Michael Jackson's Doctor Sought

From Times Online June 26, 2009

Los Angeles police are searching for Michael Jackson's personal physician today to question him after allegations that the star received a potentially fatal dose of the painkiller Demerol before his death.

News of the manhunt broke on the well-connected celebrity gossip website TMZ.com, which was the first to report the star's death, and came as an LA County coroner began an autopsy.

Earlier reports suggested that Jackson might have been given a large dose of the drug to help deal with pain after rehearsals for a series of 50 comeback concerts in London.

Los Angeles police spokeswoman Karen Rayner says that police had towed a BMW owned by one of the singer's doctors from Jackson’s house.

She said: “We have not been able to interview the doctor yet. His car was impounded because it may contain medications or other evidence that may assist the coroner in determining the cause of death.”

Ms Rayner added that the doctor was not under criminal investigation but coroner’s investigators wanted to contact him.

Jackson, 50, collapsed at his rented mansion in the Holmby Hills area of the city yesterday afternoon. Paramedics were called to the house at 12.21pm local time to respond to a "50-year-old male" who was "not breathing at all".

He was rushed to the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, but doctors were unable to revive him and his death was confirmed at 2.26pm (10.26pm UK time).

Family members told TMZ that Jackson had received his daily shot of Demerol at 11.30am, but the dosage was "too much".

As thousands of shocked fans gathered outside the UCLA hospital, detectives from the LAPD's Robbery Homicide division conducted an initial search of his house at the behest of city police chief William Bratton before sealing it off as a crime scene.

Jackson's death had been confirmed by his brother Jermaine, who told reporters and TV crews at the hospital: "We believe he suffered a cardiac arrest at his home, however the cause of his death is unknown until the results of the autopsy are known."

He added: "The personal physician who was with him at the time attempted to resuscitate him."

The star's death shocked the world of music and entertainment and left millions of fans around the world shattered. Elizabeth Taylor, a close friend, was said to be "devastated" while the singer Madonna said: "I can't stop crying over the sad news."

By any reckoning, Jackson was the King of Pop, a former child star with the Jackson Five who went on to create the world's bestselling album with his 1982 release Thriller, which sold up to 57 million copies.

Among those paying tributes was Jackson's ex-wife Lisa Marie Presley, whose father Elvis Presley met a drug-induced death in 1977 at the age of 42. Ms Presley said that she was "sad and confused with every emotion possible" and "heartbroken" for the singer's three children.

Sir Paul McCartney described Jackson as a "massively talented boy-man with a gentle soul", while the British TV journalist Martin Bashir said the world had "lost the greatest entertainer it’s probably ever known".

Bashir's 2003 documentary Living with Michael Jackson was a PR disaster for the singer, who ended up facing child molestation charges after telling the reporter that sharing his bed with a boy was "a beautiful thing". Jackson was eventually acquitted in 2005 and Bashir said today that while his lifestyle had been unorthodox, "I don't believe it was criminal".

Last night Jackson's body was flown by helicopter to the coroner's office, where the autopsy began this morning, conducted by Dr Lakshmanan Sathyavagiswaran, who was the medical examiner during the OJ Simpson murder case and testified more recently in the trial of Phil Spector.

But officials warned that a final verdict would not be possible until toxicology test results are confirmed, which could take six to eight weeks.

On Wednesday night, Jackson had attended a rehearsal at LA's Staples Center arena - home to the LA Lakers basketball team - to prepare for his comeback dates at the O2.

Jackson was said to have missed all but two or three of 45 rehearsals for the show but Patrick Woodroffe, a lighting engineer working at the LA arena, said that he had finally recovered some of his old magic in the past few days.

He told the BBC: "He came on stage at 9 o’clock in the evening and we all looked at each other and there was something that said that he really had it.

"Last night particularly, he came on stage and he was electric. It was like he had been holding back and suddenly he was performing as one had remembered him in the past."

Brian Oxman, a Jackson family lawyer and spokesman, told CNN that Jackson had been struggling to cope with the after-effects of various performance injuries, including a damaged vertebra and a broken leg, which had been interrupting scheduled rehearsal for the London dates.

He went on to accuse those around Jackson of letting him slip into dependency on prescription drugs and painkillers.

"I can only tell you that this is not something which has been unexpected," Mr Oxman told CNN from the LA hospital as family members came to terms with the news from doctors.

"This family has been trying for months and months to take care of Michael Jackson. The people who have surrounded him have been enabling him: if you think that the case of Anna Nicole Smith was an abuse, it is nothing to what we have seen taking place in Michael Jackson's life."

He added: "I can tell you for sure that this is something I warned about. Where there is smoke there is fire."

Jackson’s reputation as a singer and moonwalking dancer was overshadowed in recent years by his increasingly abnormal appearance, and bizarre lifestyle, which included his friendship with a chimpanzee named Bubbles and a preference for the company of children.

He named his estate in the central California foothills Neverland Valley Ranch, in tribute to the J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan stories, and filled it with amusement park rides and a petting zoo.

Jackson was twice accused of molesting young boys and was charged in 2003 with child sexual abuse. He became even more reclusive following his 2005 acquittal and vowed that he would no longer live at Neverland.

Facing a battered reputation and mountain of debts that authoritative estimates put at up to half a billion dollars, Jackson had been forced to agree to the unprecedented residency at the O2.

Despite reports of Jackson’s ill-health, the promoters of the London shows, AEG Live, said in March that Jackson had passed a 4-1/2 hour physical examination with independent doctors.