| D.A. to charge doctor in Michael Jackson case on February 8 |
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06/02/2010 13:27 (735 Day 21:39 minutes ago) | |||||
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The FINANCIAL -- The doctor who was treating Michael Jackson when he died suddenly in June will face charges on Monday, the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office announced on February 5.
Official confirmation of an impending criminal prosecution in the Jackson matter came Friday in a press release in which the district attorney's office took the unusual step of announcing charges in advance, Los Angeles Times reports. The move seemed designed to temporarily quell a media frenzy that had drawn a hundred reporters and a fleet of television trucks to a courthouse near LAX on Friday morning in anticipation of imminent charges.
The statement from prosecutors said a case pertaining to Jackson's death will be filed at that courthouse, but did not name Murray or specify the charges, according to the same source. Numerous sources with knowledge of the case said the cardiologist will be charged with involuntary manslaughter for administering the combination of sedatives and anesthetic blamed in the singer's June death.
Like nearly everything surrounding Jackson's death, timing of the charges -- and whether Murray will be allowed to surrender -- has become a spectacle, The Washington Post reports. Murray's legal team has been negotiating with prosecutors, attempting to arrange his surrender for arraignment, his representative told the Associated Press. The negotiations derailed after law enforcement officials said they wanted to arrest him.
"What's the holdup? To us this is showmanship, and we are just done," his rep said, according to the same source. "We know he's going to be charged with involuntary manslaughter, and we are ready with a counter-argument. . . . He's not guilty."
Murray has acknowledged to investigators that he gave the drug to Jackson, 50, who was on the eve of a 50-date comeback tour, but his lawyers have said that nothing he gave the singer should have caused his death, according to The Washington Post. The case seemed destined for the kind of media blitz that has attended celebrity court appearances. Dozens of news trucks and cameras emerged at a courthouse on mere word that Murray might surrender Friday.
Early this week, trailed by paparazzi, Murray, who has offices in Houston and Las Vegas, arrived in Los Angeles and met with his lawyers, raising speculation that charges were imminent, the same source reports.
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