The Gates Of Heaven And Hell — opened at the Edinburgh Fringe. A satirical send-up of the hysteria we have witnessed since the singer died, it features John Lennon as the grim reaper, and a host of star-struck angels who vote Jackson ‘the living person they would most like to die’ on a heaven radio phone-in programme.
It ought to sound outlandish, but after all the hype on Planet Jackson in recent weeks it hardly seems out of the ordinary.
We can be sure that the madness will continue all the way to the courthouse steps, and long after Dr Conrad Murray — a fall guy if ever there was one — faces down his accusers.
For in truth this ghastly charade isn’t really about Michael Jackson, or justice. It’s all about creating and perpetuating a Hollywood myth — and keeping the cash registers whirring.
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